An early Christmas treat...

Last Wednesday, Kate and Aaron were both home (no school), so we decided to do some early holiday baking.  I use that term lightly.  It was actually more like assembling, but that just doesn't sound very Christmasy, does it?  Anyways, my neighbor Kelsey came over, we put on the Christmas tunes, drank some hot chocolate (with mini marshmallows on top!) & assembled these yummy treats:

Want the "recipe"? It's so very easy.  All you need is:

• A bag of waffle-shaped pretzels
• Hershey's Hugs
• M&M's candy

Preheat oven to 170F.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Place unbroken pretzels in a single layer on cookie sheet.  Now here comes the hard part:  unwrapping each and every Hug! Make sure you get the kids involved for this step...the more hands the better.  Once unwrapped, place a Hug on each pretzel.

Bake in oven for at least 4 minutes.  I usually go 5 minutes...don't do more than 6 minutes.  Hershey's Hugs melt faster than the Kisses, so if you decide to do Kisses, you will want to bake a minute or so longer.  Remove cookie sheet from oven (NOTE:  be careful with this step...you wouldn't want to accidentally tip the sheet to one side and have the pretzels slam in to each other or FLIP over...you live, you learn).

Immediately top each Hug with an M&M.  It's okay if the Hug kind of "melts down" over the pretzel...that's what it's supposed to do!  After topping all Hugs (even if some of the M&M's are a bit lopsided...don't worry--those are for the hubby), place in freezer for 10 minutes to allow chocolate to "set".

Voila! Take them off the cookie sheet, and they are now ready to be EATEN!  I usually store mine in the refrigerator until I am ready to serve them.  Want to take another look at these yummies? Here's a closeup:

You may notice some red Hugs mixed in with the white ones...those are Candy Cane Kisses! I didn't have enough Hugs so Kelsey brought over her stash of Kisses.  That's the great thing about this recipe.  You can change it up.  Next time I may try the Hugs with some mint M&Ms.  Or maybe get the Caramel Kisses with the Peanut Butter M&Ms (not to be mistaken with the Peanut M&Ms).  Man, oh man...sure wish I had some Coconut M&Ms left! Imagine the possibilities! 

And just because I think he's so stinkin' cute, I'm ending this post with a picture of my little fella: