Christmas Popcorn

Last year, my coworker found this recipe on Pinterest and we made it for our class Christmas parties.  I had some left over so I sent it to work with Andrew.  He and his coworkers LOVED it so I made some for him to take to work again this year.

I think it might be a new tradition.

I thought I would share the recipe with you so you can try it too.

Here is what you will need.

Pour your M&M's into a large mixing bowl along with your broken pretzel pieces.  You can put as many pretzels as you want.  They are my favorite part so I tend to put lots of pretzel in my mixture.

Add your popped popcorn to the mixture.  Be sure to remove the unpopped kernals first.  I used four mini-bags of popcorn or you could use two regular sized bags.

Next, pour your melted almond bark into your mixture and stir it up.

Once you have everything all mixed up and evenly covered with the white chocolate, spread it all out onto wax paper.  Sprinkle it with red and green sprinkles to make it even more festive.

Once your white chocolate has time to harden, break it apart and enjoy your Christmas popcorn while watching your favorite Christmas movie with your family.

New Year's Eve

We brought in 2014 with style.

The getting dressed up to stay home, soup eating, board game playing kind of style.

It was perfect.

I decided to get a jump start on trying out some Pinterest recipes.  Of course I found a new recipe to try instead of one that I already had pinned.

This pin claimed to taste just like Wendy's chili.  Of course I have no idea what Wendy's chili tastes like but Andrew loves it.

Confession: I don't really like home made chili.  I prefer cheap chili out of a can.

So I made a crockpot of chili.  And then Sinclair & Amanda arrived.

The chili didn't have enough kick for Sinclair or Andrew so they started doctoring it.  I'm not sure what all they did to it, but I'm pretty sure it was no longer the original recipe by the time it was eaten.

But it still looked delicious.

And there wasn't any left this morning so I'm going to assume that it tasted delicious too.

Our sweet friends, Stuart & Laura, also joined us.

We were so excited that they could see our new home and spend the night with us.  It is always loud & fun when we get together with these two.

It's been so long since we have been able to spend time with them so it was precious time of catching up.

Chris & Krystal completed our group for the evening.  Aren't they a beautiful couple?

We had such a fun time.  Since we didn't eat until around 8:00, midnight seem to come so quickly.  

At least for most of us.  There were a couple that just couldn't make it.

It was just too much excitement for the LBs.

Not only were we celebrating the beginning of a new calendar year, but we were also celebrating a new year for Stuart & Amanda.  They both had birthdays yesterday.

Cake was obviously a MUST for this celebration.

It was around 2:30 this morning when we all decided to call it a night.  We had endured all the board games, crazy stories, and laughter we could handle for one night.

After everyone had gone home today, we had nap time.

The Christmas decorations are still up.  The house is a wreck.

But we are enjoying resting and watching a few bowl games.

That other stuff will keep until tomorrow.

From our family to yours.

Happy New Year!

Lemon Cookies

I pinned this recipe for lemon cookies a while back.  The husband is a big fan of lemon.  I like it too, but not near as much as he does.

I finally got around to making them today.  They are so easy.  

Step One: Gather the ingredients.  1 Lemon Cake Mix, 1 Can of Lemon Frosting, 2 Large Eggs, and 1/2 Cup of Oil.

Step Two: Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Step Three: Mix the eggs and oil with the cake mix. 

Step Four: Once these ingredients are mixed, temporarily forget that you are grown adult and your grandmother has ALWAYS told you not to eat raw cookie dough with uncooked eggs and enjoy those beaters.

Step Five:  Roll the dough into balls.  Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Step Six: Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Step Seven: Allow cookies to cool. 

Step Eight: Sandwich cookies together with lemon icing in the middle.   

Step Nine: Enjoy!