Let the holidays begin!

My rustic planter has a new look. From herbs in summer to gourds and mini-pumpkins in the fall, the change in season has inspired me to plant evergreen seedlings with a little Christmas decor. I must say that it looks very pretty at night with the lights on.

The holiday season basically boils down to three things .... shopping, decorating and food. Oops, what I meant to say was that it's all about giving to others and enjoying the company of family and friends. In any case, the aforementioned topics, still take up most of our energy (and pocketbook).
I used to be a big Grinch about Christmas, as many of my friends and former colleagues will affirm, but that was when I was working and had three young children all with birthdays in early December and the end of November. Those were the days when both grandmothers would send a cheque and I would have to do their Christmas shopping as well. On Christmas morning I would pick the crumpled wrapping paper off the floor, and stuff it into a garbage bag. With each piece of discarded Christmas paper I picked up, I thought about how it all began with a list, then many trips to the mall, then scrounging for just the right box to put it in, then carefully wrapping it, then signing the tag and putting it under the tree .... and finally, me picking up the shredded paper off the floor on Christmas morning! Oh that does sound bitter doesn't it? But I'm over it now and in spite of all the work and frenzy of the season, those really were the good old days!

So .... let the baking and decorating begin! Here is a great recipe for, what I call, Christmas bark. I got this from a student one year and couldn't get enough of it. It's made with just a few simple ingredients like soda crackers and chocolate chips - yes soda crackers! Anyway, you only need a "sleeve" of crackers and you can use walnuts instead of pecans (or neither). This is very easy and delicious. The link below is on allrecipes.com which I love because it shows a little video (I'm a visual learner).

Christmas Bark



A photo from the allrecipes website using candy canes instead of nuts.