High 5 for Friday: Pre-Christmas Edition

I hope you have all of your shopping done (or most of it at least) because you're down to 6 days before Ho-Ho Man -as my brother used to call him- comes to town!  Since this is the last Friday before Christmas I'm going to do this High Five for Friday Christmas style, which means it will be mostly about food. =)

#1

As of today I have all but one Christmas gift in my possession.  It's funny because I had said gift in my hands last week, but thanks to some canine residents at our house last week (we are still not 100% sure who the instigator was) said gift now has several holes in it, hence the reason I had to reorder the gift.  Thankfully (for the dogs) I was able to reorder and have it here by Christmas.

#2

As I was wrapping gifts last weekend I came across an old gift box.  How did I know it was old? Because it had Christmas 1997 colored on the back of it.  Every year my family takes a Christmas picture in front of the tree with the year written on something so we know what year it was, and apparently that year I markered it onto a gift box. I clearly wanted to use the majority blue on the sign since it's always been my favorite color, but it looks to me like I realized it was not Christmas colors at all when I finished, hence the red/green/silver tri-colored "C" that covers up the "hr." My 12 year old self had clearly been working on my bubble letters and numbers because the bubble letter/number work is spot on. This gift box means 3 things: 1) They don't makes gift boxes like they used to because this one is going on it's 18 Christmas wrapped up under the tree; 2) I don't thrown anything away ever, if it weren't for Eric I would probably be a candidate for Hoarders; 3) I come by it honestly because I was not officially living somewhere other than my parents' house until 2007ish, meaning that my mother saved and reused this gift box for at least 10 years before it ended up in my possession.

#3

Don't be fooled by the pictures, that baby was at least an inch and a half thick!

We had a surprise on our door step when we got home last night in the form of a large white Styrofoam box.  Of course I was intrigued, because anytime there's a large box at the house I get excited...BTW I owe our mailman BIG TIME for all of the online orders he has had to deliver to our house this year.  I know he's tired of having to drive up in our drive way and finding creative ways to stuff packages in our mailbox.  Anywho, back to the box. Naturally I opened that bad boy up because it said perishable on the side and I was greeted by a glorious site.... 2 deep dish Chicago Style Pizzas from Gino's East from my aunt and uncle and cousins in Chicago.  And if you think I was excited, you should have heard Eric's reaction.  I texted him a picture, and I'm pretty sure he came home from his fishing trip a little early because of it.  He even had the oven preheated and the oven racks adjusted by the time I got home from the dance studio.  Trust me folks, Eric cooking anything that isn't on a grill, a fryer, or eggs in the skillet is a big deal. We both went to bed with happy and full belles last night.

#4

I have officially removed all of the Christmas Crack Crunch from our house as of last night. I ended up making 2 batches of it this year, which is substantially less than the quintuple batch I made a few years ago.  I may have to up it to 3 batches next year.  It seriously blows my mind how much people love this stuff.  Eric says it's the white chocolate sweetness mixed with the salty flavors that people just aren't used to that makes it so good.  I start getting requests at work for it in November and I even got a call from someone last night asking me not to make it anymore because their waistline couldn't handle it.  I'll take that as a compliment.  Since we are out of it I plan on trying out a new recipe from Mom that involves peanuts, almond bark, chocolate chips, and peanut butter chips this coming weekend.  No worries, I'll have a full report on it on Monday.  I have a feeling it's going to be good though!

#5

I tried a new snack recipe last night that is totally worth trying out if you're a fan of somewhat spicy things.  I am not a huge fan of spicy but this recipe also involves ranch dressing mix which makes any and everything delicious (you can adjust the spiciness to your liking). I've decided I am a fan.  They're called Spicy Ranch Crackers and they're the easiest things to make.  I actually had everything on hand already: Saltine Crackers, Ranch Dressing Mix, Cayenne Pepper, and Canola oil.  They are seriously addicting.

I hope you have a fun, happy, stress-free last weekend before Christmas!