Sunday, December 26, 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Hubby and I had a great time with my family back home. I was a little under the weather. :-( darn Houston's ever changing weather, but I am feeling much better now.

Last year, one of our neighbors left us some Christmas cookies by our door. So, I really wanted to do something for them and our other neighbors. So, the Wednesday before Christmas, I purchased some gifts for a few of our neighbors in our cul-de-sac.

I found a cute Christmas-y kitchen towel and a Christmas mug at an HEB by our home. I also bought some red gift bags to put them in. I felt like I was still missing something. So, I was talking on the phone with my mom that day, and she stated that maybe I should put some hot chocolate in the gift bag as well. I thought this was a great idea. So, I purchased my favorite box of hot chocolate (Nestle's Chocolate Caramel). I put a box in each bag. This hot chocolate, in my opinion, tastes great and is very similar to Starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate, but of course it's a lot cheaper. I got 3 boxes at Kroger's for $1/each (on sale).

So, total cost for neighbor gifts =
coffee mug = $1
kitchen towel = $1
gift bag = .75 cents
box of hot chocolate = $1
Total cost = $3.75/each

I did gift bags for 3 neighbors. So, total cost = $11.25

I think they came out great, and was small amount to show our appreciation and thankfulness to our great neighbors. Our neighbors LOVED them!
When we returned home from my mom's we received gifts from our wonderful neighbors by our front door:-). (I will do a separate blog on the gifts they gave us).

So, what do you think of the gifts?







Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Eggnog Martini - goodness

Wow! Bad blogger! Shame on me! I have been such a bad blogger lately. I need to catch you guys up on what's been going on.

In the meantime, sip on this :-).

We recently made these tasty treats for a couple of friends. They were a big hit. I found a similar recipe somewhere online, but I changed it up  and made it Happy Apple Goodness style. :-)

The Ingredients to make the eggnog:
1. Egg Nog (of course) I got the cheap-o Kroger's brand. It was about 1.50 (no need to buy an expensive brand. I saw some that was as much as $4.00....don't waste your money, since we are mixing it with other stuff anyway.)
2. Brandy (we already had this at the house from a previous party. Thanks to Matt that brought it to the party a few months back! It definitely came in handy!)
3. Butterscotch Schnapps



Mix the ingredients to your "taste". Some people like more eggnog than brandy or vice versa. My friends enjoyed it. We mixed ours to be sweet, but yet you could tell there was something extra in the egg nog.

Honestly, hubby mixed this. So, I couldn't even begin tell you the exact measurements he used. He just gave me taste tests to try and see if more of which item was needed. But, I think he started doing it at first with mixing it part and part. Basically, the same amount of each of the 3 ingredients, ex a cup of eggonog , cup of brandy, and a cup of butterscotch) and then he went from there.

Next,
4. Pour some honey on a plate
5. Crumble up some graham crackers on a second plate.
6. Get a martini glass (I had my martini glasses chilled in the freezer....this makes the drink THAT much better)


Voila! I hung a mini candy cane on the inside to make the drink even more festive! They were delish.

Now, what you waiting on!!!! Go make some!!!!!