One of the ladies in my office brought this Snack Mix thing in today that is AWESOME!  Thought I’d share the recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 sticks butter
• 2 cups light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white corn syrup
• 14 oz box of Crispix (or Chex, which I used because I couldn’t find Crispix)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups peanuts
• 1 1/2 bags microwave popcorn

Directions: Melt butter, then add sugar and corn syrup. Bring to a boil and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla and baking soda. Mix Crispix, popcorn and peanuts in two 9×13 pans (it will barely fit) and pour the liquid over. Stir to coat. Bake at 225 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. DO NOT FORGET to stir every 15 minutes.

Wow! Thank you to those of you who participated in the bake sale. Not only did we sell all the goodies but some of my wonderful co-workers also made monetary donations to Hope for McKenna. The first day we made $151! To make the day even better, I had requests for more cookies.  I spent Wednesday evening making 8 dozen cookies to take to the office the following day.  I made Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies and Reese’s Chewy Chocolate Cookies. Only downfall was that the plastic Christmas containers were smaller than the 1st round so I could  only fit 8 to 12 cookies in each depending on the size of the cookies. I did make some cute “thank you” labels for each container. We had the potential of making about $80.  I thought it would go well because while I was baking, my friend, Beth called and her husband insisted she buy the Chocolate Chunk Pecan Cookies right then and there.  I hoped the rest of the items would sell well but figured whatever didn’t sell could be gifted to family and friends.

Well guess what, between sales and monetary donations made by family and friends, we made a whopping $310 overall!

At the end of the day that is quite a significant amount of donations for only two days of work.  I look forward to finding other ways of raising money for Ms. McKenna. Both my sisters, McKenna’s mom, Tracy and our older sister Danielle are working hard to try to raise money over the next year.  We have hand crafted paper products, hand-made clothing accessories and raffles ongoing.  Look for future posts on these items.

***If you know of any great fundraising ideas, please send them our way.  It is so easy to just ask, ask, ask but it is more fulfilling to give something heartfelt in return for the donations.***

Thank you again to all that support Hope for McKenna.  Hopefully, in the near future, we can spread the kindness our family and friends have shown us to another family in need. 

Thanks,

Aunt Brandy

December 22nd, we held a bake sale fundraiser at my office to help raise additional funds for Hope for McKenna.

We sold three tubs of Chocolate Chunk & Pecan Cookies (18 count)  as well as three take-out boxes  of the Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (6 count). I made them all with Nestle brand chocolate chips.  I also had a tree-shaped, glass candy canister filled with various Christmas candy such as Snickers, Whoppers, Chocolate Crisps, Hershey’s chocolates and cherry cordial Hershey’s kisses.  We also sold a coffee mug filled with Hershey’s candy and some chocolate angels.

Thank you for all your support during our efforts to raise money for McKenna.  Our goal is to help alleviate the financial burden that her 6 surgeries in the past two years have created.  Any money  that we raise above and beyond her medical expenses will be donated to a cleft palate association chosen by the Conrad family. 

Thank you again for your support.

Brandy Pate