A reminder as to what Christmas is all about!

Death by Chocolate

Can you tell that I am craving chocolate today? Perhaps it is because I was reading the Scrap Girls newsletter and this recipe was in there.

Death by Chocolate

*You need 1 box of your favorite brownie mix
*1 container of cool whip
*6 crushed heath bars, or you can get the pre-chopped heath bars in the chocolate chip section
*1 box of instant chocolate mousse, prepared as directed (or you can take *4 of those pre-made chocolate pudding cups and mix it with cool whip or a package of dream whip. I like this way because it is FAST and you can use the new dark chocolate pudding by Swiss Miss!)
How to prepare
Bake the brownies as directed. *Optional: When they are slightly cooled, poke holes in them with a fork and pour ½ cup of Kahlua over them (Only recommended if no children will be eating this!)
Prepare chocolate mousse.
In a large bowl (preferably glass so you can see the scrumptious layers), crumble half of the brownies.
Layer the brownies with half of the chocolate mousse.
Then sprinkle half of the crushed heath bars on the mousse (or use 1/2 cup of the pre-chopped package), then spoon half of the container of cool whip on the crumbles.
Repeat these steps, using the remaining brownies, the remaining mousse, the remaining heath bars (or 1/2 cup of the bagged kind) and then the remaining cool whip.
Refrigerate for a few hours so the tastes really blend together...

Doesn't that sound YUMMY?
I am thinking that this would be a great recipe to have in my stash. It is not fancy, but I bet it would go over really well at a get-together.

I was also talking with a friend today on the phone and asked her if she would share her cheesy potato casserole recipe with me. Now I know why it was so delicious. Let's just say it is not a low-cal recipe. I'll share it, too.

Cheesy Potato Casserole

2 lbs. Frozen cubed hash brown potatoes
1/2 med. onion, chopped
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
2 can of cream soup (i.e. cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, or cream of celery)
Pint of sour cream
1/3 lbs. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Mix all together and place in a greased 9" x 13" pan.
If you like, crumble a sleeve of crackers on top and drizzle melted butter over it.

Bake at 350 degrees. The original recipe says for 50-60 minutes, but my friend said that if her potatoes are still frozen, it takes closer to 90 minutes.

I am going to make this on Christmas day to take over to my in-laws.

Happy eating!

The Christmas shot

We FINALLY shot our Christmas card photo this evening in my makeshift basement studio. They more I try to shoot photos at home like this, the more I realize that I truly DO NOT know what I am doing when it comes to studio photography! Natural light is just SO much easier. But I am pleased that we got a relatively decent shot of all of us. We just couldn't get baby Rachel to keep her head up, though. I am amazed that we even got this. The toddlers were totally wound up and bouncing off the walls. Abi would get so excited watching the little light on the camera flash for the time delay that she kept throwing her arms of into the air and saying "yay!" That wouldn't have been so bad except her hands were always blocking someone's face. Oh well, it is a huge weight off of me to have this done!

We have lots of festivities this weekend to get gifts ready and wrapped for along with food to prepare. It will be fun, but I am sure that I will be quite wiped by Monday! Have a great weekend!

Ack! Monday!

Here it is - Monday morning! There is so much to do that I don't even know where to begin. I need to clear my head and start making some lists so that I can get on top of all there is to do this week.

I did do a little scrappin' I think a little scrappin' is good for the soul. I need a bit of creative release for my sanity! These pages are are pretty simple because they are both done with quickpages from Doris Castle. This first one is from her Everyday Wonders Album. I think this is my all time favorite from Doris so far. I love the mauve and brown. It has always been a favorite color combo for me. This kit has such sweet details from newsprint to glitter! The "M" cards are my own from my Antiquated Alpha Cards.

This second layout is also done using a quickpage from Doris. This one is from the Gathering Hearts collection which I think was a limited edition kit from ScrapArtist. It is BEAUTIFUL isn't it? This is a photo of my mom holding Rachel until she is fast asleep. Isn't it sweet? This was also taken on Thanksgiving day. I used a Virtual Photographer filter on the photo to soften it and give it this unique color in one fast step.

I am off now to make my TO DO list and see what I can get done today!

Have a great one!

My son is "Dog Gone Cute"

Or perhaps he is just a goofball! My daughter Anna loves to get creative with the camera. She must have told Patrick to pose or "say cheese" and this is what he did. Anna filled up my entire memory card playing around on Thanksgiving day. Most of it was video....really bad video. Even thought the quiality wasn't the best, I did get a kick out of it. In twenty years from now, we will ALL get a great big laugh out of it!

We are having a lazy Sunday afternoon. Barry and the kids are watching a movie and I decided to steal a little scrappin' time. I wanted to use this new kit by Doris called Doggone Cute, but didn't have any dog photos handy. No matter, the kit is cute and versitile enough to use with this photo of my son, too.

New Stuff!

I have really been limited on my computer time this week. When you add in all the extra Christmas festivities and preparations to my normal daily workload, I'm busy. Really busy! I am feeling behind and I am feeling tired. The tired part is because of my baby girl's sleeping habits. I keep telling myself to enjoy this time because it will pass quickly. So I am trying not to wish it away but just enjoy it taking the bad along with the really good.

Thursday night I hosted my very first online chat at Scrap Outside the Box. I was intimidated by the thought of it, but it ended up being lots of FUN. As part of this, anyone who does a layout using my Festive Foil Alphas by next Thursday (12-14-06) and posts it in this gallery will receive a special bonus from me. This coordinate with my newest kit called Gelled Joy. I'll have to post more about that later, though, because I am out of time. I have to get the kids around because we are going to a Philharmonic orchestra "Holiday Pops" concert this afternoon. Although I went to these all the time as a girl, the rest of my family has never been to one. It should be fun. I keep telling my girls that I am trying to "culture them up a bit."

Catch ya' later!

Checking in

I haven't had much time at the computer lately, but I thought I would check in. It always seems that there is SO much to do this time of year. I have gotten the bulk of my Christmas decorating done, but I have several boxes to sort through still. After 18 years of marriage, I have decided that we have accumulated quite a bit of Christmas stuff and it doesn't all really look so hot anymore. Pulling out the Christmas boxes has seemed like more of a chore to weed through the junkier stuff that I hesitate to put out and the treasures that I love. So I am taking quite a bit of time to sort and organize this year. Even though I am not done, the tree is up with the train around it, our special nativity is in place an the stockings are hung on the mantle. So my kids are happy. I have yet to snap any pictures, though.

This picture is of a living nativity at our church yesterday. Isn't it cute? I am a bit prejudiced, though, since my daughter is Mary and my son is the angel. I realized on the way to church yesterday that I FORGOT MY CAMERA. Can you believe that? And I call myself a scrapbooker! I considered turning around to get it and make ourselves late, but my van was on empty and I didn't think I could make it home and back to town on the gas I had. Luckily, a friend at church had her camera and was sweet enough to snap a couple of shots for me. I am so thankful. You know it may be the ONLY time I get to see my son as a perfect angel. :-)

HAPPY ADVENT! I just think this is SO COOL! One of my fellow designers at ScrapOutside the Box created a really fun advent calendar to share. What is unique about this one is that when you open each day's door, the goodie you get is a scrabook freebie! My little donation to this can be found on the 19th which just happens to be one of my daughter's birthday. Click on the image above to read more about the calendar and get the link to it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I realize Thanksgiving was yesterday, but I was too busy celebrating and spending time with family to pop onto the computer until today.

My folks came over and brought tons of yummy food! My mom and I split the menu, but she always takes the lion's share of the work. Which is quite alright because she and my dad are wonderful cooks! We feasted and visited and even played Dance Dance Revolution on the Playstation (had to do something to work off all that food!).

At the last minute, we realized that we hadn't taken a family photo! So with Anna already in her nightgown right before Mom and Dad left, we plopped everyone down for a couple of shots. They all got impatient with me while I fiddled with my camera and I was wishing we had done this when there was some extra daylight as I really hated to have to use the flash. For you camera geeks, I bumped up the ISO to compensate, so this can out a bit noisy and grainy. But I am happy to have a big family photo of us all.

I put this layout together using my new Thankful Tree Scrappin' set and Paper Pack. I couldn't wait to use it! I have several other layouts in the works with it, too.

Hope you all had a great holiday and didn't eat too much. No one is probably reading this because you are all out shopping! As for me, I plan to stay home and do some decorating.