Warm Comforting Friendly Chocolate

If someone offered you free chocolate you'd accept. I know you would. Don't try to tell me any different. I wasn't born yesterday.

Hershey recently sponsored a cookie exchange promotion - and they sent me free chocolate to share with my friends. I know! Everyone wants to be my friend now! Chocolate is the best!

Check out the fun time we had! The kids made some gingerbread aprons to wear to the swap. You just have to have the proper attire for such an event don't you know.

We put cute little stickers onto the recipe cards that Hershey included and gave them out as invitations. Then we spent a fun afternoon baking up these yummy chocolate-spice sugar cookies. The picture doesn't do them justice. They tasted better than that. I promise.

We set up a few games and a craft area for the kids. They loved these simple paper bag gingerbread houses. Not only was it a fun craft, but the finished product made great gift bags to fill with cookies and deliver to neighbors later on.

We got together to swap and chat, but most importantly - EAT. All those yummy cookies had to be sampled. Our neighbors in the karate studio, mortgage agency, and fire department were all pretty happy with our "left-overs" too.

Christmas cookies have got to be one of the greatest traditions ever. What other holiday has people busy baking for days on end with the specific intent of giving away most of what they create?

So now, that I have spent so much time baking and thinking about chocolate I am completely distracted with the thought of going on vacation this summer. I know - totally off topic - but it will make sense in a minute, I promise.

My husband's cousin is getting married in PA this summer and we have already decided that we will take a family vacation at the same time. Hooray! (Cue tinkling memory music) I remember taking a family trip to PA when I was a kid. We visited the Amish country, saw deer (deer! Deer! DEER! - family joke, sorry) and went to, what will forever live in my memory as the greatest amusement park ever, Hershey Park. Now, I know that most everyone will say that Disney is better, but I don't know anything better than Hershey. The town has street lights shaped like kisses, lots of fun rides, and it smells like chocolate - honest, the whole town! Since that trip years ago, anytime I smell chocolate (like while I was baking those cookies above) I think of our fun time at Hershey Park and get that warm smushy feeling inside. Sooo...

I can't wait to share my love of Hershey with this little one and her big kid siblings. Candy stores, chocolate museums, amusement parks, zoos. What's not to love about a town dedicated to chocolate?

I wonder if Hershey will have a vacation promotion? If so, I'm signing up!

* Full disclosure - As I stated above, I received supplies from Hershey, but they did not require my promotion of their product and no other compensation was received. It's just simply hard not to talk about free stuff - especially chocolate. Yum!