Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine strawberry jello with 2 cups of boiling water and stir until completely dissolved. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Crush 2 1/2 cups of pretzels in a sturdy ziploc bag. In a medium sauce pan, melt 8 Tbsp butter then add 1/4 cup sugar and stir. Mix in pretzels. Transfer to a 13×9 glass casserole dish, pressing the pretzel mix evenly over the bottoms of the dish and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, then cool to room temp. While it is cooling, use a hand mixer to beat 8 oz cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar until fluffy and white. Fold in cool whip until no streaks of cream cheese remains. Spread over cooled pretzels to the edges to create a seal. (you don’t want the jello to leak into the pretzels.) refrigerate 30 min. Hull and slice 1 lb strawberries then stir them into your room temperature jello. Pour and spread strawberry jello mixture evenly over your cooled cream cheese and refrigerate until jello is set. (2-4 hours)