10 things that make me happy…

1. The snow coming down as I type. Our state always needs more water. So it’s a big deal to get all this new stuff. I just want to be snowed in at least once in my life.

2. Pink lights on a canopy bed. It’s very exotic and makes me feel particularly fancy somehow. Even if I’m just wearing a sweatshirt and jeans.

3. A baby girl who loves her monkey.

4. A baby boy who loves to laugh.

5. A baby “chomp” who could show up any day now. Maybe we’ll wake up one of these mornings and Lyndi will have a sweet, warm bundle all cuddled up with her. I suppose, in real life we’ll know when she decides that she’s truly coming. But since Lyndi is having a home birth–it could be a surprise for us–any time now.

6. A well attended puzzle on a wintery day.

7. Dear friends in a beautiful place.

8. A beautiful place

9. A pristine kitty

10. A letter from a happy boy in a very cold, faraway land.

*******

Be sure to check out the “Grateful List” tab. This will be our never-ending happiness list. Reply to this post and let us know what makes you happy. We’ll just keep racking them up until we get…oh, a million or so. :]  You can send as many, as often as you’d like.

Can’t get too much of this good thing!

How many is a million, anyway?

Symphony Bar Hot Chocolate

If it’s snowing where you’re at, like it’s snowing where I’m at, you’ll appreciate this…

I’m pretty sure that all this time you thought you knew what a mug of hot chocolate was supposed to taste like. But I’ll tell you something–if you’ve been pouring a small packet of dry powder into a cup and adding really hot water, perhaps…you don’t.

In fact, from this day forth, you are liable to look on such a practice as complete hot chocolate blasphemy.

In the book The Polar Express, they described what the children drank on the train, as, “…hot cocoa as thick and rich as melted chocolate bars.”

Now we’re talking…

 

 

Candy Bar Hot Chocolate

Instructions

6 ounces Symphony chocolate, chopped
2 cups milk

Place the milk and chopped chocolate in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir gently to keep chocolate from staying at the bottom of the pan and getting too hot. If you like foam, stir with a whisk just until mixture gets steamy hot. Do not let it boil. Remove from heat. Add a dollop of whip cream to the bottom of a mug. Pour in hot chocolate.

Now, go sit down and put your feet up. You’re really going to love this.

Candy Bar Hot Chocolate
 
Ingredients
  • 6 ounces Symphony chocolate, chopped
  • 2 cups milk
Instructions
  1. Place the milk and chopped chocolate in a saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Stir gently to keep chocolate from staying at the bottom of the pan and getting too hot.
  3. If you like foam, stir with a whisk just until mixture gets steamy hot.
  4. Do not let it boil.
  5. Remove from heat.
  6. Add a dollop of whip cream to the bottom of a mug.
  7. Pour in hot chocolate.