Copy Cat Recipe

I found this awesome treat this week at Native Sun. It's a chocolate mint tart from a company called Hail Merry. The ingredient list was one that actually sounded good for GF and Vegan. It contains organic maple syrup, dark cocoa, almond flour, organic extra virgin coconut oil, sea salt and organic peppermint oil. I figured, I can recreate that!

I started by first making the crust. 

For one tart I used:

1/4 c almond flour

Pinch Real Salt (harvest from Utah & our favorite salt!)

1 T dark cocoa

1 T organic extra virgin coconut oil - heated to a liquid

1 tsp organic pure maple syrup

I mixed all the ingredients with a whisk in a bowl then pressed it into a 4" tart/round pan and put it in the fridge to set. 

Next I made the filling. 

I used:

3 T organic extra virgin coconut oil - warmed to a liquid

1 T canned coconut milk

2 T organic pure maple syrup

1/3 c dark cocoa 

2 drops of Young Living's peppermint essential oil

I combined all the ingredients with a whisk in a bowl. Then I poured it into the solidified crust and returned it to the fridge to set. 

I can't wait for Ra to get home and try them!!!  The filling tasted delish when I licked the bowl so I'm hoping this will be a cheaper alternative to the Hail Merry. NOTE: These tarts need to be kept in the fridge because of the coconut oil. 

Christmas Wishes Come True!

One thing my kids have come to count on is seeing their Nanny and Pappy Hershock at Christmas.  No matter where we move, it's one of the few traditions they can count on.  This year was no exception.  It's so wonderful to be able to celebrate with my parents.  They encourage and reinforce the reasons why our family celebrates Christmas.  We rejoice in the fact that our Savior was born at Christmas time and that God was fulfilling his promises to us by sending his son from his throne in Heaven to be born into such a humble setting.  To come here to serve us, teach us and give us hope.

Our kids enjoyed having Nanny & Pappy around to play games.  Here they were in a competitive game of Uno!

For as long as I can remember, we've been having the same meal for Christmas day.  It's a Hershock family tradition.  My mom learned from her mom and my dad's mom and she has taught me.  I'm now starting to teach Sis how to prepare this meal for her family one day.

My parents spoiled my kids rotten, as usual.  Ra was thrilled about his new Hess Truck, his Calvin and Hobbes books and his new Lego sets.  Sissy was over the moon excited to have her very own sewing machine.  My mom spent time helping her learn how to use it - thread it, use the gazillion buttons, etc.  

Santa brought the kids lots of surprises too.  Sis got some gymnastics equipment for her AGDolls.  Ra got a ping pong table.  This was a HUGE surprise.  He loves it and has gotten much better over the month!  Andy surprised me with a new beach cruiser!  I love it.  It even has 3 gears!  He also got me a new phone since I was having so many issues with my other one.  Andy ended up with Book of Mormon tickets for next month!  We are so excited to go see it!  We've been waiting to see it for years!!!

My kids were also blessed with gifts from their Grammy, Pappy Chooch and my cousin Lori and her family.  Even though we don't get to see them often, one way we choose to stay close is to remember them at the holidays.  Lori's daughter and Sis stay close through our packages and text pics we send each other often.  

We took my parents down to St. Augustine to see the lights via the trolley.  It was so much fun.  We go every year and the kids really look forward to seeing the lights and singing along with the driver!

We had such a wonderful time with my parents.  The time we spend with them always seems to go by too quickly!  My kids are so grateful to have their grandparents who help mold them and guide them and enjoy spending time with them.  We are looking forward to seeing them again next month and over spring break!  

Cheers!

We finally scheduled a date night - after all the Christmas parties, travel to Vegas, PSU/OSU game, Disney, etc., we've neglected our monthly date night!  It had been 3 months overdue!!!!

We checked out a different place that came recommended from a friend.  This place opened around the time we moved back. Ovinte is a wine & tapas bar at the Town Center. Gasp!  Yes, we drove across the ditch to go out to dinner!  It was totally worth the drive!  Great food, incredible wine and the most handsome date in the place!

The Most Magical Place On Earth!

Could I be more behind on my blog posts?!?  It's 2015 and I'm posting on Thanksgiving!  Oh well, you know me, better late than never, right?

The kids and I had a fabulous time at Disney over their Thanksgiving break.  What a fun week!  They were so well behaved and made it super easy to be traveling with them solo.  Sis got sick Sunday afternoon through Monday but thankfully it was just a virus and she didn't end up with any sinus or ear infections!  She was a trooper through it all and Ra was such a sweet caring caretaker! We were there Sat - Sat. because the kids had an entire week off from school.

This year we got magic bands with our passes!  It was so much easier using these instead of worrying about losing our cards every time we used a Fastpass.

We love the back seat on Thunder Mt RR!

My poor baby wasn't feeling well...she was a trooper even though she was developing a fever. 

Mickey ice cream always makes you feel better when you have a slight fever!

The next day - after a trip to the doc and lots of meds, our baby girl was feeling well enough to go to HS for the evening. Our first ride - Tower of Terror.  Sissy hates this ride, but suffered through it for her brother. 

A nice surprise was that she's finally tall enough to ride the Rockin' Rollercoaster!

We waited for the front seat for her first ride!  She ❤️ed it and said it is her all time favorite ride!!!

The night before Thanksgiving Day, the kids & I drove home to get Andy and attend a brunch at a friend's house. These are the kids before the polar bear plunge in the Benz's pool!

After the party, we all headed back to WDW together. We went straight to HS to ride the Rockin' Rollercoaster as a family for the first time ever!  Afterwards we went over to see the Christmas lights!  They were beautiful!

The next day was spent at Epcot.  Sissy has a new found love for Stitch these days. She bought a stuffed Stitch and wanted her pic with him here!  She went on the ride at MK and loved it!

This is why Andy loves Epcot!  He goes for the Oktoberfest beer and the sauerkraut.

After we were finished at Epcot we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom so that we could see the castle lit up at night for Christmas.  A cast member told us that this year Elsa takes over Cinderella's Castle at 6 PM and casts a magic spell on it. It looks like an ice castle with the lights this year.

Our last day at Disney was spent at Animal Kingdom.  The kids love riding Everest!

We had so much fun during our week at Disney. We can't wait for our next trip down! It was a wonderful way to spend Thanksgiving since we had no family to spend it with this time. We made some happy new memories with our little family!

Growing Up

Someone painted her "mistletoes" all on her own!

My Partner In Crime

Seriously, isn't she just the cutest thing?  She & I love going to Lillie's Coffee Shop for breakfast.  It was a special girl time for us!  

Christmas Lights

Another tradition is to go see Christmas lights.  One of our all time favorite displays is right here in Jax. An entire neighborhood participates!  Isn't it beautiful?

Another fun spot to check out is Deck the Chairs. 

There is a house in Atlantic Beach that sets theirs to music. It's pretty awesome!

Looking at lights is a family favorite - and better yet, around here it's FREE to see the best displays in the county!  I think Christmas lights are one of my most favorite things about the Christmas season.

Gingy House Tradition

The holidays are full of traditions!  One of our favorite is decorating gingerbread houses with friends. This year was no exception. We invited friends from school over after a half day from school to create masterpieces with us. 

The kids did a fabulous job on their houses!  They had a blast making them (and eating candy & icing)!

Signs of Christmas

How you can tell its Christmas at our house?  Just take a look around:

There is always a train around our tree - surprised, aren't you?  😀

Our elf Jingle made a mistake of trying to mess with Ra's Legos!

Jingle did enjoy hanging out in Sisdy's dollhouse!

He even made a new friend in our tree!

He also left us notes with his favorite quotes from the movie Elf!

It felt so good to have all the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas in our house again!

Neighbor Christmas Gifts

This is always a favorite neighbor gift for us to give. We've been making these for years now.  We are so thankful for so many wonderful neighbors on our new street!

A Walk Through Bethlehem

There is a church in Ponte Vedra that hosts a live nativity every year.  We went when Sis was 5mths old and decided to go again this year now that the kids could both appreciate it better. They had a fabulous time walking through Bethlehem, seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling what life was like over 2000 years ago. 

They had live animals - even camels 

They got to try to write with ancient writing tools 

They always have a live nativity - I've never had a baby that peaceful!  He was so good the whole time we were there!

The best part was hanging out with our friends by the bonfire eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate at the end!

We are so thankful for PVPC for taking the time to put on this event every year.  It's so incredible to see the Bible come to life in front of your child's eyes.  It gives real meaning to Christmas.

Is It Willy Wonka?

Nope, it's Sweet Pete!  He just moved to a new location downtown and the kids and I wanted to check it out. It's like a real life version of what you'd expect from Willy Wonka - a kid's dream come true!  Sweet Pete's specialized in candy that is made from scratch without artificial colors or flavors.  They also offer a number of gluten free items!  My kids love it!

Christmas Programs

Both kids had their school programs on the same day. Sissy had hers in the morning and it was the cutest program!  They sang about the snapshots of Christmas. Sis was a sheep in her program. She did a fabulous job. 

Ra's program was later that evening. His was 2nd grade - 5th grade. Thankfully his grade performed first so I could see him and get back to gymnastics practice in time to pickup Sis!  He did a great job singing along and performing the motions. Back when he was in PreK, he refused to do anything but stand there, now he participates with enthusiasm. 

Both our kids enjoy performing in their Christmas programs.  This was Little Man's last one...where does the time go?