‘Tis The Season for…Hot Chocolate

I’d like to introduce you all to our newest houseguest, Anna Sparkle:

At best, I am guessing Peyton picked her name based on Princess Twilight Sparkle and Anna from Frozen, two of her biggest obsessions. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Elf on a Shelf backstory, read about it here. We attempted the game last year, but it went over Peyton’s head. This year, however, she gets the reporting back to Santa part! She always enjoys looking for Anna Sparkle when she wakes up in the morning — which means I have to remember to move her before I fall asleep. Parenting is hard.

When you wake up to your held swimming in a mug full of marshmallows, asking for homemade hot cocoa, you go with it!

I don’t have a certain recipe I follow, but here is what I do:

In a saucepan, on low heat, warm together milk (depends on how many people you are serving. Pour until it looks like enough. You can always add more later), about a half cup of cocoa, and one/two tablespoons of sugar (depends on how sweet you’d like it! I don’t ever let it reach a boil, but stir pretty regularly until it’s as hot as I want it. I add a pinch of salt and a bit of vanilla extract. I lower heat to a simmer as I divvy it up into cups. We go all out when it comes to toppings. Our favorites are: whipped cream, marshmallows, crushed peppermints (they sell these in the cookie decorating aisle, if you’re too lazy to crush your own), sprinkles, candy canes (even better when dipped in dark chocolate!), and I always finish these babies off with a few sprinkles of cinnamon!

It doesn’t get better than that on a chilly Monday night!