Baby It's Cold Outside...Homemade Hot Chocolate

Is it cold freezing where you are???

It is here! What's a perfect treat when it's this cold outside? Well, hot chocolate of course! And this year, we made ours homemade. This year? You ask. Yes, I admit it. I've never made homemade hot chocolate. Crazy, huh? Anyway, here is the recipe we used.

1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
4 cups milk
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla

Simmer water, sugar, cocoa and salt in a pan over moderate heat stirring until lumps are dissolved (about 3 min.). Add milk to ingredients. Stir and bring slowly to simmer (about 5 min.). To enhance flavor, stir in vanilla just before serving.
This recipe yields five 8 fl. oz. servings.

Note:  I had to add more sugar. I just added a little and tasted each time to see if it was sweet enough.

We also melted a little square of Hershey's chocolate in our cups.

We used candy canes to stir. My candy cane broke so I put it in my cup and it turned out to be a little too "spicy" for me.

 

It gets a little messy as you can see from the photo! ;)

If you haven't made hot chocolate yet this year, you totally should. It's DELISH!

Layla's Name Frame

Edited to add that I am participating in:



This past June I bought this frame at a garage sale for $1.

Cute? Not.

I bought it for a reason way back then. I knew I wanted to use it to make a name frame for Layla.

I spray painted the frame and the matte. I used self adhesive chipboard letters and hearts and just placed them on a piece of pink scrapbook paper. I used a tiny ribbon and a glitter flower as embellishments.

What do you think?

I know it's been all about Christmas around here lately but I thought I'd post this since I never shared it before and also maybe if someone is still looking for a gift for a child this year. It's such a simple but meaningful gift.

It's the Holiday Season...

Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick and The Nester are having Christmas blogging parties!




I absolutely LOVE looking at all of the beautiful Christmas decorations around blogland. So I thought I'd participate in these two parties. And boy do I have A LOT of pictures! I hope you enjoy the little peek into our holiday house. :)

I'll start with my kitchen...

(I know I've said it before but it's so hard to photograph this wall. The window is directly across the room so there's always a glare and it's too dark without the overhead light on but the light leaves a glare. )

This snowman towel is new this year, a gift from my mom for my birthday...

My favorite snowmen on the window sill...

Now to the dining room...

The Advent calender I bought last year at Target...

Two bears on a bike that my dad bought when I was about 7 (does that make it vintage? haha)...

The bookshelf (that I plan to paint one of these days)...

A funny Santa cookie jar that I suspect might be pretty old...

A Santa mug I've had forever...

I love this pine cone wreath that I bought at the thrift store awhile back for $2. I fell in love with the one I saw on V and Co. but it looked really time consuming. So I was so excited when I found one already made...

More of my snowmen collection...

The kids' tree (they decorated it themselves)...

And a kids' tree would not be complete without Snoopy...

The upstairs bath even has snowmen...

The white vase and berry branches are always there, I just added the heart ornament and the white bird...

I just love this little birdie...

A Peace sign on the window sill...(I love how photos make you really see your painting mistakes...whoops)

The kids were so proud of the little "vignette" they set up on their dresser...

The wreath on the kids' room door that Rhiannon made a few years ago...

The big tree is in the living room...
Daytime

Nighttime

I posted about how I decorate our tree here.

I was going to share photos of some of my favorite ornaments but I think I'll save that for another day.

Here is the wreath on the front door. I've had this wreath for a LONG time. My dad first made it I think when I was in high school. I tweaked it up a little this year but it doesn't look much different. I just added a different bow and couple sprigs from the dollar store.

I think my most favorite thing I decorated this year is the mantle...

The garland and the pics are the only things I purchased new this year and the total was about $10.

You can read more about our stockings and the hangers here.

I hope you've enjoyed my Christmas tour. :)

Now visit The Nester's Blog for more Christmas tours.


And Sarah's blog Thrifty Decor Chick for the Christmas tree party.


Edited to add: I don't know why my captions got all screwy. I just now realized there was a new blogger editor. Duh. So I've been working with that today and I guess it's a tad different. Oh well. Thanks for bearing with me.

A Christmas Questionnaire

Beth from Laugh Until you Cry tagged me in this questionnaire...All About Christmas.

I always like to do little questionnaires and quizzes so here we go...

1. Have you started your Christmas Shopping?
This is a sore spot with me right now. I haven't started yet. This week coming up is it!

2. Tell me about one of your special Traditions.
We make Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies every year. It's so much fun because the kids love to help frost and decorate the cookies. AND the cookies are SO yummy!

3. When do you put up your Tree?
Thanksgiving weekend. This year, it took until the Monday after to get it up. Just a few issues. hehe

4. Are you a Black Friday Shopper?
I haven't gone in about 7 or 8 years.

5. Do you Travel at Christmas or Stay home?
For the past 4 years, we've stayed at home on Christmas Day.

6. What is your funniest Christmas memory??
There are plenty but the one I am thinking of is this ... we had a white elephant exchange one year where everyone was supposed to bring an item from their home that they didn't use anymore. It ended up being mostly a junk fest with some pretty funny things. My cousin opened up this set of gray and pink wooden cats, you know the country style from 1986. I'm sure someone loved these cats 20 years ago. My cousin laughed so hard for the longest time. He had a hard time catching his breath. I guess you have to see the cats. And I don't have a pic. Oh well. Is this one of those "you had to be there" moments?

7. What is your favorite Christmas Movie??
It's a Wonderful Life and Polar Express.

8. Do you do your own Christmas baking? What is your favorite treat??
Yes. The Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies I posted about above.

9. Fake or Real Tree?
Fake.

10. What day does the actual panic set in to get it all done?
A couple days before.

11. Are you still wrapping presents on Christmas Eve?
Usually, yes. Even though every year I try to get done before.

12. What is your favorite family fun time at Christmas?
Christmas morning playing with all the new toys.

13. What Christmas craft do you like best??
This year, I really enjoyed making the mantle garland and the front door wreath.

14. Christmas music??
I love Christmas music!!!! My favorite song is O Holy Night.

15.) When do you plan to finish all your shopping?
Hopefully before Christmas Eve. haha

Wrapping it up!

Image from Country Living.

I love wrapping gifts. I love the way a big pile of gifts look under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I normally go with a similar look to the photo above.

I just love wrapping paper. So colorful and crisp.

Image from Country Living.

How about this? A button tree...how cute.

Image found here.

How about jingle bells on top?

Image found here.

Solid colors with natural elements such as cinnamon sticks and berries...

Image found here.

What about beautiful bows? Have you always wanted to make your own bows? I have. I saw a "bowdabra" or something like that at Michael's. Here are instructions to do it yourself. I may have to try this.


I like the simplicity of this.

Image origin unknown.

My wrapped gifts will most likely look similar to this...(no I haven't wrapped any yet!)

Image found here.

While I was on the Crate and Barrel site, I found these adorable stockings...look how cute. hehe



I love all the unique ideas for wrapping but I'll most likely stick with my normal style. I just will.

What will you do this year?

Or what have you done so far? Because I know not everyone has to wait until the last minute like I do!

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Every year I make these cookies. They are THE best sugar cutout cookies around.


I wish I could say this is my photo since the cookies look so pretty. Image and recipe found here.

My cookies always turn out really well and they look pretty too. I just thought I'd share this recipe early in case anyone wants to try it. If you do try it, make sure you don't forget to add the almond extract. It makes the cookies!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 (3-oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour
Colored sugar or decorator icing, if desired

DIRECTIONS
1. In large bowl, combine all ingredients except flour and colored sugar; beat until light and fluffy.
2. Add flour; mix well. Shape dough into 3 disks. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour for easier handling.
3. Heat oven to 375°F. On floured surface, roll out 1 disk of dough at a time to 1/8-inch thickness. (Keep remaining dough refrigerated.) Cut with lightly floured 2 1/2-inch round or desired shape cookie cutters. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate with colored sugar.
4. Bake at 375°F. for 6 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets. If desired, frost and decorate plain cookies.

Note: I would not bake these at 375. Try 350.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft) Increase flour to 2 1/4 cups. Bake as directed above.

Just a little something I am working on...