The Best Hot Chocolate. Ever.

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  We were able to spend it together before the youngest of us took her family away to Kansas to live.  So it was a glad and sad time all rolled together.

My hubby loves to cook and has lately been on a soup kick.  Within the last three weeks we've had two different Butternut Squash soups, Split Pea soup, French Onion soup, Tomato Bisque, Chicken Noodle and a Ham & Potato soup.  Amazing how much better it tastes when it's made at home... and by someone else.  :)  I think the Christmas present he got me got him all revved up for blending and he just couldn't wait for the new Vitamix to arrive.  

 I've read the manual cover to cover, poured over recipes, and gone shopping for all sorts of ingredients.  So what was the first recipe to be whipped up in this powerful beast?!  Hot chocolate.  Ya see, I wanted to see if it really will heat up stuff when it's blended long enough.  And it does!  We've been long time hot chocolate fanatics and have settled on a super easy, super tasty blend that gets him rave reviews at home and at work.  (Yes, he makes stuff for his co-workers too.)

Here's the secret family recipe...

The Best Hot Chocolate.  Ever.
2 cups of water
2 cups of milk (we use 2%)
1 cup of Nestle Rich Milk Chocolate Hot Cocoa Mix

Put in the Vitamix and blend until it's hot (5 minutes or longer depending on heat preference).  Ta-da!  Doing it in the Vitamix seems to make it creamier than when we make it in our Hot Chocolate Maker.  Yes, I said Hot Chocolate Maker... I told you we were serious about it.  To really impress, add a little flavored syrup like raspberry or caramel, or top with whipped cream and dust with cinnamon.  It's just oozing comfort.

And here's a little extra sweetness for your cup of chocolate, it's the youngest of our tribe looking up at my 6'6" honey.  Gotta love the bow tie.

Oh Goodness...Moving:) Again

We are moving to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in a week and a half.  With all the stress that comes with moving, it's kind of cool to look back at our past moves and see the things we've had an opportunity to experience.

1. Moving to the South (Seriously, I should get extra points for an interplanetary move.  It is a whole different world down there!)

2. Three moves in one year.  (That's four different addresses in one year!  It's no wonder Jason keeps getting our current addresses wrong.) (Oh, and the fact that we currently have two addresses at the same time.)

3. Moving the week after Hurricane Katrina and the week before Hurricane Rita.

4.  Moving out of the country and the continent. (Germany)  Shipping cars.  Not one, but two sets of passports (army set and regular set).  Living for months without your stuff.  Learning a new language, new money, new set of driving rules/signs.

5. A move that lasted 6 months beginning to end.  Ilana got to attend two different schools and have three different classrooms and three different teachers that year. Ha, for the first year after that move, every time I saw a moving truck on Post I had a mini panic attack.  Tight chest, shortness of breath.  The real deal.  It took a whole year before I could see a moving truck and think, "Yeah, I could do that again."

6. Living in two different places at the same time, each home 3 hours apart for 3 years.

7. And now, we are moving not one, but two households in the span of three weeks.  All of this, knowing that in one year we will move again to a currently undetermined location of (maybe) our choice.  Added bonus for the kids?  Since we are moving in December, they get to attend a MINIMUM of four different schools and four different classrooms/teachers in two years in addition to homeschooling.

As I review these experiences I don't reflect on them as complaints or past trauma.  I have a good attitude.  I view them more in terms of how much my coolness factor will go up.  (Yes, yes, I'm a big sinner in the pride department.  "I'll work on it later," said Me, the ever optimistic procrastinator. :)

A friend asked me this week if I was nervous or excited to move to Kansas.  I immediately replied, "Excited.  It's fun to move new places and meet new people."  She responded with an exclamation of surprise.  She said "I could never do that!  Jason is very lucky to have you, you are perfect for him."  My answer to that, "Yes, I am perfect for him!" :)  (K, the words from the Franz Ferdinand song Do You Want To just came into my head.  Good song, check it out.  You’re Lucky, lucky, you're so lucky)

In truth, there is always a part of me that loves the clean break from the past.  I can be anyone I want to be and no one will know the difference.  :)  Totally outgoing or a complete recluse at church or with my new neighbors.  Moving is a great time to break old habits and begin healthy new ones, never mind that they probably won't last:)  Is it hard to move around a lot in the Army?  Sure, but it was only after I got a snake out of our house by myself (Jason was deployed) that I realized, "I can do anything."  I'm grateful the army has shown me what I am capable of.

The only real trauma to moving so often has been the geographical loss of very real and wonderful friends.  When we left Germany I cried, .....A LOT.  I loved it there so much.  I do miss it still but after a few months I came to realize something.  The thing I missed most were the friends I would never see again and eventually lose altogether because of the ravages of space and time.  Yes, there is Facebook and email but it isn't the same.  Of course, in the midst of that loss there is a gain of new friendships waiting to happen.

To all my old friends, "I miss you."  Thank you for your friendship.  Right now as we are in the path of that wrecking ball that is a military move, we thank you.  Especially to all those friends and family that have helped us with the mechanics of moving.  Watching our kids, taking our random items that couldn't move with us, helping us drive cars cross country, letting us crash at your homes and lending us things.  We miss you.  We love you.  God be with you til' we meet again.