Christmas Baking

I love to bake, and since we are celebrating Christmas with my mom's side of the family this Sunday, I decided that I'd make some yummy peanut clusters (#71) to take with us.  (I'm also making Chicken Tortilla Soup for lunch Sunday.)  I got this recipe when I worked at a bank in Cambridge, and it's one of the yummy treats I got to enjoy during their annual "Tasting Tea."  Every Christmas season, all of the businesses in town would make some kind of Christmas snack to share with everyone that walks store-to-store to sample the goodies.  One year that I especially remember, was when I volunteered to wrap pickles with cream cheese and dried beef.  Chad offered to help me when he saw that I had 300 (!) pickles to wrap.  Anyway, this recipe for Peanut Clusters is the best peanut cluster recipe I have ever tasted.  The secret ingredient is butter brickle chips. 

Minnick's Peanut Clusters
Preheat oven to 375 degrees, then turn oven off.
In 9x13 pan, put 1 1/2 pounds vanilla almond bark. 
Set in warm oven for 10 minutes.  Remove & stir.
Add one 12-oz pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips.  Stir.
Return to oven for 10 more minutes.  Remove & Stir.
Add 1 pkg butter brickle chips and 5 cups peanuts. 
Stir and drop on waxed paper using tablespoons. 
Allow to cool & set thoroughly before storing.
Makes approximately 5 dozen.

As a side note, I'll leave you with a photo from last night.  The snow was falling, the roads were slick, Jillian's "Y Kids Art" class was postponed, Jenica was finished with BB practice for the season, the girls didn't have any homework, and we had time for a Christmas Movie.  Jenica got to pick the movie this time, and we ended up watching "Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York City." (#72) It was fun to watch, because we had been in NYC ourselves this past summer, and we recognized a lot of the locations and scenes from the movie.  We kept saying, "hey, we saw that!"  Or, "hey, we took our picture at that same spot."  Remember the "bird lady" from the movie?  She threw bird seed on the bad guys in Central Park, who happened to be covered with varnish, so the birds would attack them long enough for Kevin to set off the fireworks, alerting the police where they could find the robbers of "Duncan's Toy Chest."   Well, we took Jacob & Jenica's picture beside that same bridge.  (See them in this picture?   #73 - a Christmas movie that will always remind us of our trip to NYC in 2011.)  And I've now added something new to my Bucket List:  a trip to NYC during the Christmas Season.

Jillian snuggled up with me on the couch (#74), because the suspense of the bad guys trying to get the little boy Kevin was almost too much for her to handle alone.  She put this silly Santa hat on before the movie, and proudly wore it the whole time. 

The quilt we are snuggled up in happens to be another of my favorite quilts (#75).  It's the quilt my great-grandma Daisy began, but never finished.  After she passed away, my mom found it in Gma Daisy's home and decided to finish it.  My mom surprised me with it as a gift when I graduated from High School.  I'm pretty sure it's made using scraps and clothes that great-grandma had on hand.  So, it's a pretty special treasure, and I always envision my g-gma Daisy when I snuggle up in this lap quilt.

My Cup Runneth Over

I love these words from the 23rd Psalm.  And I love knowing that God supplies all that I need, and that He fills my cup until it overflows with His blessings.  He delights in filling my cup beyond capacity.  And this morning, I am feeling an abundance of blessings. 

(2) SNOW!  We woke up to SNOW this morning, but I didn't even realize it.  Not right away.  I had fallen into my getting-everyone-ready-for-school pattern and it wasn't until Chad looked out the window of the deck that we realized the weatherman's prediction of 20% chance of snow actually resulted in SNOW!  We were no longer dragging our little behinds; we were instantly super-charged and ready to tackle the day.  Why is it that a little dusting of SNOW energizes us?  Shouldn't we feel energized each and every day when we wake up, just knowing that God will fill our cup that day to the point of overflowing?  But God used a little SNOW to remind us of Him.  Jillian and I did a "Happy Dance" in the dining room in our jammies, and then we decided to draw a heart in the snow just outside the patio doors.  We are praising God for sending a little SNOW our way this morning. 

(3)  Hot Tea on a cold November morning.  I am not a coffee drinker.  Not even the fancy jazzed up kind with flavored cream and sugar.  But I LOVE Chai Tea.  My preferred way of drinking Chai is as a Latte with steamed milk and a little vanilla syrup.  Mmmmm.....  But I also love Tazo's Organic Chai tea bags.  Mmmmm..... The aroma is delightful, and the perfect way to warm up on a cold day. 

(4)  A little SNOW, some hot CHAI tea, and a cozy QUILT.  Ahhhh..... My cup runneth over.  This is my favorite quilt.  It is always folded at the end of my bed, and it's one of my treasures that reminds me of a sweet dear elderly lady named LaVerne.  This quilt belonged to her, and not only do I love the gold colored back ground and the hand-appliqued dresden-plate pieces, but I also love the fact that it reminds me of LaVerne.  She was a sweet little lady with big blue eyes, who lived to be 95 years old before she went home to be with the Lord.  I love vintage quilts, and the stories they tell.  One reason I love winter is because I can pull out the quilts for each of us to snuggle up in.

(5)  Christmas Music.  Yes, the snow inspired me this morning to pull out some CHRISTMAS MUSIC as the girls (and Chad) got ready for school.  Third Day was playing on MyBridgeRadio, and their new song "Sound of Your Voice" reminded me of their Christmas album.  So, I went to our CD cabinet and found it.  It's been playing on "repeat" most of the morning.  It's never too early for Christmas music, in my opinion.

(6)  Moms In Touch.  I love praying with my Moms In Touch groups.  This morning, I led our Middle School group since our regular "leader" was away.  I love lifting my children in prayer with other praying moms.  This is a tough world our kiddos live in, and just hearing other moms praying for my children gives me such peace and a joy that fills my heart.  We pray for our children, our schools, the teachers, the administration, and each and every student that walks down those hallways by name.  Some of these kids may have never been prayed for before.  And us moms join together, praying for each and every child by name.  God loves each and every one of them, and it is such an honor to be able to pray for them.  My cup runneth over.