Something new

This year Jay & I spent an evening again making coated crackers for give away.  It started out as something I used to make to give to the employees and last year I was in the throes of packing to move and said I didn’t have time to make them.  Jay offered to help cuz he thought it was something we should continue to do – and it went so much smoother with an extra set of hands – especially in our small townhouse kitchen at the time.

But this year he seemed to automatically assume he was helping again – and who am I to turn down help?!?

So I gathered my supplies.

And I also decided to try melting my chocolate in an old crockpot.  I’ll be doing THAT from now on.  Perfect temperature and a whole lot less of a mess.

Jay spread the peanut butter and marsh mellow and I coated them. 

It was cold outside so it was way too handy to carry them out to the screened in deck to the cold glass top table to quickly cool and set up.

Jay wanted to try something new for us this year – chocolate covered bacon.  Now I love bacon – it’s high on my favorite list – especially the bacon that Jay makes.  And I love chocolate – Hershey Kisses and Wilbur Buds need to be scarce around here because they are a major source of temptation. 

BUT…..

mixing two of my favorite items together?!?!?  Just didn’t ring my bell.  But anyone who knows Jay very well already knows that he doesn’t put a lot of stock in a wrinkled nose without at least trying it.

So he laid out bacon on a baking sheet and baked a few pounds of bacon in the oven.  A full tray took about 1/2 hour.  He laid it out on paper towels to absorb the grease and cool.

When I was done coating our 255 crackers I started with the bacon.

At first there just seemed to be something so wrong about these pictures…

 

But chocolate covered bacon is now added to the list of things to keep scarce around here because it is REALLY DELICIOUS.  It’s a salty sweet.  And everyone who wrinkles up their nose but is brave enough to taste has soon become a fan like me.  I have yet to find someone who doesn’t like it. You’ll just simply need to try it yourself.

 

Another new thing this year was a new place to decorate.  It took me three times as long to decorate because I needed to figure out how I wanted to do it. 

I decided to put the tree at the top landing and love it there (except for the one string of lights that stopped working 3 days after I had it up – grrrr – thus the bald spot). 

I had to go out and buy some garland because this is the longest open step railing I’ve ever had and it was something I’ve always admired in others homes.  Finding a new place for the stockings was difficult.  In years past I’ve used a wrought iron stand with hooks but the growing number of stockings made that idea way too crowded.  At first I wasn’t sure I liked the idea to hang them along the shorter railing but it’s grown on me and I think it will be handier there.  So far the grands haven’t bothered too much with them.  The railing is just long enough to comfortably fit our 14 stockings – soon to be 15.

So that means we’re still waiting on our next new thing – Little Missy should be here soon and we’ll welcome her love and excitement.

I Love new ideas, new recipes, new food tastes but I especially love new babies.

And how grateful I am that God saw to it that His plan of love of us was to bring us eternal salvation in the form of a New Baby.

And His mercies are new to us each morning.

A Merry Christmas to you all.