Movie & Sprinkle Popcorn

Jason finished finals on Friday and we have been enjoying every minute of having him around!! We aren't traveling for the holidays and he doesn't have to go back to school until January 4th. That is 17 days of spending time together as a family!! In our entire marriage, we have never had this much time off when we weren't going somewhere. We are so excited!! While we will miss our families at this time of year, we know that our children need lots of Momma and Daddy time.

Tonight, we watched a movie that I haven't seen since I was a nanny ten years ago. Do you remember The Prince of Egypt? A couple of weeks ago, I told Jackson the story of Moses and the Israelite's exodus from Egypt into the promised land. He loved the story so much that we've been reading it from all of our different Bibles. I remembered the movie and thought he would love it, so we rented it last night.

After naps today, we finished decorating our tree and then ordered pizza and put in our movie.

Jackson's favorite movie treat is popcorn drizzled with chocolate and then covered in sprinkles. I love making it because it isn't too bad for us and it's super easy. Here's what I do:

I pop 1/2 cup of popcorn with 3 tablespoons of coconut oil in my Whirley Pop that my brother-in-law Jonathan bought me for Christmas last year and which I love. After it's popped, I spread it on a large cookie sheet or jellyroll pan and sprinkle some salt on it. Then, I melt the chocolate. I have learned through many trials and errors that chocolate chips do not work nearly as well. In fact, I will never make it with melted chocolate chips. I use baking semi-sweet or German's sweet chocolate. I melt it in the microwave, stir it well, and then use a fork to drizzle it all over the popcorn.

Once I'm done with the chocolate drizzle, I sprinkle sprinkles all over it. Jackson likes LOTS of sprinkles. In the spirit of Christmas, we used red and green with gingerbread men and on one small portion we used peppermint sugar crystals.

It was delicious!

And loved by all:

Including Allison...although she did prefer her popcorn plain:

After the movie, we had about 45 minutes to play before we started our bedtime routine. Whenever I heard Jason say, "The force is strong with you, young padawan" I had to grab my camera to document their battle. They were cracking me up.

While they dueled, Alli and I did puzzles. Puzzles are her new favorite thing. She plays with them all day long! I'm amazed at how well she can do them too.

I also let her play with Jackson's new train set. It's so much fun because it's automatic and it makes lots of fun sounds. It's a rare moment when she gets to sit and play with it by herself.

I'm so blessed to have this time. Thank You, Lord, for giving us lots of wonderful family time. We are grateful!