Hot Chocolate

 
"Storm Tracker 2012!!!"  

Folks, you might want to stay home 

because we may get 6 whole inches of snow!!!  

For those of us in the good old Midwest as kids, 

six to ten inches of snow was no big whoop...  

The weatherman would sort of roll his eyes 

during his segment of the evening news 

and run through the snowy forecast...  

No biggie...  

"It's snowing again... "

These days they practically call out 

the National Guard if it drizzles... 

So, Mother Nature was quite tardy this year, 

bringing us our first real snowfall of the season today... 

It's like Christmas all over again, 

what with the anticipation and excitement...

The kids can hardly wait to get out of school to play

in the newly fallen snow...

"I'm gonna make snow angels!" Kate declared. 

My mother loved the snow if only for the fact 

that we would disappear into the ravine 

across the street to sled for hours...  

It was steep and bowl shaped, 

with a small hill at the bottom... 

If you hit that hill just right, 

you and your sled would fly into the air, 

 and cross atmospheres before descending

into the creek at the far end...  

My brother would ice down that little hill

just to amp up the trajectory to warp speed...
  

We and the neighborhood kids would sled 

until we couldn't feel our fingers and toes anymore...  

We would emerge into the warm house, 

full of ice burrs on our clothes 

and cheeks as pink as peonies in May...

And the best part would be that Mom 

would have the liquid chocolate piping hot, 

along with some cookies on a plate... 

Sounds like a commercial for Toll House cookies?  

Well, it was awesome.  

So today is a hot chocolate day...

I stopped by my favorite Hispanic market 

this morning to buy Abuelita's Hot Chocolate... 

My current entrepreneurial idol, Ree Drummond, 

has a great recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate...  

Let's give it a try, shall we?  

As for the cookies, store bought is going to have to do...  

I'm not channeling June Cleaver today...