With everything going on lately, Christmas is sneaking up on me fast!  I still have some presents to buy, presents to wrap, presents to send to family across the country, etc.  I even have to make some presents this week.  I feel frazzled when I think about my To Do List.

What I would really love to do is sleep set a day aside for baking and making sweet treats.  Do you have a day of baking holiday goodies as part of your traditions?  I really wanted to post about a go-to holiday treat I love to make every year.  I found this recipe in a newspaper quite a few years ago.  It won some contest the paper was having and sounded easy, so I clipped the recipe out for future reference.

When I started making these yummy peanut butter balls, my husband gave his seal of approval.  Peanut butter and chocolate together is his favorite flavor combo.  I have made them for various holidays throughout the year.  For Halloween, I cover them in milk/semi sweet and white chocolate so they look like eyeballs.  For Christmas, I do some in semi sweet chocolate and some in white chocolate dyed red with food coloring and call them Reindeer Noses.  Obviously, the red ones are Rudolph Noses.  lol

I made these no-bake treats with my nephew one year and he loved getting into it.  He helped me roll the balls and sprinkled them with sugar crystals.  This is definitely a great recipe for kids to help with.



Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1 tablespoon shortening
- 1/2 cup butter
- 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips


Directions
In a large bowl, mix powdered sugar and graham cracker crumbs together.  In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter and peanut butter together; add peanut butter mixture into graham cracker mixture.  Blend well.

Shape into 1/2 inch balls. (About an inch or so for Reindeer noses). In a small saucepan over low heat, melt chocolate chips with shortening.  Dip peanut butter balls into chocolate and place them on a piece of wax paper.  Let set up overnight.