Holiday Cheer - Family Traditions and Mint Cookies

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By Sarah Hoss

Thanks for having me here today Anna! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

I am here to talk to you today about holiday traditions. I imagine we all have them. I have many in my family.   One tradition we have with the children is that when they go to sleep, we go and get out thumb dirty with soot from the fireplace and then put a thumb print on the children’s faces. Usually the cheek or forehead. See, Santa can’t put the presents out until he knows the children are a sleep so he goes and checks to make sure. When they wake up, the first thing they do is run to the bathroom to see if Santa had left his mark!

(If you don’t have a fireplace, you can use the exhaust from a muffler. I did that once and used the black soot from a burning candle jar.)

 Another tradition that I treasure a lot is getting together with the women in my family and we spend the day making cookies and candies. We play Christmas music, talk, and ….shhh….sample a little here and there as we go!

We make anything from buckeyes, sugar cookies, rock candy, peanut brittle, chocolate covered pretzels and mint cookies. Just to name a few.

 

The recipe I want to leave you with today is for the mint cookies. It will be the easiest recipe you will get here I imagine. Do you like the Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies? Now you can make them yourselves.

 

MINT COOKIES

**You will need peppermint flavoring, Ritz crackers, and melting chocolate.

**Melt the chocolate and then add a few drops of the peppermint flavoring. We add about 2-3 but it is up to your taste on how strong you want it.

**Mix it up then dip the Ritz cracker in the chocolate and lay it on wax paper.

**THAT’S IT!  And it is as close to the real thing as you can get! 

 

 

BOOK BLURB:

When forgiveness heals the soul, love heals the heart. 

Flight nurse Tenlee Hawkins is used to making quick decisions, but one decision she made the Christmas day her mother died haunts her. Wrestling with the past, she spirals into depression—until the day she finds a man unconscious in her woods and saves his life.

When Sam awakens in the hospital with a concussion and no memory, Tenlee rescues him again. She takes him into her home and her life. But as Sam recovers and remembers who he is, he's torn. A guardian angel isn't supposed to fall in love.

As the promise of true love grows, Tenlee realizes that Sam has helped her much more than she ever helped him. But Sam is filled with guilt knowing he must soon leave. Will it take a Christmas miracle to find the life with Tenlee he’s always wanted?

EXCERPT:

Red and blue lights pulsed a beat all on their own, and even though the road was slick, people ran to and fro in a frantic pace to save a woman’s life.

A car sat mangled on the side of the road. The roof, having been cut, rested on the ground beside it. A few feet beyond, a woman lay motionless. She wasn’t breathing as the EMT’s worked desperately to save her life. Sam closed his eyes and said a silent prayer. But it was no use. If he was here for an assignment then the lady on the ground was not going to live. He said another prayer, hoping that there would be no pain and she would slip easily into his world.

The woman with the red hair sat on the ground near the deceased woman and cried, rocking back and forth.

“That is her mother.”

Malachi’s deep voice broke into his thoughts and Sam turned to acknowledge him.

“No, keep watching,” Malachi said.

The scene on the screen changed. Months passed, for now the trees were green and glorious in their summer splendor. A manicured lawn hugged a log cabin, nestled in the woods. Flowers sprung from pots here and there along the ground and deck. The place looked cozy. Scenes continued to change as did the weather. Snow decorated the landscape once again.

 Searching the scene for all of the details he could gather, Sam spotted her, just past the cabin, in the woods. She sat quietly on a swing hanging from a tree branch. The sadness etched in her features gripped Sam and tore at his emotions. He ached to go to her, to comfort her.

AUTHOR BIO:

Sarah Hoss grew up believing she could try anything and if she set her mind to it, she would succeed. Sixteen years of dance lessons, Cheerleading, and school plays proved to her that her parent’s words rang true. Writing was no exception. Reading the Outlander series made her fall in love with time travels and the historical places books could take her. Always a child with a vivid imagination, she realized as an adult, she could put her imagination to good use and began writing. Marrying her very own hero, they live in Indiana in the town where she grew up. They have three beautiful children and one hyper dog. When Sarah isn’t writing, she enjoys gardening, camping, and watching her kids’ play sports.

Where to find Sarah-

Twitter- @SarahHoss1

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Hoss/237219983049037

  Website- www.sarahhoss.com
  Blog- www.heart-of-romance.blogspot.com

  You can also find Sarah on LinkedIN, Goodreads, and Pinterest.

 

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