How to Build a Pretzel "Pallet" Snowman

Once again, Pinterest inspired.  

Almond bark covered pretzel snowman.

 I am calling it a pretzel "pallet" snowman

because it resembles those

pallet wood lawn ornaments. 

I laid out my pretzels.

I spread the melted white bark or candy melts

on the diagonal on one side of the pretzels. 

Let set in the fridge for a few minutes.

Turned over and frosted the back side. Let set.

After the pretzels are stuck together it is much

easier to handle and I could pretty much just

dip in the chocolate,

then place the hat brim pretzel.

I stood them up in between my cooling rack wires to set.

But first, while the bark is still wet,

I added sprinkles to mimic pines and holly berries. 

When set, added a little "snow" to the hat.

Piped eyes and mouths with more chocolate bark.

When I added orange gel food coloring

to the candy melts it became like a dough consistency

so I went with it and formed little noses

which I actually like much better than if I had piped them on!

All wrapped up and off to the Bazaar

along with some marshmallow reindeer pops

and pretzel rod turkeys.

I'm lovin' the prepackaged eyes.

They make it so easy to create these little

novelty food faces and give such personality.

These marshmallow reindeer are on sucker sticks

although you can't tell from the photos.

See you at the Holiday Bazaar!!

                  Betty

What I Made for the Christmas Kitchen Ornament Swap

Well, now that the holidays are behind us

and things have settled down a bit,

allow me to do a little backtracking

and show you what I made

for the Christmas Kitchen Ornament Swap

hosted by Erica at Golden Egg Vintage.

I was partnered with 

Trisha at American Honey Home.

You can see what she made for me

in my previous post here.

The rules were that we were to make 

 two kitchen related ornaments,

one tag or card,

include a favorite recipe,

and anything extra

maybe something "sweet".

Last year I played around with making 

Christmas card Putz style glitter houses 

They were allot of fun

and they turned out so cute. 

For Trisha I decided to make something similar,

a Gingerbread House.

Made from card stock,

with a flame-less battery operated tea light inside.

I decorated the roof to resemble candy dots.

And added lots of snowy glitter 

and

a little bottle brush tree at a corner in the 

front of the house.

This ornament was small enough that it 

could hang on a tree if you should so choose.

I think it would be wonderful under 

small glass cloche.

My second ornament was a

Gingerbread Man

made from an air dry recipe of

applesauce and cinnamon.

I got this recipe from my son's second grade teacher

close to 20 years ago.  

I made some tree ornaments back then

(gingerbread men, rocking horses, reindeer, 

angels, and more).

We've hung them on the tree every year since then.

And every year they smell delicious every time I 

open the box and unwrap them.

Since I was going with the gingerbread theme,

I printed off a printable found online

and applied to a shipping tag

over some coordinating art paper.

Added a dictionary clipping of gingerbread,

and attached a 

vintage measuring spoon,

and a 

tiny bite-sized gingerbread man cookie cutter 

with a strip of

Christmas homespun fabric.

Read a previous post to see 

more about the tiny cookie cutter.

Then I antiqued the tag and

added glitter around the edges.

The recipe I sent to Trisha is one of my very favorites
and one that I've made since a young girl
found in my mom's Better Homes & Gardens
 recipe book.

"Frosty Date Balls"
found on page 41

I prefer pecans instead of walnuts.

I love how the cookie balls get all goey
when rolled in powdered sugar
straight out of the oven
while still piping hot.

I tucked a few 

Christmasy sweet treats of

chocolate, peppermint and English toffee.

(and hoped Trisha wasn't diabetic)

Merry Christmas Trisha, thanks for being

a great swap partner.

Thank you Erica for hosting a great Swap Party!

Warm Hugs,

BettyJean

Our Naughty or Nice Christmas Gift Exchange

They say Christmas is for kids right?

Well in our family the kids

have all grown up.

with the exception of the above photo, all (other) photos are from online sources
because I was just having too much fun to take photos

My husband and I have

 3 twenty-something children.

I have three siblings with spouses

and between those three families

there are 7 more nieces/nephews

also in their teens and twenties.

Two of which are married adding

two more twenty-somethings.

Occasionally a boyfriend or girlfriend

may be thrown into the mix.

For Christmas last year at my Mom's house

there were, as I remember, 17 adults.

My sister and her husband and their

two married daughters had other plans

and did not attend.

Gifts for small children is always fun

but for adults it's just a bit more challenging 
so we had ruled "no gifts".

We would have a nice gathering

for Christmas dinner.

What?!

No Gifts??

It just isn't Christmas without gifts!

I don't care what it is,

it's just nice to have something to open...
something small,

NOT a gift card thank you.

Something to hold

to wonder "what could it be?"

you admire the wrapping,

the shiny bow,

something unexpected that

warms the heart

and brings a smile.

Right?

So,

 I had heard one of the girls at work

talking about their family Christmas...

They have small children so of course they

enjoy watching them open their gifts of toys, etc.

Then the adults also have a grab-bag type

of gift exchange but were going to

try a new gift exchange game....

My ears perked up....

Something she had found online... the

"Christmas with the Right Family" story.

I decided to print off a copy for myself too.
It sounded like fun.

In this game/gift exchange

everyone sits in a, near as possible,
circular arrangement around the room 

holding the gift they are giving,

and someone reads the story aloud.

During the reading of the story

every time the word "left" or "right" is read

everyone passes their gift in that direction.
Kind of like musical chairs but with passing of gifts.

I made my own version of the story to 
add to the story line, incorporating more
left and right passes,
and added an "across" pass.

When the word "across" is read

you exchange gifts with the person

seated across from you.

 I've provided links at the end of this post
so you can print a copy
to use at your own party.

Since this was pretty much a last minute decision

I decided I would provide all of the gifts
for the exchange myself
instead of asking everyone to
bring a gift to share.

Since there is no way of knowing who is going

to end up with which gift

 all of the gifts have to be generic....

that is to say 

appropriate for all ages

and

non-gender specific.

And since I hadn't really budgeted for

buying 20 gifts

I put the emphasis on
the game not the gift.

To get everyone in
the same room away from the television
off the smart phones, etc.
for the fun of fellowship in playing the game.

No costly gifts.

Then I had idea...

"Then he got an idea.  An awful idea.
The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea"!

I would put my own spin on it.
I'd make some of the gifts
Naughty !

and some of the gifts 
Nice !

hahahah, (wringing my hands)
this would be soooo fun!!

I set a budget of $3 - $5 per gift.

I labelled the gift either Naughty or Nice
in a place that would be visible
after taking off the outer gift wrap
by applying a label to the tissue paper
resting on top of the actual gift item
just inside the box under the lid
or that would be visible when you peeled back
the box flaps.
The recipient should announce to
onlookers if they've received a
naughty or nice gift.

I warned everyone at the beginning
of the game that some of the gifts 
were Naughty and some were Nice.
Everyone's curiosity was 
instantly piqued,
and the fun 
and 
insanity began.

I piled all of the gifts in the center 
of the living room
and told everyone to chose a gift.

Right away, my sister insisted...
"What are all those gifts?
Bet, did you bring gifts?
We weren't supposed to get gifts!

After shushing her, I told them 
they were just fun dollar store gag gifts
for a game.
So anyhow, choose a gift,
it doesn't matter which gift 
because 
you don't get to keep it.

My husband read the story
and it was a bit of a workout
keeping up with
passing the gifts along
and catching the one thrown
into your lap from the person
next to you. 
Imagine 17 adults springing out of their
seat and heading into the center of the room
to exchange their gift box with the
person who had been seated across from them.
It's crazy!  
"Take mine","no he sits across
from me, no me,  I'm exchanging with her"
"I don't have anyone to exchange with"
"okay, change with him then
exchange with me".
The room was loud with laughter and chatter.
You just got sat back down, gifts spinning
around the room, left then right, then right again
then left
then everyone up out of their seat to
exchange across the room aaagain!

Pure fun 
and at moments,
 pure chaos.

So after the story was read and
all of the gifts were settled
we opened them one at a time while everyone
else watched with anticipation.

Wondering...
who got a Naughty gift?

Will I get a Nice gift?

If I get a Naughty gift, what could it be?

As I remember my sister was the first 
to get a Naughty gift...

Snowman Poop!!   (giggle)

a ziploc bag with mini marshmallows.

The Naughty gifts were just a bit naughty
but mostly silly 
and I was sure to
tuck in something nicer or useful too.

So there was also a little snowman hanging
tree ornament in the gift box
tucked in with the snowman poop.

My sister laughed and made comment
that there was a theme going here
when she and eventually
 both her daughter and son
received more Naughty gifts...

...my niece and nephew each received a different style of 
reindeer antlers and reindeer poop!!!

My daughter, on the other hand ,
LOL, there's NO WAY anyone could have planned it,
was on the receiving end of a gift
labelled  Nice...

Nutcracker "Sweets"

a nutcracker of course 

along with candy  in nutcracker packagings...

and a nutcracker lottery ticket

Another naughty gift was

"Coal 'd Hard Cash"

Christmas "coal"

along with Holiday Cash Lottery Tickets

My Mom was the recipient of this one
(probably the only time she's ever played)
and unfortunately she didn't win anything 
on the scratch offs.


Naughty...

Oh,  Fudge

N  "Ice"   ?

Walgreens sells a brand of products

called NICE!.  So that makes it easy to add

more nice gifts...

So with a little imagination

and some inexpensive items 

we had loads of fun.

All of the twenty-somethings begged,

Oh,  Aunt Betty, that was so much fun

can we do it again next year!?

There are a number of

stories around the internet.

You can find one of those

"Christmas with the Right Family"  

here

I 've never offered any printables

before and I'm not really sure how to do that

so I've written my version of the story

on another"page" of my blog.

You should be able to 

highlight the story, right click and print.

Click here 

to get

 My Adaptation of 

"A Naughty or Nice Christmas

with the WRIGHT Family".

A Blessed and Merry Christmas to All 

and to all a Happy Gift Exchange,

Christmas Hugs,

BettyJean