Christmas Garland

I have a freind, who taught me how to make a Christmas Garland. So.... I did! IT IS GORGEOUS! I love it! These photos do NOT do it justice. In real life... in makes you want to cry. It is THAT good.

Oh happiness.

:D

This is my favorite smiley face >>>>>   :D

It is SO CUTE! :D

For some reason I haven't used it in a while :D

:D :D :D :D :D :D

These are also some of my favorites.
:P   :-*    8)

But this one (:D) is my most favorite.  

Cracker Candy... gunna love it! I promise!

 

Ok, this is what you need....

• Saltine crackers... enough to cover the bottom of your cookie sheet
• 1 cups butter
• 1 cups packed brown sugar
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• Nuts... ;)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 F. If you like you can line a 10x15 inch cookie sheet with aluminum foil. However I haven't really found that this helps. I usually just spray the cookie sheet with Pam or something.   
2. Place crackers in a singe layer on your cookie sheet.
3. In a small saucepan over low heat combine butter and brown sugar; bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes; pour over crackers. This is the hard part, if you don't do it long enough the "toffee" will be soft. Too long and it tastes burnt. ALSO the crackers like to move all over the place and float to the top. Don't worry about it, when your done your favorite pieces will be the ones with crackers overlapped.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes. Take out of oven and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the top... then WAIT! when the chocolate is melted, spread all over.
5. If you like you can sprinkle finely chopped nuts over the melted chocolate. I don't really think it adds much to the candy, but it looks pretty. I honestly thought I made this up myself, but then I found on the Internet that most people put nuts on their cracker candy....
6. Chill, until candy is hard. I can't fit my cookie sheet in my fridge, so I just cover them and put them outside, where hopefully it is cold out.
7. Break apart. I just jam a butter knife into the candy until it start to break. Different sizes are fun.

This make 2 large plates! It depends on the size of the family you are giving them to, but I think it is enough for 4 families!!!!

How to Make Garland, Wreaths, etc.

You will need four items:

1. A pine garland strand, or wreath, that is plain
2. Craft wire
3. "Stems"
4. Wire Cutters, or a good pair of scissors

So, here is what you do. You take the plain garland strand, and buy a bunch of stems from Michaels. They always have them in the front of the store, it's a bunch of cute little Christmas-y type decorations and you always wonder to yourself what purpose they serve. Usually these little stems are about .50 cents to $1 apiece, really cheap.

Then, you take the stems and attach them to the garland using the craft wire, which is green and matches the garland so it is discreet. Voila!! You have your very own garland, made very cheaply, and to your own personal style and house decorations.


Craft Wire:

Garland:

Stem:

The Gipper

Is there a Ronald Reagan gadget on the bottom of the blog??? Awesome.

Love

Kara,

I love you.

I'm not sure what to tell you about going crazy, because I am there with you and have not found a remedy for myself.

I have two interviews tomorrow. TWO. And they are both in MN, where Chris doesn't have a job. Plus I have an assignment due tomorrow (which I *should* be working on right now) and Thanksgiving is coming...and then Christmas.

And I have NO IDEA what to do for neighbor gifts. Any ideas?

Long story short, I will be crazy with you?

Kaite

Insainity

Kaite,

I am going crazy.

What should I do?

Kara

STREEEEESSSSSSSSSSS

I am having a BIG problem this morning. I am SO stressed out I feel like I can barely move! Litterally, I go to work on one thing, and I decide that I can't do it, so I start working on somthing else instead. I haven't gotten anything done. I need to go on a walk or somehting.

This is where you ask:

"Kara! What is stressing you out? "

I respond, quite simply. Christmas!

Work has me traveling everyother weeks. SO I have HALF the time to get all this done. In other words, in my life it is December 14th, and I haven't even started.

1. Christmas Shopping.... enough said. but I will go into detail becuase it is so big
     a. 1 husband
     b. 10 siblings
     c. 5 parents (Mom, Mom, Dad, Dad, and Dad)
     d. 1 nephew
     e. 6 neighbors
     f. ? cousins/friends/other
     g. 6 grandparents
2. Holiday Gifs for the nighbors  What to make, when to deliver, how to stay ontop of.... EVERYTHING!
3. Chrismtas Cards (take pictures, print cards, gather addresses, feel guilty becuase I never sent out thank you cards for my wedding)
4. Thanksgiving pies (31 pies, my job is 8 pumkin and 2 pecan and 1 frensh silk)
5. Decorate the house (I have none, so taht should be easy.... not because i ahve to BUY them!)
6. Christmas Trap
7. Plan big Christmas Lesson for Chruch.
8. Chrismtas Music,
9. Go drive around and see chritmas lgihts
10. be festive.
a;slkdfjl;askjdfl;askjdf ;laskdfjl;asjkf

Sigh. I want to do them all. But for somereason I am really letting it get to my head today. Why is that?

How does a normal person do it all? I mean, people do it every year right? How do they do it????

Does it just feel harder beucase I work full time? That would make me feel better about myself.

On the plus side...

My new favorite phrase, and reminder to look at the positive side of life and see what I have, not what I don't have:

As you go through life
Make this your goal:
Look at the donut
And not the hole

Elephant in the room

I like the show Bones.When the last seaons ended I was so excited about this season I did think I would be able to wait! But now that Bones and Booth are together... I have to be honest, I think they are one of the most awkward couples I have ever seen together. I don't feel like they fit together at all.

California

Every time I come to California, I think.... I want to live here. I like it here... it is so green, and the ocean, and it is so green!

Then I start driving around. And I change my mind. I think the original city planner turned in his daughter's crayon drawing for the road plan, and then some idiot was stupid enough to actually orchestrate the street plan.

Also, I feel kind of sorry for the poeple here. I wonder what happened to all of them to make them all drives like such jerks.  

Copper is our "firstborn" :)

I was comforted this past week with proof that I am NOT the craziest person in the world when it comes to my dog... I thought I was, because I have a facebook page for my dog. And not only do I have a facebook page for him, I respond as though I were actually Copper. For example, "Looking forward to my walk with Mom today!" etc.

So his birthday rolls around last week, and I bought him a birthday present. And wrapped it. And put treats in the wrapping because I thought maybe he would tear into the package that way.

I was pretty convinced that I was just about as bad as it gets.

But then, one of our friends sent Copper a birthday card!! I was so excited to get it in the mail I couldn't believe it. I'm probably going to make a scrap book of Copper, just so I can put that card in it.

Crazy...??

So, I always thought those T.V. shows or movies with pregnant women going crazy were some sort of funny joke. Haha, pregnant women aren't really that crazy.

False.

Not only are pregnant women crazy, they are REALLY crazy. I snapped at somebody at church a couple of weeks ago when we were doing AWANAs (kids Bible study on Wednesday nights). He walked back downstairs, went over to my husband and said "...I hope I didn't offend your wife". Chris said, "Oh, I'll hear about it". And hear about it he did.

The moral of the story is, if a woman is pregnant and you think that she is wrong about something...well, you're wrong. And if you cross her, you and anyone else she comes in contact with for the next 4 hours will receive the consequences of your actions.

Awesome, and not so awesome

You know what is AWESOME?

Big black and blue bruises from duneing. To prove how cool you are.

You know what is not so awesome?

When those bruises are in a place you can't show off.... so all they do is hurt.

I was crazy once...

Do you want to know who drives me absolutely crazy?

Germans.

Yes, that is right. I said it... Now I am a racist or whatever. I have to say that there is a huge difference between a German, and an Austrian.

Difference #1-
I have had two Germans yell at me in the last month
I have never had an Austrian yell at me.
Who yells at a 1) stranger who is 2) a very nice person who just happens to be 3) doing everything she can to make them happy?

Alright, alright. I am already feeling guilty for being stereotypical, and generalizing. I have met some wonderful Germans. A lot of them, actually (or they might be Austrian, it is hard to tell the difference for me). Perhaps it is just a coincidence that I happen to run into several Germans who just happen to be people that simply drive me crazy. I am also pretty sure that a large portion of my family history is German. Does that make me German? Does that mean I drive myself crazy?

Crazy?

I was crazy once. Theyl locked me in a room.

A round rubber room!

It drove me crazy.

Crazy.......?

Do you know what the best thing in the world is??

Well, this week anyway?

Spicy Chicken Sandwiches. From Wendy's. I have had 4 so far since Friday. And I am craving more...

MMM.. :) Poor Chris. I'm not sure how much Wendy's he can take...