change of scenery: twelve days of christmas: day five

SPOILER ALERT: If you're part of the weekly lunch crew, please don't read this post unless you're fine with seeing your christmas presents before you actually get them. Sorry ladies, I'm on a schedule that doesn't involve a backup plan. Meow.

Before getting into the fifth day of Christmas, I promised my mom I'd share some photos of my company's holiday party, shot by The Framester. And what my mom wants, my mom gets. Especially when it comes in the form of an order. I'm a GIANT fan of photobooths. So much that if I happen to see one, I make whoever is with me run in for some ~~strategically planned~~ candid shots. Jim, being used to the drill, decided to go a little more sporadic which completely threw me for a loop. As you can tell by the first shot, I'm not exactly the best at improvising.

swooping me up right before the shot

Not quite ready...

yep, much better

keepin' it real

Fun, right? I know, we're adorable.

Now that that's out of the way (you're welcome mom), on the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Five cocoa jars and mugs.

I've been ON FIRE with the crafting these days I'll-tell-you-what. Between the dollhouse, the holiday decorations and the christmas gifts I'm bring multi-tasking to a whole new level. I mean, who needs sleep or a social life? Apparently not this girl. Which is exactly why I wanted to give 'ma ladies a little something this season. To remind them I'm still alive.

Each week (lately, month) a group of us gals meet up to try out either 1) a new restaurant we've never been to before or 2) a favorite restaurant we needed more of in our lives. This serves as an excuse to catch up, get out of the office and splurge on something spectacularly delicious.

Not much of a cook, I opted for something even I could pull together that still yummy, indulgent and comforting. Cocoa! And for those not knocked up, spiked cocoa.

To start, I grabbed some glass mason jars, washed and let dry.

Second, I grabbed the ingredients needed for the Supreme Cocoa Mix recipe on Food.com and mixed them all together.

4 cups nonfat dry milk powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup non-dairy coffee creamer
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 (4 ounce) package instant chocolate fudge pudding

Finally, I topped some Ghirardelli chocolate chips and marshmallows to finish the look.

For the mugs, I found some heavy, white ceramic mugs at Target. I'm more of the classic mug kind of gal but you can choose which ever ones best suit your style. I picked up some markers made for porcelain or china (found at Michaels).

As you probably noticed, my friends and I kind of have a small obsession with cats. Long story short, we like to find cats dressed or or doing odd things and often include in the email chain deciding where we're going to eat. We also equate whining with meowing and typically call each other out when doing just that. I went through rounds and rounds and rounds of cat sketches, meow typefaces and even "funny" sayings. Inevitably, I came back to just a simple meow which I think completely explains the sentiment I was trying to get at.

They're cute, they're yummy and deliver the message of "let's stay friends and keep eating lunch together" perfectly. And for those nosy ladies that disregarded my spoiler alert and kept on reading: