Okay, so I grew my garden from seed last year (if you missed the post on how I saved my family over $757 dollars with a backyard garden...click here). I touted my ability to now be able to grow my 2015 garden from seed with almost no out of pocket cost...but then these came.  Its kind of like most girls might feel about shoe catalogs, or jewelry catalogs...I am in awe.  All the bright colors, the cool heirloom names, the different varieties.  All I can think about is how brightly colored farm baskets look when filled to the brim with different kinds of tomotoes, peppers, squash, beans...you get the picture.  I am a bit starry eyed by this point.  The bad part is...I want to try so many things.  I even have read a few new blogs on different ways to try mounding my potoatoes this year (if you need a laugh look at this story from last year regarding my battle with the potato beetle)

But here I sit pining away for the summer days to come and looking at all of the different varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots, etc.  Why would I even be thinking this so far in advance?  Its because I learned some tips last year from some very wise women.  I had gone to a plant sale to see what hierloom varieties there were and to see if there was any other neat thing to add to my stash.  I had left with a bit of plant envy.  My tomato and pepper plants were 1/3 the size of the plants that they had.  How did that happen?  I followed the seed directions exactly.  I began to pepper one of the ladies with questions and what I learned was that these plants had all been starting lovingly inside these women's homes in February (in case you have been ignoring your calender that is less than 33 days away!)  They were not watering them from above but rather from the bottom as the plants would use thier roots to suck up water from trays and become very strong this way.

I don't yet have a greenhouse although I am still drooling over a glass one that I saw at Menards last year.  I do hope that maybe by next growing season I will have one of my own.  But, what I do have is a laundry room with a nice bright window.  I figure maybe this is a good place to start my seed, after all it is sunny and warm when my dryer is running.  I will keep you posted on my venture as I begin.  Oh, I almost forgot.  I also learned that my potting soil may not be as good as using a mix of vermiculite, pearlite and compost (in 1/3 ratios).  I did try this on some of my later plantings last year and it worked significantly better than using potting soil which had a tenedency to get hard while in the plugs.  So, I am waiting and drooling while drinking my cup of tea. 

 I can't wait to begin getting my hands dirty.

No, I am not getting paid to write a review for this toy.  I actually found the toy by accident while looking at an educational magazine full of homeschool toys.  But, let me tell you what, a toy that can engage my hyper-mile-a-minute kiddo for 4 hours is worth its weight in gold.  Seriously.  Hubby and I bought this toy for our son for Christmas and now I am wishing I would have bought the more expensive 300 experiment model as my son loves it!  It is a snap circuit set.  No he cannot electrocute himself (at least he hasn't figured out how to do that yet).  The model we purchased on Amazon was $29.99.  There is another model that runs about $49.99 and is very similar but has more suggestions and circuts.

When we initially took it out of the box I was a little concerned as the directions looked a bit complicated.  However, my son just dove in and looked at the color coded pictures to make his projects.

He made doorbell circuits, fan circuits, lightbulb circuits...you get the picture.  He was busy for HOURS!

My son is newly 9 and another friend of mine also bought this for her 8 year old son and told me that it was also a huge hit at her house.  I mean, any toy that creates learning and keeps them busy for hours is AMAZING in my book!

I really have no idea where he comes up with these ideas.  The unfortunate part of marrying a man who is very inventive in the kitchen, and a great cook, is that sometimes I just can't outdo him. (unless its baking of course, he can't touch my baking!)  

We have been doing a lot of cooking lately and needed a quick lunch fix.  I smelled a delicious aroma coming from the kitchen and there stood hubby with a waffle-dilla if you will.  It was a brilliant hack as the whole thing was ready in about 2 minutes flat whereas our normal quesadilla making in the skillet takes quite a bit longer.  (especiallly because of how many quesadillas we have to make) They were delicious.  Simply 2 tortillas, shredded cheese of your choice (I prefer colby jack or monteray jack) and a waffle iron.  That simple.  Well done hubby, well done.

We have all no doubt been visiting friends and family over the holidays.  Often we are invited to homes of co-workers, distant family members, friends and acquaintances. But what is it that makes a gathering one where the person throwing it is entertaining vs. hosting?  Those two words are often synonymous with one and other, right?

 I always used to tell people that my husband and I loved to entertain.  What I mean is we love to have others over to our home, feed them, fellowship with them, laugh with them, etc. I wanted everything perfect. But, then I learned the true meaning behind entertaining.  I believe entertaining is more of a show.  To entertain I would want to be sure that my house was in perfect order, every nook and cranny was clean and spot free.  I would want the prettiest sitting room, the nicest furniture, the perfect ambiance...etc.  We have all been entertained in someone's home.  We are welcomed in, served wonderful food, tea, coffee, whatever refreshment, made small talk, etc.  It is an enjoyable experience most of the time (unless of course you don't know anyone else at the get together, then my friend, it can be uncomforatble). But, it is well...entertaining.

On the other hand, you have hosting.  What is the difference anyway?  A host is someone who provides a service to others.  So, think about it this way.  If you are entertaining you want the surface to be a certain way for the liking of or entertainment of your guests.  If you are hosting, you are soley interested in providing a service to others...making them feel at ease, comfortable, well cared for.  Have you ever been to a gathering like that.  Where you almost felt as though you were the guest of honor, as did everyone who came?  

For instance, if I were entertaining someone for dinner I might want to make a very wonderful meal  (one I am best at making of course) that had an appetizer, sides, and of course a wonderful dessert.  I would likely hope that the guest noticed the effort that I had put into the meal and maybe even the table setting.  In essence, it would kind of be about me...you know...look what I did for you.

If I were hosting someone for dinner, it would be more like asking the person what their tastes were, do they have any specific aversions or allergies.  If there are children involved I may ask what the children really like to eat.  I would plan for the unexpected and be sure I had things that would help my guests out (maybe an extra highchair or booster seat, special snacks, etc)  It becomes less about look at what I have done for you and more about what can I do to please you.  It is not about feeling inconvenienced for what the persons needs are, it is asking what they are with an attitude of service.  It is a very slight difference but it is a difference. 

I am going to keep this in mind as the holidays wind down and I am going to try to always be a host first and an entertainer second.
 

I love gifts.  I love to give them, get them, be surprised, be delighted..you get the picture.  At our church we usually hand out Christmas cards to the families that attend and the entire church participates.  But, I like to find surprises, so I figure others do to.  Last year I started thinking that it would be nice to be able to add a small little something in the cards, just so people would know I was thinking of them.  Thanks to Pinterest, I had the idea of using paint chips and cool stamps to create one-of-a-kind bookmarks.  

Not to be outdone, I figured that bookmarks were so last year, but now what?  I would love to give each and every one a gift but that is a bit cost prohibitive, so again I searched my friend, Pinterest.  I saw some ideas about using mason jar lids to make cool ornaments.  Hmmmm, I have lots of lids!  What if I personalized them too?  Who doesn't love a monogram now and then?  Thus, the idea was born.  In all I ended up making more than I had planned but with some little wooden letters and scrapbook paper, I think they turned out reallly cute!

I attached some twine and there you go.  Now, I have started something, I better be on the lookout for something good for next year's church Christmas cards!

And for the budget conscience (like myself) This set me back $14.85 for 36 gifts!!!
$1.50 per 12 pack of lids, I used 6 packs =$9
2 sheets of 12x12 scrapbook paper= $.85
2 bags of wood letters @ $2 each= $4.00
roll of twine $1

I made some of these as gifts last year and thought I would put them up in my storefront if anyone is interested.  I usually give tutorials on everything but a girl has to have a trick or two up her sleeve, right?  These necklaces are on 16" silver ball chains and can be personalized with up to 5 names or a short quote.  Leave me a comment if you are interested.  I charge $14 each with a $2 discount if you subscribe to my blogfeed (that makes them $12).  Shipping runs around $2.50 for most of the 50 states.

For the last several years I have tried to have a tradition of decorating a gingerbread house for my children.  We usually have one or two that I have found a good deal on and we share sides to decorate the house...though admittedly my children balk at having to share their creative designs with siblings.  And we never actually eat the gingerbread part of the house because it is hard as a rock, and just yuck after it comes from the store.  I just never gave any thought to making my own as I was sure it was a daunting task, and who has time for that, right? 

Okay, so I have to say that it was because of a good friend that I decided to try this out.  My friend and I were chatting and she mentioned that she had to bake the gingerbread for her children's annual gingerbread baking day...bake it?  (you mean as in do-it-yourself???)  I can't pull the old, I have too many kids for that one, because she has the same number of littles as I do!  I was a bit intrigued so I asked her and she told me that she had actually learned from yet another one of our friends (also a mama to 5) hmmmm....I'm going to have to try, afterall, if they can all do it.  Well, you get the picture.

I started by asking for the recipie and all the details and my friend was ever gracious.  It seems her husband (a talented woodworker) even went so far as to make her a mold of sorts to use for this annual day.  Oh, and she makes each of her children a house of thier own to decorate...yeah, I'm going to have to do that now too.  So, here is the mold my friend lent me.  Mold may not be the correct word but it isn't exactly a cookie cutter either.

The two slats are to gauge thickness and the templates are to lay on top of the dough and cut around.  Pretty ingenious of her hubby, huh?

I did the baking the night before.  This is where I had one of those "WHAT WAS I THINKING?" moments.  As I was baking I thought to myself, this isn't so bad, its kind of easy...what if I just let each of the older children invite a friend.  Famous last words.  Each of the recipie batches made me almost 2 houses, so since I now needed 7 houses, it was a long evening.  But, in the end it all worked out and I was pretty pleased with the end result, as were my children because afterall...isn't it much more fun to overdose on sugar with friends???

The next morning, before breakfast even, we decided we had better glue the houses together with the icing so that when friends arrived the houses would be set and ready for decorating.  I must say I was impressed with the "glue" it worked way better than the stuff that is in those Wilton decorating kit houses that are ready made.  (I always have ended up using hot glue to get those to stay together...I mean the kids didn't actually eat them so it was okay, right?)

I had some errands to run before friends arrived so we stopped by our local dollar store to stock up on some candy for the houses.  The candy set me back about $10 and when I added up all my ingredients I think this activity came in at under $20 for all 7 houses with candy, icing, etc.  I figure $3 a house is not too bad!

Here was our set up, my 3 y/o got to jump start his early so that he could nap during the older kid's festivities.

Then the friends came and creativity took flight.  These houses turned out AMAZING!

I think we just started a new tradition...

This makes a fantastic Christmas morning Breakfast, and it also happens to be hands down the best coffee cake I have ever tasted, we have been making this for years.  

Recipie:
Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  
  
• 4 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Raspberry Preserves (can sub strawberry too)
• GLAZE:
• 1-2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 T. melted butter

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, butter, shortening, extracts, baking powder and eggs. Beat on low speed until blended; beat on high for 3 minutes (VERY IMPORTANT TO BEAT FOR 3 MINUTES...makes it light and fluffy!). Stir in flour. (don't forget the flour, I have done this and lets just say it becomes...well, inedible...
2. Spread two-thirds of the batter into a greased 15-1/2-in. x 10-1/2-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Spread pie filling over batter; drop remaining batter by tablespoonful over filling. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until golden. Combine the confectioners' sugar and milk; drizzle over coffee cake. 

How does cotton grow?  What does it look like?  How is it harvested? Who invented the cotton Gin? What is the cotton belt?  We answered all of these questions thanks to an impromtu lesson on the cotton plant.  My mother has some gracious friends living in GA who sent us a real sample of cotton to use in our lesson (hands on learning is way better than text book!)  I found a wealth of knowledge on this website:
 http://www.cottonsjourney.com/storyofcotton/page3.asp

Grandma was also able to briefly stop by and add her knowledge to our lesson as well.  We learned that the cotton plant can only be successfully grown in the cotton belt (a spread of the lower states with long warm growing seasons) as it takes 25 weeks, or 150 frost free days to get to the end stages of a mature cotton plant.

We learned that with the invention of Eli Whitney's cotton gin (short for engine) that production of lint volume for workers was increased from 1lb to 50lbs per day.  Since cotton is so light we decided to weigh some to see just how much this would be...

This is the largest size bag of cotton balls that can be purchased at Walmart (it was about half gone) so we figured that the largest bag of cotton that we could purchase would still be just shy of 1 lb.  Imagine 50 lbs!

We discussed how hot it would have been to stand in the fields picking all day, and then as we looked closely at the cotton plant that we had we saw that there were small burs or prickers on the bottom of the cotton stalks which would have made it quite scratchy to pick. (though maybe not as bad as picking blackberries!)  We discussed what was made from cotton and checked the tags on all of our clothing to see who was wearing cotton.

The most interesting thing I learned was that the cotton seed is about the same size as an orange seed, though shrouded in fibers.  I don't know why I never thought of cotton having a seed before.  Those little bitty pieces in between my son's hands are the cotton seeds we picked out of one of the locks during our investigation.

We all decided that the natural cotton was actually softer then what came in that bag from walmart and though not quite as white (as the walmart cotton is bleached) it was surprisingly similar to the end result of what is purchased in the store.

We had a lot of fun and even mom learned new information...  Thanks so much to the Bakers from GA for helping us with our special homeschool science lesson!

This past weekend we decided to take the family out cruising to look at Christmas lights.  Luckily, we live just 20 minutes away from a fabulously impressive 100 acre light display that is free of charge and has been growing steadily for the last 15 years.  We visited a friend's Christmas party and filled our bellies before piling in our car and heading out to cruise.  The line was a bit longer then I would have liked, in fact from begining to end it took us almost an hour due to the traffic back ups...but the children were all so impressed with the displays that it made it worth it. (but for the record, we have gone on a week night before and next time, I think we will do a week night again).  

We all voted on our favorite display, the fire breathing dragon in the midst of the pond was my 3 year old's favorite because we just finished watching "How to Train Your Dragon II," My teenager and I both liked the 12 days of Christmas display which had numbers and a picture to go with each of the days of the song (kind of like hints that you had to figure out).  We tried to sing the whole song while driving by so it was quite loud and fast... but memories were being made here.

We all decided that Santa's workshop was the most elaborate:

The reindeer and whales were very creative:

We all liked the manger scene:

Then there was this...

He reminded me of a Dr. Suess elephant.  

As we all laughed and chatted on the way home and discussed our favorite displays, I was reminded that sometimes making family memories is just in the simplicity of togetherness.

Ever since we have had chickens I have been consistently amazed at all the uniqueness of animal husbandry.  We have chosen not to have a rooster, mainly due to my prior experiences with my mother's rooster (if a person wanted to escape the coop intact, you took a pitchfork to defend yourself from the rooster's fierce flogging). 

Honestly, I haven't found that we are lacking anything by having left the rooster to others.  I do find that those who do not have chickens shy away from farm fresh eggs because they have heard of the horror stories of finding a fertilized egg or partial chick in the egg. 

 For the record (as many of my non-farm friends did not know) if you don't have a rooster, there is zero chance of having anything besides an egg in your egg...i.e. no rooster, no fertilization.  Sounds simple enough but many do not know this tidbit.

Did you know that chickens need a roosting spot and if you don't keep them in a coop they will roost in almost anything that is off the ground overnight including low tree branches (we have found a stray girl roosting on top of the woodpile, the hay mound, the seat of a bike, etc when they don't get put up for the night).  Here is a snapshot of my girls roosting and also of the laying boxes we use, courtesy of my parents who shared with us when we moved to our farm.

One of the funniest things I have seen is when we had Turkeys and the Turkeys were so big that they would push the hens off the roosting slats.

What else is so interesting about the egg layer?  They will eat almost anything and though the "free range- all natural" egg cartons in the stores would have you believe differently by their "All Vegetarian Fed" logos, Chickens are carnivores...just wait till you ever see a mouse run through the coop...the chase is on!  I snapped the photo below as the girls were chasing stray bits of dog food I had dropped, like I said, they will eat almost anything!

Then there are the egg oddities...my kids love this part.  Some eggs are brown, some white, some blue, green and even shades of violet and pink.  We currently have all brown layers with the exception of one Easter Egger who lays green eggs.  When a chicken is young and first begins laying it is usually when they will lay doubles.  This happens as the ovulatory cycle in the young hen has not fully developed so often times with young layers, double yolks can be quite common.  As the hen gets older this becomes less likely. 

 Here is a snapshot of one of the cool doubles we got a week or so ago.  This one was so large that when we cracked it there were literally 2 full sized eggs inside (usually a double has smaller yolks and whites, kinda like human baby twin sets are oft times smaller than a single birth).

Then there was the strangest thing I have seen yet...well except for maybe the "Naked Eggs" which is where the egg is laid with a membrane only holding it all together and no shell...those are cool as it is like a water balloon...unfortunately I don't have a snapshot of one of those.  My oldest son brought in this little bitty baby egg and was so excited to see its diminutive form cracked in the pan...His sister asked for it to be posed for some photos first...

So, when we cracked it?  There was no yolk.  Strange.  My 3 y/o ate it as he prefers the whites of the egg anyway.  All in day of animal husbandry...see all the unique things that go on?

A few years back I stopped buying bread and buns at the grocery.  I figrued it was just healthier and cheaper if I made them, and they tasted better too.  I love that my breads, rolls, and buns only have a few ingredients (and I can pronounce all of them) and are all free from high fructose corn syrup and other additives.  

I missed the go-to easyness of a bag of burger buns until I found this recipie because it is really easy and forgiving enough even for the faint of heart.  The actual prep time is about 15 minutes then bake time but they are so worth it!

I gleaned the original recipie from Taste of Home but as always I tweak things a bit.

Ingredients

•  2 tablespoons active dry yeast
•  1 cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water (110° to 115°)
• 1/3 cup olive oil
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
•  1 teaspoon salt
• 3 to 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add oil and sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the egg, salt and enough flour to form a soft dough.
2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 3-5 minutes. Do not let rise. Divide into 12 pieces; shape each into a ball. Place 3 in. apart on greased baking sheets.
3. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Bake at 425° for 8-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool. Yield: 1 dozen.

So, I performed step #1 (before and after the 5 minutes) and here is what it looks like in pictures:

Many of my friends who do not make homemade bread say that the kneading part confuses them, it is not hard.  I just double the lump of bread over on itself again and again, when the recipie says until not sticky and elastic it should kind of bounce back when you pull a section and not just break off immediately...like this:

I form my dough into balls by taking a section and pushing it through a circle that I have made from my thumb and first finger.  The bottom of the roll ends up looking like this:

Finally I bake and the entire house is filled with a heavenly baking bread aroma!

We cut them open, butter them and brown them in a skillet before adding our delicious burgers.  I added some colorful red, white and purple fingerling potatoes and we have a meal!

I find that I have not had the time for posting lately and when I stopped to think about why that was I discovered that because the times I usually post (during nap times or very early in the a.m.) are currently times that I am working on Christmas stuff.  I am making a number of gifts and we have been busy, busy, busy here.  I thought it would be fun to just post a few pics of what we have been up to in the last week.

First, we had a Christmas party for all of our Sunday School classes at church last Sunday.  My teenage daughter and I were part of the face painting crew and therefore had to practice on one and other, but not to be outdone my 11 y/o wanted to help too!  I think she did a great job on that Christmas tree...Then there was the candy-cane man...not sure but I think he was in his sister's line during the party.  This was while he was at the cookie decorating station.

Both of my girls were invited to a cookie decorating celebration that was fun for them and then My oldest decided to really get into the spirit when she attended her Literature class this week at the library.  No worries, the Santa beard was after class!

Last night we attended The Nutcracker Ballet.  We have been so very blessed that for the last 12-13 years we have been able to attend this every year.  I have family whose employers sponser this event every year and therefore we always get to go to the final dress rehearsal.  This has become a huge tradition for our family as we are admitted for free (one year when we did not get tickets and I checked into prices I realized just how blessed we were to get to attend this event free).  

As always, my girls got dressed in their best, as did my boys and we went to enjoy an evening out.  

Finally, due to the late night out I promised a pajama day today.  Mom included.  We did school in pajamas and afterwards worked on Christmas projects.  That is the week in review and hopefully I will be posting more next week.  I actually cannot wait to share some of the Christmas gift projects but since some of my readers are recipients, that will have to wait till after Christmas! :)

Sometimes as parents we are privy to some of the most amazing moments.  The ones where we are so proud of something we have tried to convey to our children in our discussions, actions, and teachings.  It is when we see our children becoming what we have tried to mold them to be, and not where they see us fail.  I fail on a daily basis with my children.  I yell when I should be patient, I am distracted when I should pay close attention, I am irritable when I should be calm (you get the picture). However, I saw one of my children display one of the attributes that I have tried so hard to in-grain in them, and it made me feel so happy.


My eldest daughter came to me and asked if I would help her with something.  She had noticed a sweet little girl that we saw often who did not have a lot of clothing.  This little girl seemed to have one special dress (a very pretty summer dress) that she wore to church weekly, but nothing else.  My daughter asked if I thought that she could somehow surprise the little girl with a new dress for Christmas so that she would have at least a warmer dress and one that would make her feel pretty, and special.  I told her that I thought that was a great idea and asked her what she had in mind.  My daughter then began hunting online for just the perfect dress and trying to figure out a way to secretly give it to the little girl.  I was impressed, my daughter was not doing this for the recognition and warm fuzzy feeling we get when we make someone's day.  She actually was trying very hard to figure out how to avoid the little girl knowing who she was as she worried that the little girl would feel an obligation to her.  My daughter came up a bit discouraged at the prices of dresses so she came to me asking how she could make this happen as she didn't have quite enough money for what she wanted (afterall she only earns money infrequently babysitting).  I struck her a deal and offered to pay half, but that still required a large chunk of her almost not existant funds.  I kind of expected her to re-think her gift at that point, she was using almost her whole Christmas budget on a little girl who was not family, or a close friend, and whom she would not even have the pleasure of being thanked by as this was all going to be done secretly.  I was pleasantly surprised, she jumped up and ran to get her money.  


We ordered the dress in the size we thought would fit perfectly and my daughter was ecstatic.  She spent time typing a sweet note and wrapping the gift and she even figured out a way for someone completely unconnected to us to give the little girl the present.  My daughter was not only very concerned that the little girl not find out who the gift was from, but also that she not be embarrased so this was all done very covertly.  My daughter did not even know if she would recieve a report of the little girl's reaction.


I have to say I was so very proud of the generosity that my daughter showed.  She got it, a lesson I have struggled to always teach my children.  Do for others, it feels great, even when you don't get the recognition for something you did, it feels so good to give.  I think that is part of God's gift to us, rewarding us with that warm fuzzy feeling when we have done something good for someone else.  The gift of giving to others.


The best part of the whole story is that my daughter did get to find out about the little girl's reaction.  The go-between actually got to see the little girl open the gift, and get emotional about her excitement.  The little girl immediately wanted to know who gave it to her and the go-between was good to say only that someone wanted the little girl to have something special for Christmas.  My daughter got so excited when she heard how the little girl reacted, she said it made it so worth it.  


That my friends, is what Christmas spirit is all about.

I love pictures and I think that for grandparents and family they can make great gifts.  I also love companies like Shutterfly and Snapfish but what they charge for photo gifts can often be a bit pricey.  I wanted to come up with some inexpensive cute ways to make photo gifts.  Here is one that I really liked, photo ornaments. 

 I picked up the round, flat disk shape at Hobby Lobby in their Christmas crafting section, it was $1.99 with a 40% off coupon making it $1.19.  I already had the spray adhesive and the photo I wanted to use cost me .10 to print a 4 x 6 photo, so this project set me back $1.29. 

 Comparable ornaments from companies can cost between $10-$20 each so I think I did pretty good!

The spray adhesive works far superior to any glue I have found and isn't that hard to work with.  It was $6.99 (with 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby of course) when I purchased it about 4 months ago for a different project.  The key is to cover your workspace because the sticky overspray is a bit much.  If you get it on your fingers or countertop lemon oil or lemon juice helps it come right off.  

I took the ornament, laid it over the back of my photo.  I traced the circle onto the back of the photo, cut it out and sprayed the adhesive onto the back of the photo.  I then smoothed the photo directly onto the ornament base and viola!!!

This bread is absolutely fabulous!  I just made some yesterday to give as Christmas gifts to a few friends and it is so rich and delicious!  I did fail to snap a photo yesterday so I had to borrow the above stock photo from Taste of Home.  The original recipie has been tweaked by me enough that I cannot claim the recipie to be theirs any longer.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup Baking Cocoa
  
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/4 cups sour cream
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1-1/2 cups (10 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs, sour cream and butter until smooth. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.
2. Pour into a greased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350° for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. 
3. Once cooled melt additional chocolate chips with 1tsp Crisco or Coconut oil and drizzle over the top.

All I can say is...go get a large glass of milk!