Hopefully we all enjoyed a very merry Christmas and the little ones are happily playing with their new toys and gadgets while parents exhale a sigh of relief that the shopping is done. Now we look to the new year and all 2014 has to offer us. We still have one weekend left in 2013 and there are plenty of ways to enjoy it around Westchester this weekend.

This is the last weekend to take in the Holiday on the Hill Model Train Show at Lasdon Park. Also this weekend, Mr. Dickens tells a Christmas Carol at Lyndhurst Castle and the Paper Bag Players are at it again, entertaining kids with Hiccup Help! at Emelin Theatre.

Boys and girls high school basketball players are competing in a Slam Dunk Tournament at the Westchester County Center all weekend long and the Jacob Burns Film Center is playing A Muppet Christmas Carol (a must-see for my kids each Christmas). The White Plains Public Library is hosting a puppet show of Jack in the Beanstalk or get creative and make a Kwanzaa craft at Field Library in Peekskill. 

Read on for our top weekend picks. If you see something that piques your interest, click through to the event listing to view full details. Looking for more options? Be sure to check our Event Calendar for more fun happening this weekend and beyond. And don't forget to sign up for our FREE weekly newsletter, to get all the latest news and happenings around Westchester delivered straight to your inbox. 

Christmas is behind us and we're all looking forward to the New Year. But first, this weekend brings some great seasonal celebrations like the American Museum of Natural History's annual Kwanzaa festival, frosty fun at the Bronx Zoo's Wildlife Ice Carving Week, hands-on holiday projects at the New York Hall of Science's ReMake the Holidays and seal watching at Orchard Beach.

With the season quickly drawing to a close, make sure you set aside some time to experience all of the holiday fun New York City has to offer, from amazing Christmas lights to department store holiday windows to cool displays to twinkling Christmas trees.

These are just a few of the great things going on this weekend. All of our weekend picks are below. You can find additional options in our Event Calendar and our Holiday Fun Guide. From all the moms at Mommy Poppins, we wish you and your family a Happy New Year!

All of us here at Mommy Poppins CT wish you and your families joy and happiness during this holiday season, and heading into 2014. We want to thank all of our readers and subscribers who helped us grow the site by 45% and gain over 30,000 social media followers. We appreciate you trusting us as your top resource to find out about local, fun and mostly free events around the state.

Kwanzaa begins Thursday, December 26, and Charter Oak Cultural Center is holding Hartford's largest Kwanzaa Celebration. Learn the seven values of the holiday through story, song and dance. All ages are welcome to this free, community event.

If you need to purge the playroom of old toys after Santa arrives, consult our post on Where to Donate Toys in CT. Many children in need will be grateful! 

Do you have plans for New Year's Eve? Check out our list of Family Friendly New Year's Events in Fairfield County.  If you are in the Hartford area, you might want to try First Night Hartford. It is an alcohol-free, family celebration with several open venues, performers and fireworks.

Here are suggestions for events this weekend. 

The year may be coming to a close but we have lots to look forward to in 2014 including auditions for scholarships at a prestigious dance program, a brand-new show from the Radio City Rockettes and the opening of a huge new YMCA in Rockaway, Queens. Of course, not all the news is good: We've got closures to report and a school bus shakeup that, thankfully, looks like it won't be anywhere near as traumatic as the strike earlier this year.

The weekend in between Christmas and New Year’s can be tricky. Most of us either have holiday guests still lingering in town, kids home from school looking to be entertained, cold weather limiting our outdoor activities, or all three! Luckily, New Jersey doesn’t disappoint and there are plenty of laid back events going on all over our state. Sit back and relax as you take in a performance of the State Theatre’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat or the last weekend of A Wind in the Willow Christmas at Two River Theater. If you want to keep the family busy with some educational outings, check out the 12 Days of Science at Liberty Science Center or embark on a Holiday Scavenger Hunt at Frelinghuysen Arboretum. And remember, you can find a full list of weekend activities in our Event Calendar.

Finding places to bring both a toddler and an infant in the city (in this weather!) is never easy. So, we put our baby in the Bjorn, bundled up our toddler, and headed to Disney On Ice: Passport to Adventure this weekend at Agganis Arena.  Boston University has certainly changed since my graduation day in 2001.  The Arena is now a state-of-the-art venue, perfect for hosting extravaganzas like Disney on Ice.  I found the added stage built over the rink a particularly wonderful surprise that made for a more robust show.  Together (along with Mickey, Minnie and the gang), we traveled from the jungle to the sea, and along the way met The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Lilo & Stitch, and Peter Pan & Tinkerbell.  Overall, Disney On Ice is well worth the time, with a couple areas that could use some polishing.

It's the thing every expectant parent dreads and every new parent comes to accept within hours of their child's birth: the copious amounts of poo that little bodies are capable of producing. For families interested in "going green," cloth diapers may be an appealing alternative to sending endless bags of disposables to the landfill. But where to start? Fortunately, while cloth diapering can seem overwhelming, Boston has several local resources to help figure out if cloth diapering is right for your family.

My kids are what you might call foodies. They love trying new dishes, and they are enthusiastic about experimenting in the kitchen, too. We’ve spent many a school vacation learning about different cultures through cooking. (The most memorable? The summer my son and I became self-taught experts on Indian food.) Foodies or not, kids can have fun in the kitchen at just about any age.

Workshops and classes are one place kids can learn about cooking, but there’s no time like school vacation for them to test their culinary skills at home - plenty of time to experiment, and clean up, too. To help get you started, teachers from four local cooking programs have provided us with some easy recipes you can try at home (scroll down to find the recipes):

• Breakfast: Crepes and Fruit Compote
• Appetizer: Roasted Chickpeas
• Side Dish: Maple Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• A Sweet Treat: Peppermint Mocha Bark

When you try one of these recipes, we'd love to see the results - send us a pic, and we'll post it to our Pinterest Good Food Stuff board. And for more kid-friendly recipes, please see our Food Fun Guide.