Christmas Goodie Bags and a Christmas Recipe....

So this Christmas has definitely been out of the ordinary.  As most of you already know, Michael's dad lost his battle with cancer on December 14th.  It has been pretty hard to get in the Holiday Spirit when we are dealing with the loss of someone so dear to us.  I have been pretty down in the dumps to be honest.  I have also been very hard on myself about not being able to accomplish everything I normally do around the Holidays.  I had so many things that I wanted to do with the kids.  I wanted to teach them daily about the true meaning of Christmas.  I wanted to do so many things to instill in them the importance of GIVING and not just receiving.  I wanted to do an Angel Tree together as a family.  I wanted to go through our toys and make donations to kids in need.  Of course NONE of it got accomplished and I have just been feely crummy about it.  Another Holiday tradition that I love is making goodie baskets for people.  Now those of you who know me know that I love to cook.  More than just that though....cooking is a way that I show love to others.  I was really bummed and down on myself about not being able to uphold all of our family traditions this year so yesterday morning I just stuck all the kids in the car and went to the grocery store.  I was determined to do SOMETHING that we normally do....even if it was only one little thing.  We got everything we needed to make our Christmas treats, came back home, and got busy.  In no way does it make up for all the things we weren't able to do this Christmas, but it did make me feel a little bit better to do something fun with the kids and also show them the spirit of giving.  After we made all the goodies and packaged them, they drove around with us as we passed some out around the Jenks area.  So here are some pictures from our baking day and I also am going to share one of my favorite Christmas recipes with you.  They are what most of my friends refer to as "those yummy peanut butter balls."  They are actually called:

OHIO BUCKEYE CANDIES

CANDY:

1 stick softened butter OR margarine
1 3/4 cups (18 oz jar) creamy peanut butter
1 t. vanilla
About 1 lb. confectioners' sugar

CHOCOLATE COATING:
1 pk. (12 oz) semi sweet chocolate chips
1 T. vegetable shortening
Cream butter, peanut butter and vanilla together adding confectioners' sugar until proper consistency is reached.
Roll candy into 1" balls and place on wax paper lined cookie sheet.
Melt chips & shortening together in top of double boiler.
Keep chocolate mixture in double boiler over low heat while you dip each candy.
Using a toothpick, dip each ball covering about 3/4 of candy. (Peanut butter needs to show for an authentic buckeye.)
Return candy to sheet to cool.
Yield: 8 dozen buckeyes

The final result...Christmas goodies all packaged up and ready to be given.

My little helpers

Emmy enjoyed playing peekaboo with the cookie cutters for some reason

And of course Easton had to find some way to use the rolling pin as a Light Saber....