One of our family traditions is having a gingerbread house + hot cocoa night soon after Thanksgiving. I’ll be sharing with you how I made my orange & cream hot chocolate using Keurig 2.0, one of my favorite ways to drink hot cocoa. This post has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #Keurig400 #CollectiveBias
My favorite family tradition I had while growing up was to go out to dinner at a restaurant with my whole family after we finished reading the Book of Mormon. We would read together as a family every night, right before dinner time and most of the time I was never excited to participate(who makes you read for 15 mins. right before dinner time when you’re hungry and you can smell the food that’s just waiting for you? My parents. So cruel!) but I did love going out to eat! That was pretty much the only time we went out to eat, like 1-2 times a year, so everyday I would grab the rest of the pages of the book that we have left to read and see how much thinner it got over time and would get so excited when it would get thinner and thinner, until we were on the last page of the book. We always went to some really cheap buffet(like seriously cheap like $3 buffets. But I guess in Korea it’s cheaper), but to me it was like Christmas, it only happens once a year!
So now that I have my own family, I love starting traditions on my own, like for one, we go out to eat way more than just once a year. Ha! Another tradition we have is right after Thanksgiving, we build a gingerbread house while sipping on hot cocoa and listening to Christmas music. Did you know that having family traditions helps the kids to bond, form an identity and feel secure in the home? I read the article here, if you’d like to read it.
My kids love adding as many sweets as they are allowed to, they put heaps of marshmallows, candy canes, and chocolate chips, but my favorite way to drink hot cocoa is to put marshmallows and squeezing a slice of orange into the hot cocoa! The marshmallows make it frothy and creamy, while the orange gives it a hint of fruity and tangy taste. It tastes very fresh and delicious, you should try it.
Orange & Cream Hot cocoa
Ingredients:
Hot chocolate
A slice of orange
Mini marshmallows
Directions:
1. Make hot chocolate.
2. Squeeze in a slice of orange
3. Add mini marshmallows and stir.
Here are the gingerbread houses my girls built this year, on Thanksgiving day after our feast! Aren’t they adorable?
I love the little sidewalk she made using pretzel sticks!
I made the orange & cream hot cocoa using Keurig 2.0 and the Swiss Miss hot chocolate K-cup packs and let me be honest, I was dreading opening up the box and setting up the brewing machine, I hate assembling or setting up anything, it just intimidates me(which is why I just watched a video and learned how to thread my serger last week after I’ve had it for 3 years!). So I opened up the box, and I set it up while my husband was gone which is even more intimidating since he’s not there to help me in case I get confused by the instruction manual, but let me tell you, I set it up in 3 steps! You plug it in, fill up the side with water, and put in the hot chocolate K-cup pack and press a button! I was literally grinning a little and thinking, “Oh, that’s it? Awesome!!!” So if you hate assembling or setting up any machine, you’ll find it so easy. I loved how I didn’t have to open the K-cup pack seal, the machine just pokes the top and the bottom with a little hole and does everything for you.
I received another Keurig® 2.0 to gift to someone which makes a great holiday gift and I am planning on giving it to my brother-in-law David, who goes to Starbucks every single day to get his coffee. Starbucks is one of the brands out of the 400 beverage varieties from 60 brands for Keurig® 2.0 so he’ll be able to save so much money! He can brew a single cup or a four-cup carafe of coffee, and the new Keurig® 2.0 features a Keurig 2.0 Brewing Technology™, which reads each lid to deliver a perfect beverage every time. Fancy, fancy!
If you’d like to purchase one to gift for the Holidays, they’re available for purchase at Walmart.
*I have one more sponsored post later on today(a yummy drink recipe) and another one next week, and then that’s it, no more sponsored post galore where I post several in a week! Whew. Once again, thank you so much for your understanding and for supporting this little blog of mine. You can read about why I had so many the past 2-3 weeks on this post.
David Dial says
What a great gift idea! Now that we are heading into the middle of winter, the thought of having a delicious cup of coffee ready at the touch of a button is really appealing. Thanks for sharing! #client