Snowmen and Christmas Cookies

My Grandma was a hairdresser. She had a salon in her home, but we never called it a salon; it was always called the beauty shop--lowercase. It didn't even have a proper name. Her customers were mainly little blue-haired old ladies. At least that is how I remember them. These ladies showered Grandma with gifts during the holidays. Most of them were hand made: doilies, strange beaded window hangings, lots of plastic canvas, and crocheted toilet paper covers. The other thing she got a lot of was Avon. And my favorite of her Avon gifts was this cute snow couple. Grandma used to complain about the blinking lights, but I would always turn them on when I got to her house. Finally she decided to give them to me and now they have a rightful place in my home, blinking merrily in the living room at Christmas time.


I also think of Grandma at Christmas because she made the best Christmas cookies. She cut them in big Christmas tree shapes and sprinkled them lightly with green sugar. And I always got to take home any that were left after our holiday gathering at her house. The dough for the cookies is very hard to mix up when all the flour is added, but even after she no longer had the strength to mix them, she would make Grandpa do that part so I could still have cookies. Now, my girls and I use her recipe and have made our own tradition of baking Grandma's cookies on Christmas Eve.

A Chocolate Mess Tradition!

If there is one thing the staff at my school does right, it is feeding each other! Ok, we do a lot of other things right too, but we have a tradition that in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break, we have staff luncheons on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Each team signs up for a day and then plans the menu for what they will bring. Along with our 4 grade level teams, we have the related arts team, the office staff, and the parapro team. That makes seven days of not having to think about what to pack for lunch...it's awesome!

I didn't realize that my easy crock pot Triple Chocolate Mess had become such an expected tradition. But last week, the gym teacher mentioned in passing that he was already looking forward to it. And when I posted on facebook this morning that it was cooking in two crock pots, I got several comments from anticipating staff members. I also got comments from other friends wondering what the heck I was making. So, here is the recipe for you, friends. Happy cooking, but most of all, I hope it makes happy memories for you!!

Triple Chocolate Mess
1 cake mix
1 instant pudding mix
Mix these dry mixes together in large bowl.
4 eggs
1c. water
3/4c. vegetable oil
1 pint sour cream
Mix these wet ingredients in smaller bowl until smooth. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.
Stir in 6oz. chocolate chips. Put mixture in greased crock pot and cook on low for 6 hours. You can cook at a higher temp for less time, but it can tend to burn on the bottom if you do. I also layer paper towels under the lid and change them from time to time to soak up condensation that make it soggy if it drops back down.

Tradition

When I was a kid, it was great fun for me, my sister, and my brother to change the Noel train to a Leon train. It drove my grandma crazy, but I think my grandpa (Leon) loved it. :) Now the Noel train is at my house and my girls continue the changing of the train tradition.

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