I’m writing this on Monday. Each year, when we get a good early snow, I drag the children outside for the annual Christmas card photo. We usually get a bit of snow in November but we haven’t had any this year so far. It’s snowing right now, but there’s only a tiny bit on the ground. I prefer a raging snowstorm (heh…) for the photo but it looks like I might have to settle for a dusting this year. I told Ali to ride the bus home if it’s snowing at 2:00 p.m. Richard will pick Frank up and Zach has promised to be here on time, too. I’ll bundle up all the children, drag them outside and make them stand and smile for a good five minutes while I snap a few dozens photos, looking for just the right one. Matt is part of our family now, too, as he lives here when he’s not at school. But, he won’t be home from school until December 20th and it never snowed over the Thanksgiving holiday while he was here. So, I might try to superimpose a photo of him into the snow picture. We love Photoshop!

Percy (the dog) is excited because he has a new red sweater to wear for this year’s photo.

Each December, Ali and I bake up a storm and distribute goodies to our neighbors and friends. This year, we’re planning something different. I’m experimenting with homemade cocoa recipes and will make a huge batch when I get it just right. (Um, any hints from readers would be great because everybody keeps saying my recipe tastes like dark chocolate…too dark!). We bought 49 Christmas coffee cups at the department store for only 60 cents each. I also bought Christmas-themed sandwich bags to put the cocoa in. So, each person will be receiving a festive Christmas coffee cup with homemade cocoa mix, marshmallows and a candy cane inside.

We have to make our peppermint bark again this year because everybody counts on it. That makes us feel good. I published the recipe here last year, but am happy to do it again. It’s so easy we feel guilty making it. It’s terribly addictive! 😉

Angie and Ali’s Peppermint Bark

1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag white chocolate chips
Lots of candy canes

Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips on medium heat in the microwave for about 3 minutes; stir often.

Spread the melted goo, about 1/4-inch thick, on waxed paper, and put it in the freezer.

Put candy canes in a Ziploc bag and smash them. The kids love doing this with a hammer but the broken candy canes can make holes in the bag and make a big mess, so be careful.

Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave, in the same way you did for the other chocolate above, but don’t put in the freezer just yet.

Once the mixture in the freezer is hard enough, spread the white chocolate mixture on top of the hardened semi-sweet mixture. If you do this too early, the white chocolate will start to melt the dark chocolate.

Sprinkle the candy canes generously on top of the melted white chocolate. Push them into the white chocolate (gets messy, but just lick your hands afterward) so they’ll stay there after the candy hardens.

Put the pan back into the freezer. Once the candy hardens throughout, peel the waxed paper from the bottom and break into pieces.

Serves: Two families…but only for about a day. It’s pretty yummy!

Oh, and don’t store this near the heater!

This week’s Maxism:
The weatherman finally promised snow and Max got very excited when we were watching the weather channel over the weekend. He said, “When it snows, we can go outside with our ice cream cones and get snow and put it in the cones. Then we’ll have snowcones!”

Hugs to all!

Ang

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