Love December

I truly love the month of December. All the great decorations, Beautiful light displays, gift ideas and times spent with family and friends enjoying the holidays. The month is going so quickly already and it's only the 4th day. I put up the Christmas decor inside and out, (pics to follow) and have almost finished my Christmas shopping! I am making cookies and chocolate covered pretzels this week for our trip to Mobile on Friday. Found a great new recipe too here that I am going to try. There are other cute ideas on this blog too! But, few ingredients and very cute for the holidays, easy to make of course!!



Before:









After:



Little Holiday Pretzel Treats



Ingredients:Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels

Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug

M&M's candy

Step 1 Heat the oven to 170º. Set a number of bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels (one for each treat) in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then top each pretzel with an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug.

Step 2 Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss.

Step 3 Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. Place handfuls of the candies in clear plastic bags and tie on colorful ribbons.





I also found these really EASY to make cookies in a magazine I bought the other day, very simple, few ingredients(seeming to be the theme) and taste great too!!

Peanut buter and chocolate Pinwheels:


1 18oz. roll of refrigerated peanut butter cookie dough
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 18oz. roll of refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder


In large mixing bowl combine peanut butter dough and flour, use wooden spoon to mix well and divide in half. In another bowl combine the sugar cookie dough and cocoa powder, mix well and divide dough in half.

Between pieces of wax paper, roll out one portion of peanut butter dough into a 12x6 in rectangle. Roll one of the chocolate dough portions to the same size and place on top of the peanut butter dough. Press down gently to seal.

Tightly roll up dough, jelly roll style starting from long side. Repeat with the other dough portions. Wrap rolls in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour or until firm enough to slice

Preheat oven to 375. using sharp knife, cut rolls into 1/4 in thickslices. Place slices 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven 8 to 10 minutes or until edges firm. Transfer cookies to wax paper to cool.



We are heading south to visit with family and friends since we are not going down for Christmas itself. I hope the weather is fairly nice so that maybe we can head to the beach for some photo ops of the boys on the sandy beach at Christmas time. We plan to see a few friends that we haven't seen in awhile(years for some) it should be alot of fun! I can't wait. Boy have times changed: from hanging out, no kids, dinner out and even a movie on the same night, drinking to "Roxanne"---Lesley! and all the stuff from the old days. Now it's 6 adults and 7 kids, and then 4 adults and 5 kids! Wow how our families have extended! Simply marvelous!!!

Going to work on some baby shower details for Amanda too while we are there. We will be returning next month for her shower,looking forward to that!

Thanks to Dad for the early Bday lunch! I can always eat Chinese!! Thanks for the waffle maker too! I can't wait to use it and make some homemade waffles for the boys!! For any of you out there that have had these make it yourself waffles at a hotel, they are fabulous and I am excited to make my own! Love the idea of the cool whip and strawberries Dad, hope to make them soon!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DEE ! Hope you also enjoyed the Chinese and like the boots!!:)

Tomorrow= packing for trip and wrapping gifts to take on trip

Thurdays= making lots of pretzels, and cookies and above treats.

Friday= we're off to visit :) :)