by Kelli Bowen
If you are anything like me, today's look at the advent calendar put your anxiety into overdrive. It's ONE WEEK people! We have cooking, baking, shopping, planning, packing, wrapping, Christmas pageanting, yet there's still work, school, practice, rehearsal, and life. Before grabbing the Christmas wrapping to fashion your own hyperventilation bag, please remember: it's all going to be okay. Everyone else is going through the same thing. Well, they are if they have someone to celebrate the season with anyway.
If I'm cooking and baking, it's because I get to share a meal. If I'm shopping, it's because I have someone so special to me that I want to be sure to give them something this holiday. If I'm planning, I'm trying to share my most precious of commodities: time. If I'm packing, that means I get to travel to see someone or something worth traveling to see.
I get to go to a Christmas pageant because I get to share my life with someone who will be thrilled to see me in the audience when she sings her solo and says her line about carrying Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem (spoiler alert - she's a donkey).
I get to work because I'm gainfully employed. I get to drop kids off at their school to learn. I get to help my children practice hobbies that they love and rehearse for events they want to share with their friends and teammates. So before I let crabby, anxiety-riddled, Kelli win the day, I'm going to twist my perspective just a bit because if this week was a boring week, I'd have a much-less rich life and for that I am grateful.
As one of my top 5 movies of all time, "It's A Wonderful Life" so beautifully states: "No man is a failure who has friends." May you be as fortunate as I to get to share some time with them in the near future.
Now enough with this ooey gooey business, we have work to do!
Speaking of ooey gooey, here's a quick and EASY fudge that works in a pinch.
- 3 cups of chocolate chips, you pick the kind and you can mix it up if you want different flavors
- 14 ounces of Sweetened Condensed Milk,
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- Sea salt if you're feeling a little sassy
Line an 8 x 8 pan with parchment paper
Combine ingredients over medium low heat until your chips are melted, stir everything together until completely melted
Pour mixture onto parchment paper and give the pan a little shake to settle the fudge, or use a rubber spatula to smooth it out.
Let it completely set and cut
As you share your treats and time with your friends and family, try to remember the reason for the season and kick your little crabby, anxiety-riddled nay-sayers to the curb...or drown them in eggnog.
Merry Christmas!!
Kelli makes her home in Billings County with her husband, two daughters and a dog. She works for North Dakota's #1 tourist destination by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend, and writer by night.
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