Hi there.. I know I am responding a little late, haven't checked my e-mail in a while! I make alomond rocca for my friends and family every year, and it is very easy to make, and everyone looks forward to it every year. You need one pound of butter (make sure butter not margarine) 1 large hershey bar (i get the hershey with almonds), 1 box of brown sugar, and some almonds ( almonds can be expensive so i have used walnuts in the past... nobody knows cuz they are all gound up). You definatly need a candy thermometer!!! oh and a medium to large cookie sheet. Prep work, you will need a blender... you need to grind up the chocolate and set aside, and same for the almonds ( i have found that it is easiest to freeze your chocolate before you put it in the blender so it doesn't get all melty) you want to have your chocolate and nuts gound up before hand. in a 3 qt sauce pan (2 qt is almost too small) you melt butter and sugar and bring to boil over medium heat, you want to stir contantly, when candy thermometer reaches hard crack temp remove from heat and pour into cookie sheet...sprinkle evenly with chocolate, then with nuts, when cooled a little take a spatula and press nuts into chocolate. let cool completely, take a butter knife and break into pieces. depending how much you want to give everybody, it should be enough for 2-3 people. it is a little time consuming i will agree, but well worth it, for me anyway. another thing, you want to make sure you don't cook too fast, or you will get a granualy sugary batch and won't be any good. put into nice containers.. i buy mine from Dollar Tree.
Or...
If you are a little handy with the crafts...
I make potpouri lamps too. You want to get little glass bowls, like the ones you get in the craft section at walmart for .79, a bag of potpouri (your choice of color and scent), some lace, fake flowers, (again your choice and color), some ribbon, and a 20 light strand of x-mas lights. I get most of my supplies at Dollar Tree, if you don't have one in your area, walmart is almost just a cheap. What you do is, you want to evenly mix the lights and potpouri in the bowl, it can get a little tricky since there is not much room for your hand, but you want to try to hide most of the cord only leaving the lights exposed, i find it helps to have them plugged in while i do this so that i can see what i am doing and make adjustments. then you take some lace, i find it easy to trace a paper plate and cut out, its the perfect size.. rubberband it down... fluff out the edges a little, then i put ribbon around the rubberband and decorate how you like... i use hot glue gun to keep everything in place. it is a very cheap gift that looks expensive. one bag of potpouri should make two lamps... they really do look nice.
hope i helped you in any way!! I hope you got some good tips on what to do! Good Luck!!!!
C.