Smores Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love to bake on Sunday afternoons. And sometimes I'll let Caroline skip her nap to help me whip up some treats. Today we made Smores Chocolate Chip Cookies. And then we ate them all...while Thomas napped. Straight out of the oven these mini treats are sooooo warm and ooooeyy gooooey. It's hard to stop at just 4. Okay, 5. But they are mini cookies...so that's like 2 regular sized cookies, right?

 

Smores Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Chocolate Moosey

 

Ingredients
 

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup cinnamon graham cracker crumbs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
15 marshmallows, cut in half lengthwise
30 chocolate pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Grease two mini muffin pans.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until creamy, 2-3 minutes. Beat in the egg then add the vanilla. Add the graham cracker crumbs then gradually beat in the flour mixture. Add the chocolate chips.
4. Divide the dough among 30 mini cups (roughly 1 1/4 inch balls). Bake 10 minutes. Immediately press a marshmallow half into each cup.
5. Preheat the broiler. Broil the marshmallows until they are puffed and toasted (you may need to rotate your pans if your broiler doesn't heat evenly). Immediately top with a chocolate piece. Let cool completely before removing from the pans.

Five on Friday!

Only ONE more Friday until Christmas!!! Can you believe it?!  

one. Last weekend we had our friends Sara and Wyn over for a game night. We played our faaaaavorite game -- The Game of...THINGS! We've owned this game for years and used to play it a lot when we hosted regular game nights before kids. It is SO fun and hilarious. And the more people playing the more fun the game is.

two. I recently snagged a new work dress! The fit is so flattering, the material is really high quality and it's comfortable -- which is important because I drive a LOT for work and like to be comfortable when I travel. Another travel perk? I've worn this dress twice this week in different cities! Oh, and it's on sale right now too!

three. On Tuesday McKinsey hosted her annual gift exchange! There were 18 girls in attendance this year and lots of good gifts.The candles are always the most fought over gifts...and they were again this year. I brought a Volcano candle (stolen 3x!) and left with a Benefit Cosmetics Set (stolen 2x!)!! You can read about how our exchange works here and previous gift exchanges: 2016 | 2015 | 2013

four. We got a little snow last weekend!!! Caroline was SOOOOOO excited. And we were too. It's always a huge deal in Charlotte when we get some flurries. 

Cowl-Neck Sweater (on sale) | Leggings (on sale) | Sueded Booties (on sale)

five. Tom Tom had an eye doctor appointment yesterday! He is obsessed with his Superman Cape right now and insisted on wearing it to his appointment, and to breakfast, and to school yesterday. Although Thomas didn't tolerate the dilating, pressure check, alignment exam or eye exam portions of the visit we got a great report from Dr. D! Now that he is talking a lot more we were able to do an eye chart exam which was really incredible. We started with ginormous pictures of animals on the screen and went all the way down to a size smaller than the palm of my hand. We are so grateful and blessed for such amazing progress.

Happy weekend, friends!

Christmas Around the House!

Our halls are decked for our first Christmas in our new home!  

Let's start with my favorite part of our house -- our staircase garland! As I mentioned on Instagram, this project was truly a labor of love that was worth every hour (about 13 total), 3 trips to Trader Joes, 2 craft store runs and one fight with my husband. But like I said -- worth it. Matt and I are so in love with the garland and he gets equal credit for staying up till midnight (twice) holding garland for me in just the right spots (no wait, a little to the left, nooooo I said LEFT, no sorry, I meant right. Now up tiny bit. More. More. More! Perfect.) while I tied one million twigs together.

We decorated about 20 feet of banister using 4 fresh white pine garlands, 5 bunches of mixed eucalyptus, 4 bunches of silver dollar eucalyptus and 24 yards of ribbon. All of the greenery was purchased at Trader Joes.

Once the garland was finally finished I stood back to admire our work with tears streaming down my face. I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude for our home. We've worked so ridiculously hard this year to make it our own and I truly feel so blessed that it is ours.  I still can't believe it when I pull into the driveway at times. It's been such a dream come true for us.

I had always dreamed of having a fireplace one day in our home. And now we have one! If I'm home, you can bet we have a fire going.

We did have a few sad moments while unpacking the Christmas boxes. There were several reminders of Charlie. His stocking took my breath away when I unexpectedly stumbled upon it as I was flipping through the stack. And then came the ornaments. Every year my mom has a family ornament made for us and Charlie has always been included. We miss him dearly and Caroline still asks when he's going to come back because she misses him so much.

Every year I frame our Christmas card and it has brought me SO much joy to see them add up over the years. I absolutely loving walking past this table in our house.

Previous Christmas Cards 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 coming soon!

This year Matt, Thomas and I decided to get a live flocked tree! You know who was adamantly opposed to it? Caroline. After a strong "But I don't want snow on my Christmas tree!" meltdown we compromised and let her pick out a mini tree without snow for the play room. Everyone was happy.

 Ta-da! 100% decorated by Thomas & Caroline. But mostly Caroline.

 Handmade gingerbread man...also by Caroline.

And now for our tree!

Gosh I love this tree so much. It is so unlike me to not top this tree off with a massive bow. However, when I saw this Moravian Star Tree Topper I knew we had to have it. Matt is from Winston-Salem so I knew he'd love it so much.

Tree Collar Basket // Moravian Star Tree Topper

Previous Christmas Trees: 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011