Peppermint Patties and Samuel

 Samuel is very happy licking the bowl of peppermint pattie dough

York Peppermint Patties, are my favorite candy, so this year I decided to find a recipe and make them as part of my Christmas baking.  Oh my, they are delicious, I think I like them even better than the store bought ones.  Samuel and I had a lot of fun making them, and I keep snacking on them, if I can't control myself I'm not going to have enough to give away on Christmas plates.
I realized that I didn't write much about Samuel around his birthday, so I'll tell a little about him now.  One thing he does extremely well is clean his room, and put away his laundry.  He is better about it, than any of the other kids.  When his laundry cart has any clean laundry in it from downstairs, he will drag it up the stairs, and put everything in their proper drawers (now it isn't always folded very nice, but it's where it's supposed to go), he will have me help him hang up his church clothes, but the rest he prefers to do by himself.  Then he will throw the empty laundry cart back downstairs for when the next load is clean.  When he cleans his room, he puts all his toys where they go, and makes his bed, and will ask me to bring him the vacuum upstairs, so he can vacuum it before he is done.  I love this about Samuel, his room is cleaned almost every day, sometimes he is a little OCD about it, and the way things are done.  Like for instance he has a cubby for his cars, but he insists on putting them all in his backpack, so he is ready to go to Grandma's house, he also keeps play money and some finger puppets in it.  I try to tell him we're not going to Grandma's house any time soon, and he can keep his toys out in their cubbies, but he insists that he needs to be ready.  He won't sleep with a blanket anymore, he has to have a sleeping bag.  He also has to keep his Lightning McQueen water bottle on his dresser, so he can get a drink at night.  He is my sweet little boy, who loves to read books with me, watch movies, play games (his favorite right now is called "zingo" he got it from his Grandma for his birthday), and help me bake and clean, and go through my daily routine.  He is very interested in learning his letters right now, and finally knows his colors, and can count to 20 (he still skips 16).  Samuel is very good at giving hugs and kisses, and needs lots of cuddles when he is upset (or I'm upset with him).  He is also very stubborn, and I usually need to pick my battles with him, because he can be most unreasonable if something is important to him, and I don't give in.  I love my Samuel, and I can't wait to see how he continues to grow up.