If you have kids, then right about now you’ve probably had a conversation along these lines reently:

“Is it Christmas?”

“No.”

“Is it Christmas now?”

“No”

“Now?”

“No.”

If that rings a bell, take the little offender and sit them down in front of the computer. Tell them to hit ‘Refresh’ until the answer changes:

Is it Christmas?

Ah, sweet silence.

See you tomorrow.

Today’s advent entry is a little late (I’ve been in Saskatchewan and didn’t quite get my auto-posting for today set up before I left). If you have a minute though, play this quick little game (or pass it on to the kidlets). A donation is made by BC Hydro to the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation each time you play.

See you tomorrow.

I’m sure everyone has heard the 12 Days of Christmas song, but if (and it’s a big if) you actually wanted to give those gifts do you know how much it would cost? No? Does it surprise you to know that some financial services company has been tracking the Consumer Price Index of the 12 days of Christmas for the last 26 years? And that they made a video of it? No? Well, it surprised me (must be where all the money went). Here it is:

Christmas Price Index

And you thought you’d seen it all.

See you tomorrow.

Today’s advent goody is a list of Christmas fonts that are free to download and use for those seasonal projects that are still waiting to be done:

• cards
• gift tags
• name tags/place holders
• scrapbooking
• thank you letters/cards

I’m sure you’ll think of a use for them.

See you tomorrow.

As you may or may not know, every year NORAD tracks Santa as he takes to the sky to deliver presents to all the good girls and boys. Or so the PR goes. Anyway, not only can you track Santa on Christmas Eve on the NORAD Santa site, you can visit their little digital advent village while you’re waiting for Christmas Eve. Each day there is a new game to play in the village. This is a good site for kids, especially if you need to get them out of your hair (what’s left of it) for a little while:

NORAD Santa

See you tomorrow.

Today’s advent goody is a little stress relief. Someone (who shall remain nameless) sent me a link to this flash game last year and I spent an absolutely silly amount of time playing it instead of doing something productive. Now it’s your turn:

Penguin Diner

Have fun. See you tomorrow.

Today’s advent goody is how to say ‘Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!’ in whole bunch of languages (just in case you have a use for that sort of thing–I grew up speaking three languages so I find it interesting). This list on Omniglot.com is pretty extensive and even comes with some audio recordings on how to pronounce the phrases.

See you tomorrow.

Today’s little goody is courtesy of YouTube.com and all of its Muppets fans. Behold: The Muppets Christmas Channel! Clips from Muppet Christmas specials past. Press the play button in the middle of the player to play the current video. Click the arrow on either edge of the screen to skip to another clip.

*Note: If you receive this blog by e-mail, you will likely only be able to view the embedded player by coming to the blog.

Remember a few days ago when I gave the recipe for candy cane ice cream? I mentioned that the ice cream was one half of my favourite dessert this time or year. Today’s advent goody is the other half:

I often see little molten chocolate cakes in the frozen food section. You’ve probably seen them: Little single-serving chocolate cakes that ooze chocolaty goodness when you cut into them. They look so good and so elegant and so impressive when you have guests. They are also ridiculously easy to make and can must be made ahead!

The recipe that I use (thanks Mom!) comes from The Rest of the Best and More (From the Best of Bridge Series, 2). Fortunately, The Best of Bridge web site featured Chocolate Volcanoes with Raspberry Coulis as a Recipe of the Month back in 2004.

I’ll pass along a little tip that will ensure that your cakes don’t stick to the ramekins after baking: After greasing the ramekin, coat the inside with sugar (just put some loose sugar in and tilt the ramekin so the bottom and sides get covered–it’s the same principle as greasing and flouring a baking dish). The sugar will melt a bit as the cake cooks, forming just enough of a crust to keep the cake from sticking when you pop it out after baking. Just run a knife around the edges before popping out the cake onto a plate.

I usually don’t bother with the Raspberry coulis (I use ice cream instead), but the coulis is good too.

Not sure what a ramekin is?

Would you believe me if I said I was just about to post this last night when my wireless router cut off for the night? (I have it set to boot me off the computer so that I don’t look up and find that it’s 2 am and I’m still working.)

Anyway, the advent goody today is actually a blog post about unusual snowmen put together on a photo blog. Take a look. Some of the pictures are more interesting than others. A couple of the snowmen look like they were inspired by a Calvin & Hobbes comic (the snowman army and the murderous snowmen).

See you next time.