Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix

We are doing a Secret Santa exchange at work... of course, I picked a guy's name who I know almost nothing about.  Awesome.  Anyway, we had a Thanksgiving carry-in a few weeks ago and I made these Oreo Cupcakes.  They were awesome, but thats another story.  Anyway, he went out of his way to compliment me on them, so I decided to take a chance that he would like another yummy chocolate creation.  This was inspired by my favorite holiday drink, the Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks.  LOVE.  Anyway, I hit the Internet in search of a good hot cocoa mix recipe.  I found this one and then adapted it a bit for the peppermint.  I sampled a cup of it before packaging it for the gift and it was excellent!

Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix
(source:  Adapted from Disney Family Fun Recipes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 package of candy canes
• Mini Marshmallows

• 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup powdered nondairy creamer
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Whisk all ingredients except candy canes until well blended.  Use food processor to crush the candy canes.  Layer the hot cocoa mix, crushed candy cane, and marshmallows in a festive clear container.  Add a label with the following instructions:  "Spoon 3 or 4 generous tablespoons of cocoa mix into your cup (depending on the size), add boiling water, and stir well."

Santa, if you are out there....

I would really really really like this:

The little organizer freak in me is in love.  LOVE.  The only problem is that this baby comes from Pottery Barn, so it costs an arm and a leg.  And possibly another leg.  But I'm pretty sure it would change my life.  You see, I can't stand having mail, keys, clutter, etc. all over my kitchen counter and table, but it inevitably seems like that is where stuff gets placed.  If I had this system, it would all go exactly where it was supposed to go.  My Dad would call this a "neat container" and he would be absolutely right!!

Super cute DIY wreath

This is so adorable.  And looks easy.  Idiot proof even.  I just might have to make it :)  I'm obviously not loving the colors they have used here, but I see this being really cute with Red/Silver ornaments.

Here is the tutorial on how to DIY it.

Wedding recap, Part III

Ok, so here is where the pictures start coming in :)

The day of the wedding- June 27, the girls and I got up bright and early and went and met my family (we were all staying at the Hilton) for breakfast. We all had some yummy food which was pretty smart because the day got CRAZY and we didn't have time to eat again until a few quick snacks before the ceremony. Here are some pics of us at breakfast:

After breakfast, the girls and I headed over to the venue to finish setting up the centerpieces, flowers, and the other little odds and ends that we had. I think it all turned out pretty nice!

We had to set up the flowers for the tables and the extra flowers I had for the vases to decorate the hall... I think it turned out fantastic!

After we got everything mostly set up, Nicole, Jenny, Melissa, and I headed over to H20 to get our hair did.  Thats right.  The girls were done first, so they headed back to the hotel while they finished up on me and my Mom... here are some shots of us:

Somehow my Dad got delayed coming back to pick us up, so it got kind of crazy at that point.  We ended up being late getting back downtown to the hotel (where I was going to get into my dress and where we were going to meet up with the guys to take pictures)  I got kind of frazzled, but had fun getting ready anyway-

After we were done getting ready, we went downstairs where the guys were waiting.  It was the first time Josh and I saw each other that day.

After that we headed over to Foster Park, where we took some outside pictures.

Updates

I seriously need to do a better job of blogging. I was thinking about it, and it would be really nice to have this blog to look back on just to really remember things that happen. I don't know about you, but as I get older, my memory goes to hell. I can barely remember what I ate yesterday (well, except for the oreo cupcakes, I made, but more on that later.)

First things first, I took and PASSED the final part of the CMA exam in late August. I had to wait until mid October to get the results, which sucked, but I was glad to finally get them and know for sure that I passed. Most of the month of August was spent furiously studying and working so not much time for fun.

One thing that did happen that I have not posted at all about, is Daisy, the Black Lab/German Shepard puppy that we got shortly after returning from our honeymoon.

She is a serious pain in the ass... but cute as hell. Puppy stage has been tough but she is a lot of fun. The cats are not her biggest fans, but seem to be getting used to her.

Went home in October... actually, went to Rachel and Jason's Wedding and then went home for the weekend after that.  Rachel and Jason are such a freaking cute couple... I can't stand it.  I love  her like a sister and am so happy for her :)  I am seriously jealous of their honeymoon pics... makes me want to go back to ours!  Yes, I still need to blog about Maui.  I'll get to it :)

I can't believe its November already.  My parents are coming to us for Thanksiving, so that should be fun.  I missed getting to do the day after thanksgiving shopping with my Mom last year.  We did shop online together, but it wasn't the same.  I guess thats about it for general updates.  I will post some more specific posts (Finish the wedding recaps, honeymoon, Daisy stuff) soon.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.