Nibbles here. I’m getting everything together for my spa day with the girls. Here is a recipe Plumpy uses for her homemade face masks. Plumpy has the most beautiful skin so I can’t wait to try it with my friends.

What you need:

-          1 ripe banana

-          1 tablespoon honey

-          1 tablespoon sour cream

-         an adult assistant

What you do:

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Apply to freshly washed face. Leave on for 10 – 15 minutes. Rinse well with warm water.

Polly Panda here. I had a great response to my idea for a Winter Festival. A lot of my friends signed up to help out. Nibbles said she would bake some cookies. She made these yummy snowball cookies! Don’t they look great?

Snowball Cookies

What you need:

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup icing sugar

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a medium bowl, combine shortening, butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Mix well.

Stir in flour and mix until well combined.

Scoop dough by tablespoonfuls and shape into balls, then place on a greased baking sheet.

Bake for 7 minutes.

Place icing sugar in a shallow bowl.

When cookies are done, roll them in icing sugar while they are still warm.

Read more: President Polly Panda Presents: The Winter Festival!

Roberta here! I am getting ready for Reid’s first New Year’s! Babies love anything that makes noise, so to celebrate the day, I made these super-easy noisemakers for my family.

What you need:

-          Paper cups

-          Card stock

-          Dry beans or rice

-          White glue

-          Colored markers

-          Scotch tape

-          Pencil

-          Scissors

-          An adult assistant

What you do:

Place a paper cup upside down on a piece of card stock and trace around the opening with a pencil. Then draw a slightly larger circle around the outside, leaving a gap of approximately ¼” around the edge.

Cut out the larger circle and then cut slits around the edge of the circle, from the outer rim to the inner circle, about ¼” apart to create tabs all the way around the circle. Fold the tabs up.

Place a small handful of beans or rice into the paper cup.

Put a generous bead of glue inside the tabs at the edge of the circle and place on top of the paper cup, then press down the edges of the paper circle onto the outer edge of the top of the cup, pressing securely.

Once glue is completely dry, use markers to make a festive pattern on the cup.

When you’re happy with your design, use scotch tape to secure the circle in place around the top of the cup – to be sure your beans don’t fall out!

Now shake away!

Sparky here! I asked my uncle to make something yummy for my New Year’s sleepover with Alex. He said that this dip recipe he got from Chef Gazpacho is really simple to make and super tasty. I wasn’t so sure about the curry part, but then I tried it and it’s awesome – not too spicy at all!

What you need:

Dip:

-      1 cup mayonnaise

-      1Tbsp curry powder

-      1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

-      1/2 tsp Tabasco sauce

-      3 Tbsp ketchup

-      2 Tbsp finely chopped green onion

-      Pinch of salt

Veggies:

-      broccoli spears

-      cauliflower spears

-      celery sticks

-      carrot sticks

-      sliced green and red pepper

-      sliced cucumber

-      sliced tomatoes

What you do:

Mix all ingredients together and let sit from anywhere from two hours to up to two days.

Served with fresh veggies.

These are just some examples of veggies that go well with this recipe, but you can use your favorites. My mom says she likes this recipe because it uses items you usually already have in the cupboard.

Hi there! It’s Polly here! I know, I know. You probably think I’m fed up of all the cookie baking after all those cookies I made for the Secret Santakinz gift exchange.

But it’s Christmas Eve and every year my sister Amanda and I bake oatmeal cookies to leave by the fireplace for Santakinz. Here’s our recipe:

What You Need:

• ½  cup butter, softened
• ½  cup white sugar
• ½  cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cups all-purpose flour
• ½  teaspoon baking soda
• ½  teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1 ½  cups quick cooking oats
• Adult Assistant
• Cookie sheets

What You Do:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar. Beat the egg and then the vanilla.
2. Slowly and carefully, add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix in oats.
3. Have your adult assistant preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets.
4. Spoon the dough onto the cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

My planning for the Secret Santakinz gift exchange is going really well. So far I’ve got lots of cookies to serve! I also thought it would be fun to make everyone a little keepsake to take away. My mom has lots of old light bulbs lying around so I decided to recycle them into these adorable snowmen.

What you need:

-          Old light bulbs

-          White paint

-          Orange paint

-          Colored paint

-          Toothpicks

-          Small black pompoms

-          Small colored pompoms

-          Ribbon

-          String

-          Hot glue gun

-          Scissors

-          Paintbrush

-          Black marker

-          Small sponge or paper towel

-          An adult assistant

What you do

Dip a small sponge or some wadded up paper towel in white paint and dab all over the glass portion of the light bulb. Allow to dry and do another coat.

Choose a small colored pompom to make the hat of the snowman. Paint the metal screw-in portion of the light bulb in the same color as your pompom. Allow to dry and do another. Have your adult assistant apply a dab of hot glue to the end of the light bulb and affix the colored pompom.

Have your adult assistant help you snip a one inch length off the end of a toothpick. Paint the piece of toothpick orange and allow it to dry.

Cut a 6” length of ribbon and drape it around the snowman’s neck, where the bulb starts to narrow. Have your adult assistant secure the ribbon/scarf in place with the hot glue gun.

Glue 2 black pompoms to the belly of your snowman.

Glue the toothpick piece to the front of your snowman, just above the scarf, to make a carrot nose.

With black marker draw two eyes just above the carrot nose.

To finish your snowman off, tie a string around the base of the snowman’s hat and make a loop to hang it from your tree.

Polly here. The cookies keep on coming for the Secret Santakinz exchange. Laurabeard gave me her recipe for Spice Cookies.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup white or colored sugar for decoration
• Adult Assistant

Directions

1.       Have your adult assistant preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.       Mix together the butter, sugar, egg and molasses until smooth.

3.       Add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, and baking soda.

4.       Roll into one inch balls and roll the balls into the extra sugar.

5.       Place the cookies about two inches apart on the (ungreased) cookie sheets.

6.       Bake for 8-10 minutes.

7.       Have your adult assistant loosen them from the cookie tray when they come out of the oven.

Polly here. I asked Chef Gazpacho if he could recommend a good holiday cookie recipe to me for our Secret Santakinz exchange and he said that this twist on regular rice crisp squares is one of his favourites!

What you need:

• 5 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1 – 10 ounce bag marshmallows
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 6 candy canes, crushed into small pieces
• An adult assistant

What you do:

1. Line an 8” baking pan with foil.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, have you adult assistant melt the butter and marshmallows in the microwave, about 2 – 3 minutes, stirring often.
3. Slowly add cereal, stirring well as you go along until all the cereal is added and it is completely coated with the marshmallow mixture.
4. Pour mixture into baking pan and press it down into the corners with a wooden spoon.
5. In a small bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 – 3 minutes, stirring often.
6. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of your crispy rice mixture, then sprinkle with candy cane pieces.
7. Allow to set for about two hours and enjoy.

Hi! It’s Polly with another holiday cookie recipe from Chef Gazpacho. He told me that he came up with this one last year when Fluffington was throwing a big Christmas party. These simple truffles are much easier to make than the real thing, but just as delicious!

What you need:

• 1 cup chocolate chips
•  4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1/2 cup plain cake crumbs
•  Garnishes: chopped nuts, grated coconut, icing sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate vermicelli
• An adult assistant to help you with this recipe

What you do:

Have your adult assistant melt butter and chocolate chips slowly over a double boiler. Mix well and transfer to a bowl. Using a sieve, sift icing sugar into bowl. Add cake crumbs and mix well.

While you allow your mixture to cool, spread your garnishes out on separate plates. When the chocolate mix has cooled, roll it into small balls about the size of a teaspoonful.

Trying not to handle them too much (they will start to melt!) roll each ball in one of the garnishes.

Hi! It’s Polly again. Ms. Cowoline gave me her favorite recipe for Shortbread Cookies for the Secret Santakinz Gift Exchange.

What you need:

• 3 cups cake flour
• ¾ cup icing sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups butter, softened

What you do:

• Preheat oven to 325°.
• Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.
• Cut the butter into pieces and add to the flour mixture by hand, rubbing it into the dough until it holds together.
• Press the dough in two 8” cake pans and prick the dough a fork to make a decorative pattern.
• Bake for 40 minutes. Upon removing it from the oven, immediately cut it into wedges while it’s still warm then transfer them to a rack to cool.
• Store them in the fridge in a tightly covered container.