It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Never-ending Monopoly games

Lots of skiing

Snuggles with Memoo

Snowman building

Christmas carols by candlelight

and delicious cake-balls!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Brownie Cheesecake Peppermint Bars...

Do not even try to figure out the calories in these bars...because it is A LOT and if you think about that you will not enjoy them near as much! Happy Eating!

I adapted my recipe from THIS

Take your store bought cookie dough and line the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Bake until lightly browned and then let cool.

Mix up a batch of boxed brownies, adding 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract before baking. (according to the box directions).  Once out of the oven, pour into a bowl and break the brownies into small pieces.  Then immediately add 8 oz. of cream cheese and stir until smooth.  Spread this over your cooled cookie layer.  I put this in the fridge while I melted my white chocolate, so it would set up a little faster.

Next melt 12 oz of white chocolate over a double boiler.

While the chocolate is melting, unwrap a package of Dove peppermint chocolate.  I put them in a ziplock and then use meat tenderizer or rolling pin to break them into fine pieces.

Once your white chocolate is melted, pour it over your brownie/cream cheese layer.  Then sprinkle your chopped Dove candy pieces on top.

Before I put them in the freezer to harden, I "scored" them so they would be easier to cut once they were completely hardened.  (If I was smart, I would have lined the pan with foil before baking the sugar cookie layer...but this still worked)

The finished product!

It's really December already?

Really?  How did the first week of December already fly by?

One of the reasons it has probably gone so fast, is that Brad is back in Vienna until next week.  He and Lindsay are helping our new teammates, the Beilman's get settled. He has also been able to catch up with some of our friends and neighbors, play in some snow and preach 2 Sundays at NCW!

This weekend our kiddos had the opportunity to sing in St.Andrews' Christmas concert.  Brad's mom (Neena) had been in the choir for years, and this was one of her favorite concerts to participate in.  It was a little bittersweet to watch the kids perform without her.  I am sure these next few weeks will only bring more moments of sadness as we celebrate our first Christmas without her.

We also are preparing to start saying our goodbyes, as we get ready to return to Vienna in January. Our next few weeks are filled with lots of dinners and parties, and even though they will be lots of fun, our kids will be saying goodbye to their classmates and teachers that they have spent the last 5 months with.
We are so proud of them and their willingness to jump into life here!  All of their teachers have expressed to us what a joy they have been in their classes, and how much they will be missed.

Still,  as much as we will hate saying goodbye to our family and friends~ we all are ready to get back to our life and ministry in Vienna!  We have needed to be here and our time has been productive, but we are ready to get back to our "normal" routine. (whatever "normal" means...Ha!)

Our plan is to head to North Carolina with our family for a few weeks once the kids are out of school, then we will return to Florida for one more week, before we depart on January 13th.

If you are wanting an address to send a Christmas card to, your best bet is :
St. Andrews Pres. Church
500 North Park Road
Hollywood, FL
33021
(please be sure to write on the envelope Att. Hunter Family)