Winter walks & the best Hot Cocoa in the world.

We had our first real snow over Thanksgiving weekend.  Of course, it’s all melted now and we are left with patches of dirty snow lining the streets and a yard too cold and soggy to play in.  But Christmas lights are starting to light up our streets and so the early onset of evening takes on a twinkly orange and red and green glow.  It makes the lack of snow a little bit cheerier.

Last week, though, when we did have snow, I took Finn on a quick walk down to the break wall to check out the waves.  When the wind is just right, and if the waves are big enough, we can hear them in our back yard.  It was snowing lightly (or so it seemed at the time) and I though a quick walk would do us both good.  We bundled up, retrieved the sled and started walking.  The whole walk is about a mile round trip if we don’t walk out to the end of the break wall (which, for obvious reasons, we did not do.) and Finn chose to pull the sled for most of it.  He’s turning into a very good walking partner.

Unfortunately, the closer we got to the lake, the less we were sheltered from the trees and homes in town and the harder the wind blew.  We persevered and made it down to the bay to take in the spectacle of the waves crashing up on the rocks, the snow hanging heavy on the air before filtering down around us and filling up the spaces where moments before our foot prints were visible in the snow.  The force of the waves on the rocks caused Finn to jump a few times and as there were no boats in the harbor, he soon grew bored with sitting on the beach (because I wouldn't let him anywhere near the shoreline to throw rocks in).  I wrapped my scarf tight around Finn’s little face, pulled up my hood to block the wind, and turned around to walk briskly back home.

Once we were back and mittens, hats and snow pants were drying on the radiators, Finn requested his new favorite, hot chocolate.  Coming out of his little mouth, the words are a bit slurred and sort of stuttered and it makes me want to pour gallons of cocoa down his wee throat because he’s just so cute when he fills his cheeks full and then tries to smile at me!  This cocoa is nothing fancy or difficult, in fact, when I was growing up, every time we visited my grandma in St. Paul she made this for us.  I like that I can share this special treat with my best boy to warm him back up after a cold walk outside.

I am looking forward to our next snow fall – hopefully in time to give us a White Christmas** and another walk or two in our Winter Wonderland**.


Best Hot Cocoa (In the World Galaxy)

½ cup sugar
¼ cup Hershey’s Cocoa
Dash salt
1/3 cup hot water
4 cups milk
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix sugar, cocoa and salt in saucepan; stir in hot water.  Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils; boil and stir 2 minutes.  Stir in milk and heat.  DO NOT BOIL!  Remove from heat; add vanilla.

Optional additions: candy canes, whipped cream, chocolate chips, marshmallows - big and small, and if you're a grown-up and you're really cold, add a shot of peppermint schnapps to really warm your bones.

**Tomorrow I'm going to share with you the best Christmas play list ever!