Perhaps you’re celebrating the lack of snow, or maybe you’re dreading the thought of a grassy holiday landscape.
If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas and wondering if it will come in 2016, you can always make a cheery holiday by baking up some aptly named Snowball Clippers (and maybe popping in White Christmas wouldn’t hurt, either).
These little coconut cookies have flavors reminiscent of a Mounds bar—and they’re chock-full of mini chocolate chips. They’re easy to put together and genuinely fun to make, especially when dipping the bottoms of the baked cookies into melted chocolate and then pressing them onto a wax-paper-lined cookie sheet. And whether you’re making larger, golf-ball sized cookies like the ones I baked, or you’re following the original recipe (which calls for cookies to be just ¾ inch in diameter—a truly mini holiday treat!), you’ll find that these snowball clippers are tasty and pretty. They don’t spread very much in the oven, meaning that if you’re cramped for space (and time) this holiday season, you’ll probably have just enough room to squeeze a few extra cookies onto the sheet before sliding them into the oven. They’re also easily stacked on top of one another (they really do look like a pile of mini snowballs), making for an elegant addition to the dessert table at your family’s holiday celebration.
I first heard about these cookies while preparing for my family’s Christmas festivities up in Minnesota. My parents’ next-door neighbor had won the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s annual holiday cookie contest, and this cookie recipe—Snowball Clippers—was one of the other finalists. My family marveled over the front page of the Tribune’s Taste section, which featured a story about our neighbor and a photo of her cookies in the center of the page. We never did get around to making her recipe, but we did discover these coconut beauties, and they quickly became a favorite on our holiday table. Often, when we make them, they’re the first type of cookie to disappear from the cookie plate.
So, from the land of ice and snow (you know, that state to the north of Iowa) comes a cookie recipe worthy of appearing on your holiday dinner table. Or perhaps you’ll place some Snowball Clippers on Santa’s cookie plate, to remind him of the wintery North Pole if Iowa’s Christmas Eve proves to be on the un-snowy side.
A Charlie Brown Christmas is a story of a Christmas play put on by neighborhood kids who dance to jazz piano music and realize that, like many things, our modern concept of Christmas often misses the whole point. Over the course of the thirty-minute special, Charlie Brown tries to grasp the real meaning behind the over-commercialized version of Christmas that he sees in the world around him. He knows he should feel happy, but he doesn’t. His friend Lucy solemnly tells him that, even with all the toys, she never gets what she really wants for Christmas, which is “real estate.” His own dog, Snoopy, enters a Christmas lights and display contest in hopes of winning a cash prize. 
It’s December already (it’s December already?!) and the time has come to eat cookies daily and sing Christmas songs to your heart’s content. Holiday-themed events are springing up all over the Des Moines metro area, from the 
The holidays are steadily approaching, and families are busily making their plans for celebration. Along with the cooking, eating, singing, and general merry-making, many people plan to step outside of themselves and practice generosity during the coming weeks. Of course, there are many wonderful charities that help people across the globe, but there’s something special about helping others in your own community—those with whom you share the sidewalk and the check out line at the grocery store. 
Danae Edwards, of the Waukee Parks and Recreation Department, said that the toy drive, which is in its second year, “stemmed from our Park Board members. They really wanted to be able to give back to the community in a new way.” When asked about the importance of this toy drive for the residents of Waukee, Edwards said, “I’m hoping that our kids in our community will be happy and excited every time they place a toy, jar of peanut butter, or a $5 bill into our donation bucket and know that it might be going to help one of their friends, classmates or neighbors have a more exciting holiday season.”
The air has changed. Leaves are rustling on the ground, fallen, clearing the space for kitchen smells to gently waft throughout Waukee. A hint of homemade apple pie dances with the scent of a savory butternut squash soup.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two in order to get rid of the raw flour taste.
Election day has come and gone, meaning that we are now firmly in the month of November. Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching—so don’t let the festivities catch you off guard! With these five simple tips, you’ll be well on your way to a more fun and less frenzied fall celebration.
erhaps your family, like many others in the greater Des Moines metro area, is planning to romp from house to house on the evening before Halloween, known to locals as ‘Beggar’s Night.’ Or maybe you’re heading out to a neighboring town on Friday to trick-or-treat on the actual night of Halloween itself. In either case, it seems as though the festivities of Halloween have been extended, at least in our area, to include two days of Halloween fun (after all, even if you only have plans for one of the two nights, you probably can’t avoid every person who decides to celebrate on the other night).
