Hot Chocolate...mmm!

Brrr...it's cold outside! I think it's time for a nice cup of hot chocolate.
My daughter, Madison, has decided it's the time of year to have hot chocolate for breakfast, every morning. So, every morning we are pulling the chocolate mix can out of the cupboard, finding a spoon in the drawer, pulling a straw out of a jar, getting a mug from another cupboard, filling the mug with half water and half milk (I like the combination), then mixing up a nice cup of bliss (sometimes I join Madison!). How many steps in that process? Yesterday I thought long and hard about that and decided that there had to be a more efficient way. So I came up with the idea of a hot chocolate station that will sit on the counter for the winter. It eliminates several steps, making the hot chocolate making process more convenient and quick. It was so nice this morning to simply grab a mug from the cupboard, fill the mug, go to the station, then mix the cup of morning bliss. It helped to make my day a little brighter!

Items in the hot chocolate station:

• Hot chocolate powder mix
• straws
• mini stirrers
• mini marshmellows
• cinnamon grinder

What things have you done to help your own mornings to be more
efficient or convenient?

HALLOWEEN 2012

Halloween Tradition

 

A few years ago a friend in my neighborhood decided to start a tradition by inviting the people on her street to come to her house for a potluck dinner, on Halloween night, before the kids started trick-or-treating. My family was sort of annexed into the group even though we live several streets away, at the other end of the neighborhood. The turnout was so good that we had to meet in Becky's garage, and now after several years we have to BYOC (bring your own chairs). Crock pots of soup and chili, cornbread and rolls, various salads, drinks, and desserts round out the annual meal. Other families began to offer to take a turn as host of the Halloween get-together and it's been a fun tradition for the families who come. After the adults chat to catch up and the kids get full tummies to help postpone or at least lessen the candy eating binges, some of the parents head home to be ready for the excited visitors. Then the trick-or-treating and haunting begins. This summer Becky and her family moved a couple of miles away. She decided to start up this Halloween tradition again in her new neighborhood. Knowing Becky, it will be a hit in that neighborhood for years to come. Thank you to Stephanie for being the host at our gathering this year!

 

  

Another Halloween tradition that I have is to visit Gardner Village to shop and look at all the witches. I love to see the creativity of the displays and the joy that they bring to the children who come to see them for the first time...it's priceless!

 

What Halloween traditions does your family or neighborhood enjoy?

 

 

 

 

  

Happy Halloween!