How to Create a Hot Chocolate Bar of Heaven!

One thing that always pops into my head when I think about the magic of Winter is hot chocolate.

Oh, there is just something so lovely and comforting about my hands and my tummy being warmed by a nice, big mug of this heavenly drink!

So when I saw the idea over at Your Home-Based Mom I was inspired and cried out, “I MUST DO SOMETHING SIMILAR IMMEDIATELY!”

Once a month, our church hosts a meeting of 40-50 Mommies who are all seeking to build Happy Homes.  I thought a Hot Chocolate Bar would be a super special treat for them.

So, throwing New Year’s Resolutions of losing weight to the birds, we came up with this…

Okay – are you getting inspired yet?  Are you salivating?!?!

That beautiful red crock-pot is full of delicious hot chocolate.  The gal over at Your Homebased Mom says that her best recipe for hot chocolate is simply the Nestle Hot Chocolate Mix.  But her trick is to make sure she uses whole milk and vanilla extract as her secret ingredients.  She says that for one gallon of milk she adds a few teaspoons of vanilla.  The whole milk and vanilla give just the perfect creaminess and chocolatiness that make everyone go bananas!

I love Moms who find easy ways to make delicious wonderments!

I picked up those delicious-looking peppermint sticks in the Wal-Mart holiday clearance section.

My Happy Home friend, Angela (Mommy of FOUR awesome boys), crushed up some Malted Milk Balls and Heath Bars and Nutty Bars (see below) for us to sprinkle on top!

The lady who checked my groceries at Wal-Mart while purchasing ingredients for our Hot Chocolate Bar informed me that I needed cinnamon sticks for a Mexican-ish touch to our chocolate.  I am not even kidding when I tell you that this grocery checker happened to be a Hot Chocolate Connoisseur.  I thanked the Lord over and over for all her advice and tips!  Everyone LOVED it!

She also told me to buy some sprinkles!  Chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, snowflake sprinkles, etc.  They all add a magical and colorful touch!

This beauty here was put together by my Happy Home friend, Wendy.  I asked her if she could bring chocolate shavings, so she lovingly shaved the most decadent kind of chocolate bar for us to also sprinkle on top of our cups of steaming cocoa.

She was razzing me about this because apparently it took her a long time to shave all that!  I had no idea that it would be such a labor of love as I have never shaved chocolate before.  She told me that with every stroke of her arm she was repeating, “I love Julie.  I love Julie,” to comfort herself. 🙂  She is a Mommy Superhero.

And don’t forget all that whipped cream in the background.  You cannot have hot chocolate without whipped cream.

That’s a law.

On top of the homemade stuff, we had some packets of cocoa available – just in case.

A bowl of Hershey’s Hugs and Kisses is another nice feature to our Hot Chocolate Bar.

Do NOT forget the mini marshmallows!!!!!

P.S. You can see my reflection in the lid of that container!  Hello!

And I am of the opinion that fun straws make everything taste better.

I picked up those magical straws in the clearance bins at Wal-Mart, too!  They were only 25 cents for a pack of 5!

What do you think, Happy Home Friends?

I think a Hot Chocolate Bar would be a fabulous way to have a Girl’s Night Out or a fun play-date with friends this month!  And we can’t forget Valentine’s Day!  What a romantic/yummy way to celebrate with a bunch of loved ones!  Ask everyone to bring some sort of topping and pretty soon you will have a spread that will have you in absolute heaven!

Happy Hot Chocolate Bar Create-ing! 🙂

“Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalm 34:8