Guest written by our friend Katie Callahan

Every Christmas, my family and I play a fun game we call the “Christmas Lights Game.” We do this whenever we can. Sometimes we play it when we are already out running errands. Other times, we leave our house, setting our Security Choice home alarm in the process, and go to our family car.

The rules of the game are this. While driving around, we look for Christmas lights and decorations. When someone spots a house with lights, he or she calls out “Christmas Lights!” He or she is then awarded one point. If they call out “Christmas Lights” and there are no lights there, they get minus one point – this prevents people from simply constantly yelling out Christmas Lights to get all the points. The player who gets the most points (by noticing the most houses with decorations) “wins” the game and gets to decide where we go for dinner, or some other prize.

We don’t always make looking at Christmas lights a competitive endeavor. Sometimes it’s just fun driving around and simply looking at the great displays. There are a number of houses in our town that are well-known for the majesty and complexity of their Christmas decorations, so we always make it a point every year to check out these homes and see if they’ve upgraded. Whatever we do, looking at lights and decorations is a holiday tradition that we all enjoy.

I am always looking for ways to try to be healthier.  I try to exercise and try to eat healthy.  I try to get enough sleep, but Hailey doesn’t always cooperate with that plan.  Recently I’ve noticed when I look in the mirror that I am starting to look older.  Now, I have always looked quite a bit younger than I am.  When I was in my late teens and early twenties it really bothered me that people thought I was so young.  Now that I am 30 something I really like hearing people tell me they think I only look 20.  But the lack of sleep that being a mommy brings and several stressful things that have happened are starting to make me look a little older.

Guest post written by Rachel Owens

Every year I always go to a whole lot of trouble baking Christmas cookies that seem to disappear as soon as my husband and kids descend upon them. Well, I decided that this year I’m not going to bake cookies. Instead, I’m going to just make them. That’s right, I’m going to fix some no-bake cookies instead. I’m not that big of a Scrooge.

I went online to try and see if there were any recipes for no-bake cookies that were especially festive for the holidays and while I was doing that I came across some clear bundle pricing information and decided to order the service.

I already made a batch of classic no-bake Christmas cookies, even though I also plan on making a few different versions of no-bake cookies up until Christmas. I think that for my next batch I might even add in some Christmas-y looking sprinkles to make them look especially festive and because it isn’t the most practical thing in the world to decorate those kinds of cookies with icing like you would regular sugar cookies.

When I got home from work tonight the last thing I wanted to worry about was what to make for dinner.  Since Rich works from home he will usually have something in the oven when I get home.  Tonight there wasn’t anything in the oven since he had a busy day and hasn’t been feeling great.  So, when I said, “What’s for dinner?”  he responded, “I don’t know.”

The perfect solution- pizza. So tonight when we didn’t know what to have for dinner, we had some Freschetta pizza and we loved it! Hailey says, “Mmmmmmm!”

The pizza is super easy to make!  Depending on which one you get, it goes in the oven for around 20-30 minutes.  The dough is rolled and kneaded so that it rises like fresh dough would rise while it cooks in your oven.  The result is pizza that tastes like freshly made homemade pizza, not something from the freezer.

It’s the perfect solution to the never ending question of, “What’s for dinner?”