My cookie recipes for this year's family exchange.

Peanut Butter Balls



Ingredients:

1/4 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups of Peanut Butter
4 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1 tsp. of vanilla
2 Cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 Slab of paraffin wax.

Directions:

1. Combine the butter, peanut butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until well blended.
2. Put the mix in the fridge to set.
3. Melt chocolate chips together with the paraffin wax in a double boiler.
4. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and dip in the melted chocolate.
5. Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and chill until set.

Rice Crispie Treats

Ingredients:

6 Cups of Crispies
1 10oz. bag of marshmallows
1/4 Cup of Butter
Half a bag of Mini Reese's pieces

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a deep pan on the stove top.
2. Add marshmallows and stir until melted into the butter.
3. Add Crispies and stir until well blended.
4. Take of the stove top and mix in Mini Reese's.
5. Press mixture into a 9x13 cake pan.
6. Cover and let set.

It's time to tree hunt!

Every year my Dad's side of our family gets together on the first Saturday of December. Our purpose? Tree hunting, a cookie exchange, and my Bampa's amazing chili.


We meet at the tree farm, collect a candy cane from Bampa, and then head to the fields, where each family searches to find their perfect tree. I love seeing each family's pick, everybody has their own prefrence. Our family has always gone with a douglas fir. Now that Ryan and I are a family of our own we tend to lean toward a Grand Fir. It is a tree native to the northwest. It looks a lot like a douglas fir but it's needles are a darker shade of green with silvery undersides.



When everyone has their trees loaded and secure we head to Mamma and Bampa's. There waiting on the stove for us is my Bampa's chili that has been cooking for 3 days. I only get to have it once a year, so I eat until I'm full.

7 women bake two types of sweets for the cookie exchange. So when everything is said and done each family goes home with 14 dozen cookies and some of Bampa's fudge.

I can't wait to decorate our tree. I'll post pictures of the finished product.

This is how my family kicks off the Christmas season. Feel free to share stories of your own with me. My two recipes for this year's exchange are posted above.

~Jazi

The Concept of Unconditional Love

What does Unconditional Love mean?

Dictionary.com defines it as: affection with no limit or conditions.

To me unconditional love means forgiveness. God sent his only son to die for our sins, so that we could be forgiven. To me that is the ultimate act of love.

I went to a 'Wind of the Spirit' retreat when I was a teenager and learned the best lesson of my life to date: Forgiveness is an action not a feeling.

This was another one of those light bulb moments for me. It was hard to grasp the fact that I could forgive without having to like it. I mean, what good is it to forgive if you really don't feel it in your heart?

The speaker, Mrs. Audrey Eddings, went on to explain that forgiving those that hurt us is the ultimate act of letting go. Without forgiveness you can never truly get passed the hurt that other's have caused you. That weekend I let go of baggage I had been holding on to for most of my life. And in doing so I felt a freedom I can't put into words. I would never again worry about passed moments of pain and sorrow. By forgiving I was able to find closure and move forward, instead of looking back.

God calls us to forgive others. And who are we to question that? Does holding on to that old grudge ever affect the person who hurt us? By forgiving you take the power back, instead of allowing that person to poison your spirit.

Here's another way I look at it: If we are unable to forgive, how can we ask God to forgive us?

So we should all try to put aside past hurt & petty differences. We should forgive and enjoy this time of year with a lighter heart.

'tis the season ~ Jazi