It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

Hey everyone!! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I cannot believe it is already December! Time has really flown by this year faster than I thought it would. I have less than three weeks of school left, including a week of exams.

 My family got our Christmas tree on Sunday, and just brought it into our house last night! We haven't decorated it yet, but I am soooo excited to do that! Here is a picture of our tree from last year (I was messing around with the bluriness-its intentional!)

Decorating a Christmas tree is honestly is one of my favorite things to do in Christmas time! ... Along with doing advent calendars  (my family has two) and BAKING!

One recipe that I love to bake anytime of the year, but especially around Christmas, is for pretzel buttons! My friend sPg always makes them for Christmas, and I was so excited last year when I stumbled across this recipe on Pinterest. The original recipe was intended for Valentine's Day, but I love them during Christmas! Last year's batches looked so much better than the ones I made this year, so here is what they should look like!



They are really simple to make, and they are great gifts for your friends, or for a hostess, as well! They are also the perfect sweet to have out at a Christmas party! At my family's annual Christmas open house, we had them sitting out for people to much on, and they disappeared quickly! Last year I put them in small mason jars with custom stickers, and gave them to family and neighbors.

Here's the recipe!

You will need:
- A bag of M&M's
- A large bag of pretzels (I have found that the square pretzels work best, but normal shaped mini pretzels or the ones that are just circles work fine as well.)
- 1 or 2 bags of Hershey's Hugs (The candy cane Hugs work, and so do Hershey's Kisses!)
- Parchment Paper
- 1 cookie sheet

Side note on the HUGS: This year I used a combination of Hugs from early 2013 and brand new HUGs. The melting process did not move at the same speed for the different kinds, so I encourage you to use all new ones, or at least ones that were all bought at the same time!

Side note on the M&M's: This year I tried mini M&M's, but I think the normal sized ones work best!

Step 1: Fit a piece of parchment paper to your cookie sheet.

Step 2: Begin placing pretzels on the sheet. I normally try to fit as many as possible.

Step 3: Unwrap your HUGS, and place one HUG on top of every pretzel.

Step 4: When you are half way done with unwrapping and placing the HUGS, preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 5: Place your pretzels and HUGS in the oven for about 5-6 minutes (brand new HUGS will take far less time than older ones). You do NOT WANT to melt the HUGS, just to have them be soft. They will be shiny when you remove them from the oven!

Step 6: Get your arms ready! As soon as you remove the pretzels from the oven, place a M&M on top of the HUG. You can decide how far you want to push them, it's all up to you!

Step 7: Place the buttons in the fridge for a few minutes to let them set. Then you can package them!

If you try this recipe, tell me how it goes! I highly recommend them!

XOXOXO,

Kels