Friday, December 19, 2008

Working Hard on those Christmas Cards

Do you know the best thing to seal envelopes...even hundreds at a time...at an amazing speed, without getting even one paper cut on your tongue or any stickiness at all for that matter, giving you the peace of mind that you will never suffer a Seinfeldian death due to cheap adhesive on envelopes?

The aquadoodle pen!! It works like magic.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Chocolate!





14 friends and I made chocolates for Christmas this year. I think I gained ten pounds just smelling the delicious aroma all day. We made about 50 pounds of chocolates and a huge mess at my friend Amber's house. (I didn't do my hair or make-up that day!)
A big 'thank you' to our friend, Windi, who set it all up and shared her recipes and chocolate making skills with us!

My favorites were the Taffy Cracks, or as we have nicknamed them at my house, Chocolate Ritzis.




Here's the recipe:

1 bag caramels
1 box ritz crackers
1 bag white, milk, or dark chocolate
Cookie sheets lined with parchment paper

On a paper plate, place 8-12 Ritz crackers. Place an unwrapped caramel on each cracker. Microwave 20-30 seconds until the caramels soften. Place another cracker on top of each caramel and squeeze gently together to make a sandwich. Set aside.
Melt chocolate in double boiler. Dip Ritzi into the melted chocolate using a fork. Tap the fork on the side of the pan to allow the excess chocolate to fall back into the pan. Place on a cookie sheet. Cool in refrigerator until chocolate hardens. Drizzle with opposite chocolate color.
Place in plastic container for storage.

Happy Who-bilation!



For our church Christmas party this year we had a Who-bilation, complete with a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus, kids crafts, the ever-so-convenient Christmas card exchange, roast beast dinner and Grinch Play!

We had a great time!

Thanks for taking these pictures, Amy.