a whole lotta chocolate...

Saturday night, Josh and I hosted a Christmas party for all the teens he teaches in early morning seminary (and when I say early, I mean like Josh is out the door by 5:30 AM...it all seems like a dream by the time I wake up with my kids ha) 

There was pizza, games,  a whole lot of chocolate,  and of course ugly Christmas sweaters (p.s. if any of you are in need of a good ugly Christmas sweater...EBAY has superb ones!). I'm actually so bummed because amongst all the craziness I forgot to snap a photo of everyone in their holiday outfits :-(.

There are a few things I learned last night. One,  that charades is hilarious when you play with a bunch of sixteen year olds. Two, that hot chocolate is way better when you add a ridiculous amount of whip cream and mini chocolate chips with a heaping spoonful (thanks to my 3 year old) of colorful sprinkles on top! And, lastly that I am just getting old considering by the time everyone left (10 PM) I was beat. Like really, truly beat. ha.

The colorful cocoa bar was a hit, and also might I just add, so were my homemade carmel bars (I mean you can't go wrong with butter, chocolate and caramel?! recipe below.)

I had a little mishap in the midst of baking...

I tend to forget that you have to start off mixing SLOWLY otherwise this happens

but it was totally worth it...because well, I mean just look at them

Cocoa bar included:

marshmallows

mints

mini chocolate chips

sprinkles

reddiwip whip cream 

1 gallon of whole milk with 8 packets of hot cocoa powder 

My mom's famous Caramel Bars

1 1/2 cup cold butter (cut into sections)

2 cups quick oats
2 cups flour (plus 1/4 cup to mix in with caramel)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 (12 oz.) jar of caramel topping (I like Mrs.Richardsons butterscotch)

In bowl combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. But butter in until crumbly and the dough all starts sticking together. Set half of the dough aside for topping--and press the other half on the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. In the meantime take your jar of caramel topping and add 1/4 cup flour to thicken it. After the 15 mintues...sprinkle the chips and drizzle the topping all over and lay the rest of the dough on top (I flatten it between my hands and lay it on top). Cook for another 18 minutes.