Every year a few of my girlfriends and I get together for a holiday dinner and fun. If you remember last year I made us wonderfully over the top Christmas flower headbands. They were great but they had been done so I had to think of something else to put together for my pals. For years I had made us Christmas candy so I went back to that tradition (can you call it a tradition if you skip a year?) and added a much tamer headband to make a fun and festive holiday gift for everyone.  Here is what I did:

HEADBAND – I really wanted to make everyone sweet and classy lace head wraps. You know those delicate sweet things that wrap around the heads of equally adorable and sweet young women. Three things stopped me from doing this:

1. We are too old for lace head wraps. The fact that I found an image of what I wanted at “Wet Seal” was a huge red flag.
2. I look like a mentally insane American Indian reject in this style. The white girl who ran away from the wagon train and self adopted into a wonderful Indian family and tried to be just like her new clan, but ended up failing completely. My hair is too short and my face is too long. It just squeezes in my brain and my hair poofs up above it like an atom bomb blast while manic tuffs stick out all around the bottomed.
3. The lace was too expensive.

So I scrapped that idea and grabbed a couple rolls of glittery Christmas ribbon that was 60% off and hit the check out stand. I will never be too old for glitter.

Back home a took two hair ties (I stole this woman’s how-to to make my headbands and despite what she says not everyone has hair ties just hanging out unused in their house. I had to purchase a pack at the grocery store.) and interlaced them.

The young woman who did the original how-to suggested you need 12 inches of lace. She must have the head of an 3 year old because I needed a piece around 19 inches to be able to wear the headband without being afraid I was causing myself brain damage. After you cut a length of ribbon about 19 inches, loop each end around each end of your mini hair tie chain and sew the ribbon down. Ms. Tiny Head sewed by hand. I’m an adult … I used a sewing machine.

These were lots of fun and added sparkle to our night!

SNOWMAN POOP – I read about this recipe for Christmas candy that utilized the slow cooker. I’m all for anything that I can put in that bad boy, turn on, walk away from, and come back to only to find a perfect happy edible treat. After thinking about it for two seconds I threw that recipe out the window. Coco butter? Butter flavored shortening? No thanks. That screams too much work for me. I wasn’t giving up on the slow cooker though. Here how you can make easier candy blobs like I did:

Grab a crock pot plastic disposable liner and stick it on your slow cooker. It will make clean up MUCH easier. Take 3 packages (that’s what I used because I was making a big ol’ patch) of white, vanilla flavored candy melts and toss them into the crock pot. If you are me you just happened to find a bag of peppermint special seasonal flavor candy melt and you add that too. If you aren’t as lucky as me just add peppermint oil … or forget it all together … that’s what I’d do. Cook it on low for 15 minutes. Remember that you should add something to take the place of the stuff you left out so grab a container of coconut oil and plop in 1 1/2 heaping spoonfuls. Let cook another 15 minutes. Stir it all together until it becomes a wonderful white candy pool of yumminess. Dump in some crushed up candy canes or, again, if you are me purchase a bag of pre-crushed candies at Michaels and dump in the giant bag. Take some pretzel sticks and mash them up and toss those in too. I like the pretzels so add a lot. Mix it all together in the magic pot and then plop out blogs of goo in spoonfuls on wax paper. Once dry they harden-ish and are a wonderful tasty treat that look like piles of poop.

I didn’t mean for my creation to look like white poo. They just did so I rolled with it. I stole and then modified a poem I found online and taped it to a bag with three or so blobs in it.

I have to tell you melting chocolate in the crock pot is a game changer for me. It was so much easier. Definitively my technique from now on.

If you want an easy and fast Christmas hostess gift then may I suggest Snowman Poop. Despite it’s name it was a big hit with everyone!