Jenny's Christmas Popcorn

My gift to you this Christmas season ...

my recipe for simple yet special teacher and neighbor gifts. :)

Jenny's Christmas Popcorn

Ingredients:

• Orville Redenbacher's white popcorn
• canola oil (for popping the corn)
• Aldi's Vanilla Almond Bark ($2.69 for 1.5 lbs)
• salt
• sprinkles
• treat bags (if gifting)

Here's the easy directions ... it's just three steps. 

1. Pop the popcorn.
2. Melt the chocolate.
3. Mix. 

However, every time I give that recipe, people ask for more details. So here they be ...
(And remember ... you didn't come here for my food photography skills!) ;)

1. Pop the popcorn. 

I use a Stir Crazy popcorn maker like this one. I use about 1/2 to 2/3 cup kernels per batch. 

2. Melt the chocolate. 

I use about 5-6 cubes for one batch of popcorn. Drop the cubes in a glass bowl and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring after each round. It usually takes about two minutes for the chocolate to become smooth. 

3. Mix. 

I usually work with half the batch at a time. I lightly salt the popcorn at this point.

Then drizzle with melted chocolate and stir until evenly coated. Add a little more chocolate if necessary. :)

Spread the coated popcorn on wax paper and while the chocolate is still warm, add colored sprinkles. Just for fun. :)

Once the chocolate has cooled, gently break it apart and put it in pretty treat bags. I get about 5-6 bags from each batch of popcorn. Dollar Tree has a nice selection of treat bags--25 for $1.

And that's it! :) 

Enjoy. :)

365Project.2014 | Weeks 49-50

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... :)

Yep, we dug into our Christmas decorations last weekend. I'll admit, it was accompanied by much snuffling and sneezing, but thankfully most of that is now past.

Day 337. This is a pretty normal scene for a school morning. At least for a few minutes ... ;)

Day 338. What's better than an activity center? A brother who delights to entertain you while in it. :)

With much concentration, Matthew began working on his nativity scene today. :)

Day 339. Peter was pretty excited to get to hang the star this year ...

Day 340. Daddy supervised the ornamenting of the tree this year so that Mommy could begin working on our Christmas stockings.

In the evening, we visited a live nativity at a local church. It was very well done! We've never been to anything quite like it before, and we all really enjoyed it.

Day 341. Abby-girl has discovered her toes ... She is also having a blast playing with the toys hanging on her floor mat. :)

Day 342. What's better than a tent?

Watching a movie in your tent. ;)

Day 343. It took us quite a few days, but Matthew finally finished his nativity! :)

Day 344. My girls ♥

 ♥

Day 345. Stockings finished and hung! :) (With two in the ready for Grandma and Grandpa!!)

Day 346. Blessings.

Day 347. So, the big event for yesterday was our church's annual Christmas dinner. Of which I got not one picture. Regardless of the fact that half of our family participated in the program afterwards. Ah well. The food was good. And I was super proud of Chris and Hannah-bug (along with Faith-Ann) for doing a great job with their first Irish Flute performance. ♥ And Matthew thought it was pretty cool to get to listen to Mommy read a story at church ... especially since the pictures were really big. :)

Afterwards, Daddy and the kids watched The Muppet Christmas Carol ...

And Mommy worked on Christmas gifts for the kids' teachers. :)

One last week of school and work before a two week break. We're all looking forward to Christmas! :)

365Project.2014 | Weeks 47-48

Well, somewhere along the way I got off by a week in my counting. Not sure where or when, but I'm not particularly inclined to figure it out. :) However, according to Day Numbers 2014 these last two weeks were most definitely weeks 47 and 48, so I'm back on track. :) 

The first week was a pretty normal week, mostly just plugging away with school and responsibilities until Thanksgiving Break. :) Then we enjoyed the blessing of a visit with Grandma and Grandpa! :) Lots of fun for all! :)

Day 320. Tummy time is always more fun when you have your sister to talk to ... 

Day 321. Abby-girl was a bit off today, so we decided on a change of scenery, and Mommy took a walk outside with Abby in the Moby. I loved how pretty the creek looked this afternoon.

 Day 322. Sometimes you get more than you expect from your munchkins' school projects. Matthew was learning "G" this week, so I asked him to tell me some of the gifts that God gives us. The following list is what he came up with. I wrote everything down verbatim, and the only prompting I gave him was "Anything else?" You can click on the picture to make it easier to read ... I know this Mommy-heart was super encouraged and blessed. ♥

Day 323. Toby decided to take on Abby-duty. ♥

Day 324. Nap time. After many tears, Abby-girl finally fell asleep. And it's been the start of a very good thing. Nap times and bed times have been so much easier since she's started sleeping in her cradle when Mommy decides it's time for sleep. Yes, she still fusses a bit most days, but it's rarely more than 7-8 minutes, and Mommy can deal with that.

Day 325. Another take on floor time ...

Day 326. Thanksgiving Break!!! :D Yes, everybody was VERY excited! It was a fun day for Mommy, too ... by noon, my crew had created a Playdoh buffet, made progress on their trail through the woods, designed a board game, made a sheep puppet ... and I'm sure other things that I can't even remember. What fun it was to see their creativity! :)

Day 327. Grandma and Grandpa arrived! It did not take Abby long to decide that Grandma was a welcome addition to the nap time routine ... ;)

Day 328. Definitely warming up to Grandma and Grandpa!

 ♥

Day 329. Happy at her four-month check up! :) She's 24" long and weighs just shy of 14 lbs. Super thankful that an infection on her leg has healed well and not been as serious as it could have been. ♥

Day 330. Grandpa, Daddy, and the boys had fun exploring Cabellas. :)

And Hannah and Faith-Ann enjoyed being together for Faith-Ann's birthday. :)

Day 331.  An air rifle was a fun addition to the week. :)

We discovered that Hannah has an excellent shot! :)

Our church's Thanksgiving Praise service is always one of my favorite services of the year! We had a big crowd this evening!

Day 332. Happy Thanksgiving!

Rummikub is a great game for a wide range of ages and abilities! :)

Day 333. Grandpa is an expert paper airplane creator!

Day 334. Happy four months, Miss Abby!! Alert and interested in everything around you, your sweet smiles are such a blessing!

Uno is another great game ...

And Matthew was pretty proud of his part in helping Grandma win! :)

Thanks for a great visit, Grandma and Grandpa! We love you! 

Going to sneak in just a couple pictures from week 49 ...

Day 335. Sunday evening popcorn with our crazy crew! :)

Day 336. Abby cracks us up ... she gets on her mat and starts doing leg raisers! Seriously. She'll lay there with both head and legs in the air for 30+ seconds at a time!

Day 337. And speaking of Abby ... the Lord once again blessed in providing for her! We gave away nearly all of our baby equipment after Matthew. We've been blessed to borrow a swing and floor mat from friends, but she's definitely ready for a bit more activity.

After doing a bit of research, I decided I really liked the Baby Einstein activity center. Among other things, I liked the fact that it had loops so that we could hang our own toys and change things out to keep it interesting for her. Well, this activity center is $90 new. Not absolutely, totally out of the question, but probably not the best investment of available resources. With the knowledge that I could probably resell it if I did buy new, I decided to look for a very gently used one for about half that. The Lord blessed! I found one on Craigslist that had been used only a couple times--the little one it was purchased for hadn't cared for it and was now mobile. How much? $40. Yay!!! We drove out Monday evening to pick it up and it was exactly as described--essentially brand new, sans box. So thankful!

Abby's verdict? Pretty sure it's a winner, but I'll let you decide! :)

And in other big news? She rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time today! She's growing up so fast!

And such be life in these parts. We are thankful and blessed ... and hoping to transition into the Christmas season this week.