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As I mentioned yesterday, my son wasn’t feeling great this past weekend and although his sister wanted to go ice skating we opted to have some fun indoors watching our favorite holiday classic movies. We did go out to run errands on Saturday and while at the supermarket spotted an ugly sweater cookies decorating kit. I grabbed it and figured we could have an Ugly Sweater Cookies Decorating Party which would take my daughter’s mind off of going ice skating. Also, since they’re 6 and 3, I thought it would be hilarious to see their sweater cookies.

But here’s the challenge, the only surface to host our cookie decorating party was the dining table but we had an issue, there is currently a tablecloth on it that I really wanted to ensure wouldn’t be soiled. You’re probably thinking well remove it, but I wanted it to be part of our family’s holiday celebration so that wasn’t really an option. See, when I was a child, my grandma had a special tablecloth that she usually reserved for the holidays. Even though, I was really young when she passed away it’s one of the things of that I kept. Since we started our family, I would pull it our during the holidays but it’s vintage ivory and I have kids. Now, she left it up all month protected by a plastic cover (raise your hand if your grandma had a plastic cover) but I I usually use it only on Christmas Day. However, I’ve been feeling extra sentimental this season, so it’s already on our table.

I figured we could safely navigate the tablecloth situation with no liquids and lots of Viva Towels. As I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, I love Viva Towels because they are strong and durable like cloth. Actually, I really love their soft & smooth texture and I find that they are super absorbent.

So I laid out the Viva Towels creating two layers of protection on top of the tablecloth and the kids went to work. The cookies were already baked into the style of turtlenecks, v-necks sweater, sweater vest and Hawaiian shirts to decorate as ugly as can be. Using frosting we came up with our designs which were a lot of fun although my daughter kept getting upset with her brother for singing “Frosty The Snowman” over and over. If you’re wondering, our ugly sweater cookies were very, very ugly. Here’s evidence:

Once we were finished with our cookies, we used extra Viva Towels to remove the icing off of the sides of the cookies. To me, Viva Towels, are truly like towels (you can even wash dishes with them) and as you can tell I use them a great deal.

Clean up was very easy, just tossing the Viva Towels layers I created over my grandma’s tablecloth into the garbage. The tablecloth had no evidence of our Ugly Cookie Decorating Party which was the goal. Fun with no messes!

Do you have a sentimental item that you use during the holiday? What is it?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

This post was sponsored by Amazon, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I shared earlier this week that we have our freshly cut tree in the living room and now the task at hand is filling under the tree with the perfect gifts for our little ones. I like to look for a need and then find the best gift for them to fill that need instead of just randomly buying them stuff they wouldn’t use. For instance, I noticed that the kids were always vying for my tablet so I knew they needed their own tablets. Now, getting our kids tablets was a scary thought, we didn’t want them having too much screen time nor did we want them exposed to any content that wasn’t age-appropriate.

After taking Google by storm and obsessing over finding the perfect tablet for them, we decided on the Fire Kids Edition Tablet. These tablets have turned out to be one of the best gifts that we’ve given to our children.  They get both entertainment and educational value from them and we love the fact that they not only consume content but they’re also able to create their own content on them.

Now as I mentioned earlier, managing what they’re exposed to was a big concern for us so I love the Amazon Freetime mode which gives me the ability to set up the parental controls.  I can set daily time limits and control whether they read, play games or watch videos to ensure that they are reading as much as they’re playing. For my daughter who is in first grade,  she must read for a set time period before she gets access to play her favorite games. When I first told her that there are 13,000 children books she couldn’t believe it but now she loves the access to so many different books including some of her favorites. My son does educational preschool apps before he gets to watch YouTube videos which he loves. Oh and he’s not just watching any random YouTube video, the 40,000 YouTube videos available are handpicked for children so I don’t have to look over his shoulder or worry a video that’s not for a 3-year-old’s eyes pops up on his screen. There is also a time control for bedtime so the tablet automatically shuts off at bedtime which means no sneaking under the covers.

Traveling with the kids has been much easier with these tablets from our summer trip to Chicago to Jamaica this fall, the kids were able to pass some of the time lost in their books, games, and videos on their tablets. If you’re planning holiday travel, these tablets will be a gift to not just your child but also to you since you wouldn’t have to deal with the constant boredom complaints. Also, my daughter used her Fire Kids Edition Tablet to document her trip to Jamaica, she took photos, notes and even made videos and the camera quality is pretty good. If your kids like taking selfies, there is a front facing camera so they no longer having to fill your phone with tons of selfies of themselves. 

Now another thing I was worried about was if my little ones would be responsible enough to not spill their juice or drop these tablets. While, they somehow haven’t spilled anything, I’ve heard my son scream out “Oops!” many times after dropping his but the childproof case has kept it protected. Actually, at one point, his Fire Kids Edition Tablet had an issue and didn’t work at all. Since it’s still under the  2-year worry-free guarantee I called Amazon and a replacement was sent to us, not one question asked. 

If you’re looking to add a gift to Santa’s list, that will enhance both you and your kid’s experience I would definitely recommend the Fire Kids Edition Tablet.

What do you think your kids would enjoy most about the Fire Kids Edition Tablet?