ready for some hot cocoa?

Once the Christmas tree is done, the next thing the kids asked for is the cocoa station. It has become kind of a tradition, it also lasts through the rest of winter since it gets chilly in the DC area, and there is a fair amount of walking back from school.

I like to change it slightly every year. Here is last year (2015)

And here is the previous here (2014) 

and the year before that (2013).

This time, I built a nice mug holder, following this tutorial from Shanty 2 Chic.

It is basically a 2x2 with 2 pieces of wood as the base. I had to spray paint my hooks as they were steel color, and of course I had to touch up the screws (I sprayed into the lid of the can and used the paint  with a Qtip to cover the heads of the screws). For the top, I glued this cool knob on the top (from HomeDepot). Miss C. is my artist, so she made me this cool sign, it is on a black piece of paper, cut to size to fit inside my chalkboard easel (which is slightly too small to write properly...)

There are all the required fixing: powder chocolate (waiting for milk), marshmallow, chocolate covered marshmallow, whipped cream and my favorites: cookies!

These are only put out on special occasions, otherwise we would have a very happy dog! Malou is truly my dog and we share a love of cookies, she has been know to borrow them (permanently) when left unattended... This weekend was so cold, we had to spend some time hanging around the table, drinking cocoa and sharing cookies.... the good life!

Happy day!