And the winners are....

Oh yes I said winners, cause I can't just choose one, there are of course three choosers in this family aren't there?! And it is oh it's so tempting for you to simply be totally surprised when your packages arrive, but that really isn't fair is it? Hopefully there will be some surprises.

I put everyone's names in a bowl and let each child choose a name.

Becca pulled out Kelly's name, Emily pulled out Kristy's and Sam, Grandma Mutti's! So I'm packaging everything up and mailing them out first thing tomorrow morning so they will arrive by Valentine's Day. I'm so excited!

Today had a couple of rough spots, so I'm really glad I have some fun and exciting things to totally out weigh the tears -- nothing serious, nothing major, everyones okay, we're all just a little more experienced in this game called life (the full story in another post, I promise!).

My other bit of exciting news, call it a bonus prize of sorts, I found a delicious Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe this morning just in the nick of time! Today was Emily's turn to be "Special Person" this month and wanted to take Chocolate Chip Muffins as her snack for the whole class. Not wanting to use a mix and not finding a recipe in any of my favorite and trusted cookbooks, I turned to the internet this morning at 6am to see what I could find.

I made the first recipe I opened ... with 99 reviews and an average overall rating of 5 stars out of 5 ... I figured I was pretty safe. They are fantastic. I sent 24 with Emily to school, ate the left over three for breakfast, and just pulled a third batch out of the oven for dessert tonight. So yummy, so beautiful, so easy! Wouldn't they make a fun Valentine's Breakfast treat?

Chocolate Chip Muffins, adapted from a recipe posted on Mr Breakfast.com
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light-brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
6 tablespoons butter - melted and cooled
2 eggs beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400°F and line twelve muffin tins with your favorite papers.

In a large bowl, stir together, flour, sugars, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, stir together milk, eggs, butter and vanilla until blended. make a well in the center of dry ingredients; add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into muffin cups; bake 15-17 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin to wire rack; cool 5 minutes and remove from tins to finish cooling.

Serve warm.