Happiness is

Friends and family

Work

Hugs

Hot showers with my music blarin'

Secret Pixie gifts

Love

Advice

Cleaning

Service

God

Tanner

Matt

A humidifier

Motrin

Water

You

Me

Snow falling

Getting cards in the mail


What are you happy about today?

Being an only child

The other day I was imagining the reasons it would be so nice to be an only child:

-If your Mom got you a cereal you liked, you wouldn't have to worry about your sisters/brothers eating it. OR taking the last bowl of it when you really wanted it.

-you can have your pick of seat in the vehicle

-you can do your homework with no distraction with one on one help from your parent.

-you don't have to worry about your sibling walking in on you while changing

-you can snuggle with your Mom and Dad in the bed without it getting crowded.

-you can have a bath all to yourself

-you have no one to blame your mis-deeds on...except if you're tanner and you have an imaginary brother named banner.

-siblings won't wreck your stuff

So there you have it. My list of why it's great to be an only child. There is also some non great stuff too but lets look at the good : )

I made stuff from Pinterest!

For my work Christmas party, I attempted to make a couple things that I had pinned on pinterest. I was in charge of games and instead of buying or making things to give away as the prizes, I made treats. I have been wanting to try these couple of things so I thought what better time to make them.

This is Candy Cane Popcorn. Easy. I just got some of the candy cane Hershey kisses and melted them (with a double boiler) and then poured it over popcorn. This is really easy and it is a good alternative if you don't have candy canes but want the flavor of peppermint.

This was suppose to be White Chocolate Almond bark popcorn. It did NOT turn out very well. Matt over-cooked the chocolate and when we tried to melt white chocolate chips...it didn't end well. Luckily we saved some of the white almond bark and we used what we had left. You're supposed to follow the directions on the package but I got mine at Bulk Barn so there was no instructions and I didn't know exactly how to melt it. We...I mean I salvaged what I could and it was edible but there are big chunks of Candy Cane coated with over cooked chocolate. If you want to see the original go HERE

The only difference between the 2 kinds of popcorn, really, are that the bark has Almonds in it and real crushed Candy Canes. The 1st kind is just plain.

These are SUPER easy. Just get pretzels, place a Candy Cane Hershey kiss on them, place them in your oven at 170 for about 10 minutes. When they come out, press an M&M into them. Let cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy! I tried to do this last year but I over baked them and they didn't turn out very good. The kiss won't melt totally but they will be soft enough to put the candy on top.

I am really excited to make more stuff and will let you know when I do. Have you made anything that you've pinned?

O Christmas Time!

In the land of Collins', this is what's been up:

-we started our book advent calendar. How's it going? Good, other than Tanner doesn't really want to do the activities that go with the book. Oh well...we have a daily activity calendar for the month of December.

-if you are not on facebook, you may not know that Tanner has the chicken pox. Yes, he does. I am glad I don't have 4 girls who had them all right after each other and I couldn't leave my house for the WHOLE month of December (yes, that was my sisters and I). How lucky am I.

-Matt and Tanner have both had the flu in the last week. Yep. I'm not sure I've had it. I haven't vomited but there are some days I feel like it.

-my work's Christmas party is this Sunday. I am SUPER excited!!!! I get to do the games which I'm stoked about (not in a literal sense). I LOVE playing games. I live for them...well, that's an exaggeration but I do love them.

-my gift for the above mentioned christmas party is 'da bomb. This is my new phrase lately. Anyways, mine and Matt's gift are for sure the best.

-for the games for the christmas party, I am actually trying out a couple of recipes from pinterest. Yep, it's true. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

-I made a gift that I pinned on pinterest for one of my gifts. I can't post it right now (even though I am 99% sure none of the people I work for even look at my blog or even know I have one). I will post it after the partay!

-I am going to Las Vegas in January. Yes, you read that right. I, Mandy Collins, who HATES hot weather and going to new places am going to Las Vegas. It is for a seminar for work and we are all going. I'm not gonna lie...I'm kind of excited. I'm mostly excited for the new things I'm going to learn.

-Matt is seriously the HARDEST person to buy for. He doesn't want to buy movies he's already seen because "I've already seen them". He doesn't like books. He isn't a clothes horse like some guys I know. He's mostly in work clothes. He likes food. But he's kinda choosy about what he likes at certain times. Anyways, I got him something that I told him he will like.

-I went to Lethbridge today all by myself and it was glorious! I took my time and felt relaxed and it was great. No "Mom, can I have this" "Mandy, let's get this" "Can we look at the toys" "I'm going to just wait in the car".

-We'll be in Calgary at least once in the next 3 months with Doctor appointments for Tanner.

Other than that, we are ready for Christmas.