What do you do if Christmas is just around the corner and you are too tired to even think of baking cookies, wrapping, shopping and decorating? You take a break. Christmas is about hygge, love and having a good time so why don’t you start with giving yourself a hygge break before you spread the hygge to those you love? Just like the oxygen mask on the airplane: put it on yourself before you help others. Love and hygge is very hard to spread if you cannot feel it. So give yourself a little love with a hygge break in the middle of all the to-do-lists. Like me right now. Nothing has been baked, lots of presents to wrap, there are two big baskets of laundry to fold right in front of me and the Christmas tree hasn’t even been decorated. Guests are coming Thursday. Yet, here I am. Enjoying a hot cup of chocolate out of my favorite hygge cup… After a little hygge break I will be ready to enjoy preparing for what should be “the most wonderful time of the year”. And I plan on have plenty of those hygge breaks throughout this Christmas to keep the holiday mood going. Christmas will be much better if you are happy and relaxed. So before I go, let me just give you the best recipe for hot chocolate I know…

Kirsten’s hot chocolate

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon whole milk

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup sugar

A little extra whole milk for the chocolate paste

How to make it:

In a medium sized pot heat the milk up to just below the boiling point (do not let it boil!)

In a bowl stir together the cocoa and sugar. Slowly add a little milk and stir it until it forms a thick paste

Add this paste to the hot milk

Serve with whipped cream on top and maybe a splash of peppermint extract / a peppermint stick