Stress-free Holidays...

This year I vowed to get a jump start on all of the holiday "to-do's", so that when December finally rolled around, I would be able to relax and enjoy Christmastime rather than running around like crazy trying to get all of the shopping done. After all the meaning of Christmas is not about materialistic things as much as the media would like us to believe, but rather about spending time with the ones we love celebrating the birth of Christ, and also displaying Christ's character through our actions to take care of those less fortunate. I thought one way to make this time of year more enjoyable would be to simplify, so I suggested that we draw names on my family's side so that we were only buying and picking out a gift for one family member. After all, we have pretty much everything we need and the idea of just getting a present for someone "just to get one" didn't seem sincere to me. Now with only one person to buy for, we can really spend some time and thought on picking out what that person really needs! Jeff and I also started Christmas shopping a lot earlier, so that we would be done way before Christmas. As of right now, we only have two more people to shop for! And as I wrote in an earlier post, we decorated the house all Christmassy before we left for Washington on Thanksgiving, so we could enjoy the decorations right when we got back home. And I was so proud of Jeff for getting the Christmas lights up on the house before we left for Thanksgiving too, so now we can enjoy them every night. You can't tell from the picture I posted, but the lights are red and white like a candy cane. Jeff added more lights again this year and blew a couple fuses in the process, lol. But he and his co-worker, Joe, finally figured out a system. Sophia absolutely loves the Christmas lights and every time we turn them on she goes outside to look at them and says, "daddy", because she's telling us that daddy put them up. The only task left to do is put up our Christmas tree. We always have a real live tree, so we try to wait until the first week of December before getting one, to ensure that the tree lives until Christmas. When we were pulling out our decorations last week, we found a small pre-lit tree that we couldn't find a place for this year, so we decided to put it up in Sophia's room. Now every time we go up to her room she asks me to plug in the tree so she can see it all lit up. We decorated it all "girly" with purple snowflake garland, purple sparkly balls, and purple icicles. And now she gets to enjoy her very own little Christmas tree.

Here's a picture of our house all lit up!

I have also been enjoying baking lots of holiday goodies this year (and trying not to eat them all)! Among them have been fudge brownies, chocolate chunk cookies, peanutbutter cookies, and dark chococlate peppermint bark. This is the first year I have made peppermint bark and found it to be so easy and soooo yummy that I thougth I would share the recipe with you :)

Peppermint Bark:

Ingredients:

6 ounces (150 grams) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (do not use chocolate chips!)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

6 ounces (150 grams) white chocolate, coarsely chopped (do not use white chocolate chips!)

1/3 - 1/2 cup (50 - 80 grams) crushed candy canes

Peppermint Bark: Line the bottom and sides of a 9 inch (23 cm) square baking pan with aluminum foil, smoothing out any wrinkles.

Melt the semi sweet chocolate and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Immediately pour the melted chocolate into the prepared pan and tilt the pan so the chocolate makes an even layer. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has set.

Then, melt the white chocolate and remaining 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Immediately pour the melted white chocolate over the dark chocolate and tilt the pan so the chocolate is in an even layer. Sprinkle the crushed candy canes evenly over the white chocolate. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate has set.

Remove the Peppermint Bark from the pan by lifting the edges of the aluminum foil. Peel back the foil and break the bark into small irregular pieces. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Makes about 25 pieces.


P.S. Just beware, it's addicting!