Cinnamon-Honey Butter

            I love when simple, and delicious comes together!  Quick is another good thing in my life.  You can pull this little goody together in a blink.

            There are some popular restaurants that serve this with their rolls…and you can even find some popular butter companies who sell it at your grocery market, some times only in certain seasons.  However, to me, nothing compares to making it yourself.  I love knowing exactly what is my food.  Several versions of Cinnamon-Honey Butter are out there, but I’ve experimented several times, and this is the recipe that works best for me, and our preferences.  You can play around with what you like...with a little more honey, or less powdered sugar, or cinnamon.  This is the perfect combination to me:

            Cinnamon Honey Butter

            Ingredients

            2 sticks salted butter (NOT margarine), at room temperature

            ¾ cup honey (I use local honey)

            1 cup powdered sugar

            2 tsp ground cinnamon

            Directions

            Place butter in bowl of stand mixer with whisk attachment.  Mix for about 30 seconds.  Add remaining ingredients. 

When you get everything in the bowl, it will look like this:

Mix until desired consistency.  Give a good stir to make sure everything is incorporated well.  Place in your favorite dish and store in refrigerator.

You can see that I just placed my ingredients in a mixing bowl, and I used my hand mixer.  It works as well, but I will probably stick with using my stand mixer in the future…or I will use a deeper bowl if using my hand mixer, because I got a big cloud of powdered sugar when I turned the mixer on. Don’t you love those?  You know…the kind that shoots powdered sugar EVERYWHERE.  :)  Moving on…

Your finished product should look something like this:

This deliciousness will make a wonderful gift, or a special treat on your biscuits, muffins, waffles, pancakes, etc.  After I made this, I baked some banana muffins, and used the cinnamon honey butter on them.  SO good!  I also use it on top of pumpkin pancakes…again, SO good.  I’m sure you’ll find plenty of uses for it and I would love to hear what you use it on!  Enjoy!

Teaching Little Man to Write His Name

            Realized this week that I have shared that I’m a homeschooling momma, but that so far none of my post have been about our homeschool.  Neither of my children are “school age” yet, so some would say that we are not officially a homeschooling family.  However, since it is our intention that we will not send our children outside of the home for their education, and because we decided to forgo a public or private preschool for our son, I have considered ourselves officially homeschooling.  Additionally, I have used this past school year as practice for our son’s Kindergarten year. 

I will share our reasons for homeschooling at another time perhaps, but we knew soon after our son was born that this was our desire, so I started collecting any free online materials I could get my hands on.  Anything from preschool to high school that I thought there was even a remote chance I could use, because I knew that for now—our resources for buying curriculum for homeschooling would be very limited. 

From my research, I’ve learned some families spend little to nothing per child, per year, to homeschool (around $200 or below).  Some families are blessed to spend quite a bit per child, per year (around $1,000-$2,000+).  According to the HSLDA website, the average is $900 per family.  The reasons for the large price range is because the money you’ll spend depends on many things, including your preference for curriculum, how many subjects you want to cover, and what your homeschool teaching style will be.  For example someone whose method is “unschooling” might spend less than someone who takes a classical education approach. 

Again, at this point in our lives, our budget was zero—a big, fat, goose egg.  There were no extra funds to put towards a beautiful, shiny curriculum.  Therefore, I began to pray.  I prayed that God would show me if this was truly His will for our family, or if it was just my desire and everyone was placating me.  Then I prayed that if this was His will, He would provide what we needed.  As usual, God works in a way that is true to the verse my blog is based on…He does infinitely more than I could ever think or hope.

In spring of 2013 a new, Bible-based, online curriculum came on the market through Dew Learning.  It is available on iPad, or your PC.  I entered a drawing for a free year worth (over $500) of curriculum and never gave it another thought.  A few months later, I learned I had won!  Isn’t God amazing when He shows Himself in such an awesome way?  I was worried how we would pay for homeschooling...worried if I was making the right decision…and then He blessed us beyond what I imagined.  He answered my prayer. 

Kindergarten is the lowest level curriculum they offer (no preschool) so that was another reason I decided to begin my son’s Kindergarten year.  His birthday is in July, and the only thing he lacked at that time to attend Kindergarten (when he was only 4 years old), by the standards of our state requirements (if he were going to public school), was the ability to write his name…which he learned just a few weeks after his birthday.  People are very impressed that he can write so well at 4-years-old and that he can write all of his upper and lower case letters.  We haven’t been focusing on handwriting as much lately as we had been, and I can tell he has regressed a little, but we’re back to doing what has worked for us.  I feel like there are a few things that have contributed to our success that I wanted to share.  I will give you a disclaimer—I’m not claiming to know everything, or saying that this is what you should do for your child…I’m just sharing my opinion and what worked for us.

First, is recognition of the alphabet.  Since I am a musical person, we do a lot with music in our household; however, you don’t have to be a music teacher to incorporate it into your home.  My point is children, and in fact, anyone—retains more information when it’s shared in song.  It involves both sides of your brain…so even something as simple as singing the ABC song with your little one is beneficial, even at a very early age.  A little after my son’s first birthday I was surprised how much of the alphabet he had retained just from that simple act.  Then we began matching the letters we were singing with the image of each letter.  You could use flash cards, magnets, or simply write them out on a piece of paper, which is what I did most often.  We would sing as I pointed to each letter.  Homeschool Creations has some wonderful Alphabet resources, including sheets that you can print on card stock to create your own flashcards.  There are several options to choose from on the website.  It’s a wonderful free resource.  I recently found a website called Reading By Phonics that has some useful free worksheets as well.  If you just Google “alphabet activities” you will have a TON of free resources at the click of your mouse. 

One of the things that helped in Alphabet recognition, and in my opinion helped once he started writing, was tracing the letter with his finger as we talked about it.  There are sheets on the Homeschool Creations website specifically for that.  We also purchased a LeapFrog Printing dry erase tablet at WalMart.  Very inexpensive and great for an “on the go” activity.  We were also blessed to find these Melissa & Doug dry erase mats (one for numbers and one for letters) secondhand:fr Numbers and Letters Again, they are great to occupy him when we’re on the go, or to reinforce what we’re learning at any point in the day.

Probably the most beneficial item for helping him learn to write both upper and lower case letters has been his LeapFrog LeapPad 2.  He also has a Leapster Explorer which we bought first.  We still use it for trips to the grocery store and long trips in the car.  Both include a pet game that teaches writing that my son loves.

Now that my son can identify and write the Alphabet, another tool that I utilize quite a bit is printable handwriting practice worksheets.  This free website lets you type whatever phrase you desire (letters or numbers), up to 17 characters, to print out as practice.  I often use it for his name.  You can make your own here: Practice Writing Printables

Whatever method you choose, as with anything you teach your little ones, having fun is really the key—and finding what piques their interest the most.  For example, on the LeapFrog products, whenever my son writes a letter on the pet game, the pet does a trick or shares something that starts with the letter he has just completed, and he thinks that’s the greatest.  He was learning when he didn’t even realize it.  Therefore, I encourage you to find what it is that motivates your child to learn as well.  It makes the process a lot easier.  Want more Homeschooling ideas?  Visit my board on Pinterest: Infinitely More Than I Think on Pinterest  Blessings!

Slouchy Crochet Hat for Little Boy

          My crochet streak continues.  :)  I have another hat to share with you today, and some more crochet projects coming up!  I wanted a new hat for my 4-year-old son, and while he has a variety of beanie type, fitted crochet hats—he did not have a loose fitting, slouchy hat.  I decided to try my hand at it.  Although, let me share some of my motivation for attempting a “slouchy hat.”  As I mentioned in my post about Baby Crochet Camo Hats, my large pouch of crochet hooks was misplaced soon after our last move—incredibly frustrating.  I had found extras of every size hook I own, except size I and J, which were the sizes I needed for several of the projects I’ve wanted to start lately.  I have this thing…where I HATE to buy something again, that I know I own but cannot find; therefore, I had been putting off buying new hooks.  I know…they are very cheap, but again, it’s just the point to me.  This week, I just gave up and decided to replace my size I and J hooks.  Guess what I found the NEXT day?  My large pouch of hooks.  Isn’t it funny how that goes?  I’m very relieved I found them, but irritated I bought the others.   Turns out the size J hook purchase was warranted.  My original J hook has a place in the tip that is snagging my yarn so it needed to be replaced.  How the tip of the hook was damaged is a mystery.  Back to the hat:

So, again, part of my motivation for the hat was due to the fact that I still couldn’t find my pouch of crochet hooks at this point, and K was the only size hook I could find that came close to making sense.  I used a typical fitted hat pattern, with double crochet stitches.  

I did some extra rounds, and finished with two rounds of single crochet stitches.  I’ve shared my appreciation for Red Heart With Love yarn before, and that is what I used for this hat.  It’s Red Heart With Love Yarn, color: True Blue. 

It is SO soft!  It is definitely the type of yarn you want on your head, and touching your face.  The final product is not quite as slouchy as I was intending for it to be, but it will be something he can wear for years to come because it has plenty of room.  Besides, the purpose of a hat is to keep your ears covered, and your head warm, and that, it will do.  

You can see from the back it’s not as loose as most slouchy hats, but it does have some give to it and a very relaxed fit:

He is pleased so that is what truly counts!  To see more of my crochet inspiration, follow me on Pinterest: Infinitely More Than I Think on Pinterest

Brown Butter Sauce

          Want to try something simple that will give you many savory and sweet cooking options?  Then learn the simple art of making Brown Butter.  It will take you about 5-10 minutes start to finish and you’ll be so glad you did. 

            My first experience with Brown Butter happened when I wanted to recreate one of my favorite dishes from The Old Spaghetti Factory: Spaghetti with Brown Butter and Mizithra.  Mizithra is a type of Greek cheese, made from sheep and/or goat’s milk.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn how easy it was to make this at home.  My first task was trying to find a place that I could purchase the cheese.  It is not carried in any of the grocery stores I frequent.  I finally found it in a specialty food/liquor store.  Since that time I’ve also been told that any of the ingredients The Old Spaghetti Factory uses in their restaurants are able to be purchased from them—but please don’t quote me as correct on that—I’ve just heard that from a friend and have never checked it out for myself.  If you are having trouble finding it in a store near you and have access to a OSF it would be worth asking. 

            After you’ve located your cheese, it’s time to make the Brown Butter sauce.  You’ll need one stick of butter (NOT margarine or any combination thereof).  I use salted butter.  Place your butter in a small saucepan on medium heat.  You will want to stay with the pan until you’re finished.  Let the butter melt and begin to bubble like so:

            Let it gently simmer (I gently stir mine as it is cooking) for 5 minutes, or until the butter turns caramel in color.  You should be able to tell immediately when the butter is done, because it will become darker (the caramel color I mentioned) and will smell wonderful.  It will look like this:

Let cool for a few minutes…then strain.  Often I will make some and use it on pasta, then keep leftovers in the fridge, in a covered plastic container.  It will keep at least a week or two—none I’ve ever made has had the chance to stick around longer.  If you want to recreate the dish I mentioned above, use some of the butter sauce on your cooked pasta, toss, then use a grater to put your desired amount of Mizithra cheese on top.  Simple, and oh so good. 

You can also use Brown Butter in sweet recipes.  Have you ever tried it in frosting?  Such a wonderful flavor!  Be sure to add it on your list of things to try!  Want some more ideas for the kitchen?  Follow me on Pinterest: Infinitely More Than I Think on Pinterest
I've linked up with Hope Studios Tutorial Tuesday's and Moms The Word today.  Give it a look!

Crocheted Cable Headband

            As I’ve shared before, once winter is here, I have this huge urge to crochet.  It’s therapeutic for me other times of the year as well, but something about being holed up in the house on cold winter days makes me want to have a pile of yarn in my lap, creating something unique.  I’m sure you fellow crafters can relate.  For example, right now, after I finish this post, I really need to dig my way out of the mess my children have made in our living room, but all I want to do is finish the scarf I started for my son last night.  I am using the Star Stitch.  I learned this a few years ago, but hadn’t found the time to use it. I’m not particularly “fast” at crocheting, and it’s a little more time consuming than other stitches (at least to me) when you’re first getting the hang of it—but it’s SO pretty.  I’m so excited about the results so far and look forward to sharing it later.

            I have been cranking out projects left and right over the past few weeks.  Not really sure how, because I have been super busy, like everyone else, through the holidays and trying to get 2014 off to a good start, but somehow that’s the way it has been.

            So today, I have another project to share with you.  Admittedly, I actually finished this project last winter, but today I was going through some boxes (remember my family relocated twice in 2013), and found this tucked away.  I love this project!  I have become fascinated with crocheted ear warmers/headbands, etc…mainly because I feel like I have a somewhat larger than normal head and any attempts on my part to crochet myself a hat has not pleased me.  I just don’t think I look good in them.  Although, I’ve wanted something to cover my ears when I’m out and about…thus the crocheted headband.  It’s a good thing for me.  Plus, they are so cute!

            I’ve been digging up different headband patterns, and I have at least two more that I’ll be sharing with you soon.  For now, I found this pattern here: Cable Stitch "Jenna" Headband Pattern

            She says that she used a size I hook, and that it will fit a size 21” head.  I guess my head is not as big as I thought, because I went a little longer than she suggested to accommodate my noggin (to 22.5”) but it’s too big—probably at least an inch too big.  I just overlap it in the back and fasten the button farther up than I normally would so it works, although with my next one, I will be careful to keep it in the 19”—21” range that she recommends.  Guess it also depends on how snug you prefer it to be.  I like mine to feel secure…but it would not be a bad idea to measure your head beforehand to get an idea of where you might want yours before you begin—or check as you go along.

            The skill level for this project is intermediate, but it’s a great place to begin learning Front Post and Back Post stitches, if you’re not familiar with them.  This pattern uses a FPTR (Front Post Treble Crochet) and BPTR (Back Post Treble Crochet) stitch and as you can see, it creates a nice raised surface in the middle of your headband.  Although since it’s a small project, it will not seem as daunting to familiarize yourself with some of the front and back post stitches, and if you do mess up…it’s not a huge ordeal to start over.  For example, I wouldn’t start an afghan or another type of large project that uses these stitches if you’ve never worked with them, because it’s so important these be executed correctly to have the right affect.  You'll just frustrate yourself and loose a lot of time if you're not comfortable with them before you begin a large project, but the effort it well worth it and will open up plenty more pattern opportunities for you.  

            Here is the completed headband.  Isn’t it cute?  Pretend like there are not scratches on my table. lol

          I tried to get a photo that would show the detail well.  Attempt #2 here:

  

          This probably goes without saying, but just in case--I wanted to note that the headband is doubled here...this is not the full length.  It was hard to get a photo of it all stretched out.  I used Red Heart yarn, color: Burgundy.  Red Heart calls this Burgundy, but I would call it deep red.  Maybe that’s the same thing to some people, but I think it’s prettier than what Burgundy is usually considered.  So, go and make these in a rainbow of colors!  They work up quickly and make a great gift!  To find some crochet inspiration, follow me on Pinterest:  Infinitely More Than I Think on Pinterest

Baby Crocheted Camouflage Hats

                Three babies have been born in my family, in the last 4-5 months.  With our relocation in August, I’ve struggled to find the time to make something for these precious babies until now.  I’ve also struggled to find my crochet supplies.  My pouch of crochet hooks is still nowhere to be found.  I’ve searched all the logical places, so I undoubtedly put them somewhere “safe” during our move, and now they’re so “safe” that I have no clue where they are.  I had a few random hooks in my main crochet bag…and that is the only reason I’m able to crochet anything right now.  

            All three of these babies were boys…so I decided to whip up the same thing for each of them.  I used Red Heart color: Woodsy for each of them.  I call them camouflage even though it’s not a traditional camo color scheme. Still looked to me like something you would wear to hunt. :)

            I had to adjust the pattern, and just kind of make it up as I went, because as I mentioned above, I can’t find all my hooks—and the pattern called for a size H.  I found a size G, which could have worked but I just honestly don’t care for using smaller hooks, so I used the next smallest size I have…size K. 

            One of the babies was born in August, so I made his size 6-12 months.  The other two are 3-6 month size.  I was able to finish all three very quickly, and I’m pleased with how they look.

          Pretty little hats all in a row:

Mushroom Meatballs

           After my post about Crock Pot Candy a few days ago, I was in the mood to share another one of my favorite crock pot recipes:  Mushroom Meatballs.  When I hosted my immediate family for our Christmas gathering a few weeks ago, I brought out this recipe and doubled it so I could be sure we would have enough, and is what I'm sharing below.  I usually serve it as an appetizer, but often I make this for my little family, and serve it over egg noodles because the gravy it makes is incredible!

            Mushroom Meatballs (for a crowd):  

            Ingredients:

            2 (2 lbs each) bags frozen meatballs

            2 envelops dry onion soup mix

            2 cans Cream of Mushroom soup

            1 lb fresh sliced mushrooms

            Directions:

            Lightly spray your crock pot liner with non-stick cooking spray.  Pour meatballs into crock (you can thaw them beforehand if you like).  In bowl, combine dry onion soup mix and both cans of cream of mushroom soup.  Pour over meatballs. 

Arrange sliced mushrooms on top. 

Cover and cook on high setting 2 hours.  Stir meatballs and cook on low setting for 2 more hours.  Serve as an appetizer or over egg noodles or rice.

            As I’ve shared before, it is recommended that your crock be at least ½ full, but no more than 2/3 full for optimum results.  Obviously, my 6—6 ½ quart crock (can’t remember which it is) is filled to the brim here, but it turned out great!  The mushrooms will really shrink down.

            Everyone goes on about how wonderful the gravy is on these meatballs, and I have to agree. It is so good, you’ll want some wonderful bread, noodles or rice to soak up every—last—drop!  I would have taken a photo of what they looked like when they were finished, but didn't have the chance.  They were gone in a blink!  Enjoy!

           

            

           

            

Crock Pot Candy

Those of you who know me well, know that I have much love for the wonderful invention we know as a Crock Pot/Slow Cooker…whatever you may prefer to call it.  If you hang around long enough, you’ll see that I use it a lot.  If you are not utilizing one you are missing out on such convenience!  I love putting ingredients in the crock pot and knowing that in most cases I do not have to touch it again until hours later when it has dinner ready for me.  It is especially useful if you are a person who is gone several hours in the day or a busy homeschool momma like me, who is chasing kiddos all day.  With a little organization, you can put everything in your crock before leaving for the day (or before you begin your homeschool day) and then return to a hot, home-cooked meal.  Also love it when I’m cooking for a crowd.  Okay, I’ll stop singing its praises and get on with it.  I’m just always surprised when I run across people who do not have at least one in their kitchen arsenal.  I have a use for at least 3-4.  :)

                During the holidays I do a lot of baking…candy making, etc.  I feel like there are SO many recipes I want to try, and not enough time to try them all.  I also have those tried and true recipes that I return to each year that have become a must for me.  Crock pot candy is one of those.  I make it most often around Christmas and really look forward to it, because believe me when I say it is DELICIOUS!  It is essentially chocolate-covered peanuts, but they will be the best chocolate-covered peanuts you've ever put in your mouth!  :)

                You can gleam from my earlier comments that I use my crock pots a lot so once-in-a-while I wear one out.  Such was the case on Christmas Eve.  I usually put the crock pot candy in my 5 quart slow cooker.  It bit the dust that day.  In its defense, my husband and I received it as a wedding gift, so it was 9 years old.  It saw A LOT of action…. Oh, the meals it saw.  This recipe makes a ton of candy, and I had intended to give most of it away as gifts—but there was a hiccup.

                With my 5 quart crock pot out, I only have my 6 quart left (one of my sisters is borrowing my 3 ½ quart which would not have been big enough anyway).  I put everything in and went about my day.  Realized right before it finished the recipe actually calls for a 4 quart crock… and to my disappointment a lot of the peanuts had burned.  It is recommended that your crock be at least ½ to 2/3 full for optimum results, and it looked okay to me, but maybe the 6 quart was just too big.  The other issue could be…that there have been complaints from other people about my particular crock pot cooking too fast.  Thought that was crazy at first, but now I’m thinking maybe they were right.  I’ve NEVER had something burn in the crock pot until that day!  Don't let that discourage you from a crock pot...like I said, out of hundreds of meals, this is the first time something like this happened to me...and it was probably user-error on my part.  Should have known better.

                So, what do you do when you’re looking at $15-$20 of “ruined” candy?  I knew either way it had to come out of the crock pot so I decided to try to salvage what I could.  I dug out all the blackened peanuts I could get to and stirred it all up, and portioned it out on wax paper as I normally would.  It probably would have been fine to give away, even though you run across the occasional burnt peanut, but I couldn’t bring myself to gift it out.  Instead, I served it to my immediate family lol.  I gave the burnt peanut disclaimer and no one seemed to mind.  See...even with burned peanuts this is still the BEST crock pot candy.  haha

                Here is the recipe I use:

Trisha Yearwood Crock Pot Candy

                As I mentioned before this makes a TON of candy, so be prepared for that.  You could put the candy into cute cupcake liners, but I just put spoonfuls out onto wax paper and let them set up.  Here is what it looked like:

                The recipe says it makes 30-40 pieces but I got much more.  Some of my pieces are smaller, but most are mounded into huge chunks, and I still got 70 pieces of candy out of this! 

                So other than my rare crock pot malfunction this was a success.  Word to the wise—you should always give it a look if you’re able.  The recipe only cooks 3 hours so I should have glanced at it before it was finished.  Upside is, I got my crock pot candy fix, many times over.  What are your go-to convenience recipes?

Christmas Gatherings 2013 and a Happy 2014

              Christmas for my little family, like many of you, consists of several gatherings, with different groups and sides of the family in addition to our own Christmas morning traditions that we’re trying to establish.  We have had three gatherings so far, and have one more to go.  Do you find that it is hard to fit everything in?  Do you feel a pull in your heart to be all things to all people during the Christmas season?  To unknowingly spread yourself so thin trying to get to everything that it almost takes the joy out of Christmas?  Just me?  This has been us in the past.  We are trying to correct it.

              For the majority of our marriage, my husband and I lived in between our families—about 2 ½ hours from his, and 1 ½ hours from mine.  Merging our holiday traditions did not go so well.  His extended family does Christmas Eve, in the evening.  My extended family does Christmas lunch—in a different time zone that was an hour ahead of us.  Let me paint the picture:  We would leave our house in the early morning on Christmas Eve, and many times we left his area of the state (after completing 3 gatherings/visits) around 1 or 2 AM on Christmas morning, to drive the 2 ½ hours home.  We would get 3 maybe 4 hours of sleep before we had to be up and ready to walk out the door to make it the 100 + miles to my granny’s.  When did we have our Christmas you ask?  Usually had to happen Christmas Evening, or before we left for his family’s house on Christmas Eve morning...it was almost an afterthought.

The Christmas season became stressful to us, and a very sore topic, when a few months before December we had to begin discussions about our plans, and how we were going to coordinate all of it…how we were going to survive the somewhat epic two-day event that would total around 500 miles, all within a little over 24 hours.  We met the Christmas season with dread instead of joy.  

Then in 2009 we became parents.  The pressure we felt before then to try to get to everything to see everybody for Christmas pales in comparison to what it felt like once we wore the title of Mommy and Daddy.  Everyone wanted to see our little man, which we were so thankful for—but we were beginning to see at that point in our lives that something had to change.  We saw that saying ‘yes’ to being everywhere wasn't working for us…and to each their own.  Some people enjoy the hustle and bustle of it all.  They would rather go through the crazy rush to say that they were present at each of these gatherings than to skip it.  For us, it’s not that our families are any less important to us, it’s just that our priorities have changed now that we’re parents. 

To us, the most important thing is Jesus…celebrating His birth.  For me, it was hard to focus on Him being the reason for the season when I was stressed about getting all the gifts wrapped, food made and in our vehicle and to make sure we left one place in time to get to the next, and so on.  We couldn't even focus on truly enjoying our time with our family, much less thinking on Jesus.  

Our next priority is our children…and their Christmas experience.  We want to have Christmas Eve traditions in our home, and want our children to wake up in their house on Christmas morning to open gifts.  We want to read the Christmas story from the Bible as a family, have a wonderful breakfast, and if we make it to my granny’s for Christmas lunch (we live about 30 minutes from her now), great.  If we don’t, that’s okay too.  Each year since 2010, I've been employed by a church that has a late evening Christmas Eve service, so we've not been able to attend my husband’s family gathering since then.  Part of me is disappointed by that and it hurts my heart that my husband has missed it.  Part of me is thankful that we aren't rushing around as we used to.  For the past few years, we do Christmas with them the week or so after, and it has worked well. 

Maybe things will change in the future, and we’ll be able to attend Christmas Eve with my in-laws or we’ll stay in completely and not go anywhere.  I don’t know.  I do know that whatever we decide there will be zero stress involved.  I don’t want my children feeling that holiday pressure or to get the impression that Christmas equals anything but Jesus—not gifts, not food, not traveling and running around batty.  It’s not a bad thing to see family, and next to God, my husband, and children, my immediate and extended families are the most important things in the world to me.  Don’t get me wrong—I LOVE to see each of them during Christmas and making the decision to dial back what we do during the holidays has not been an easy one, and goes against my nature, especially since it is usually the only time we’re all together during the year.  However, I believe what I’m teaching my children is more important, and will shape the way they look at the Christmas season in the future.  We may have close to the same number of gatherings during Christmas—but they are more spread out, and definitely a lot easier to get through.  I know that we definitely enjoy this time of year a lot more now than earlier in our marriage. 

We were able to have my immediate family in our home for Christmas on the 28^th, and I LOVED the feeling of them being here.  I did a double batch of Hot Chocolate in the crock pot, which was a huge hit with the kiddos!  Want to try it?

Casey’s Crock Pot Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

15 cups water

2 large cans Sweetened Condensed Milk

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tsp vanilla extract

1 cinnamon stick

Marshmallows, whipped cream, or whatever you like to put in your hot chocolate.

Directions:

In a 5-6 quart crock pot combine water, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Add cocoa powder and cinnamon stick if desired.  Stir.  Cook on low setting 4 hours, stirring every hour.  Serve hot.  Can hold on warm setting for an hour.  Top with marshmallows, whipped cream, or any add-in that you desire.  NOTE:  the cinnamon stick is optional, but I highly recommend it.  It gave a great depth to the hot chocolate. You could easily cut this recipe in half and prepare it in a 3-4 quart crock pot.  There were 11 of us and most of us had 2 or 3 mugs, and I had some left over, which I have enjoyed. :) 

We rang in the New Year pretty mildly—home together on the couch.  2013 wasn’t the best year for us…it was down right ROUGH at times.  It contained a lot of good—but a lot of things I’m ready to forget about and move on from.  It is my hope and prayer that 2014 is much better.  If 2013 wasn’t a great year for you, trust in the Lord for, “…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose,” Romans 8:28 (NIV). Whatever the new year brings for you, remember that putting Him first is always the way to start.  Matthew 6:33 (NIV) says, “But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Love and blessings to each of you!