Rudolph Pretzels

'Tis a gift to be simple. I love this Shaker tune and, in fact, both of our mothers came down to the aisle at our wedding to a hammered dulcimer version of it. I love the sentiment of this single phrase. In my every day life I often struggle hard to live this way.

Lately, though, our family has slowed down considerably during this holiday season thanks to the generosity of our village. My father-in-law passed away last week and we have been so humbled by the number of individuals who have taken care of us and who are planning on providing dinners for us over the next couple of weeks. The week leading up to his death left our family on the road most days and feeling very scattered, so the gift of time together in the evenings has been such a blessing to us all. Not having to cook dinner has freed us up for quiet, simple activities that we rarely make time for. What a gift our friends have given us!

One of these activities was to make some very simple treats that my youngest daughter, Emory, is quite good at helping with. I know many of my recipes may seem more complicated than some of my readers want to tackle but I promise that this one is not! It really only requires three simple ingredients and the hardest step is unwrapping the Hershey Kisses, a job that is GREAT for little hands!

 After placing the Kisses on the pretzels, they only have to go into the oven for 6 minutes before you are ready to put the M&Ms on the top. Emory is great about making sure that all of the Ms are facing down! Work quickly and just be careful to place the M&Ms gently on the top of the slightly melted Kiss and press lightly down.

Once we finished making these tonight, Emory asked her sister if she wanted a Rudolph pretzel or "all the other reindeer kind" meaning the green ones!

Rudolph Pretzels (click for printable version)

1 bag of small pretzel twists
1 bag of milk chocolate Hershey kisses
red and green M&Ms (I use one of the plastic candy cane shaped tubes for this)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

Place pretzels on baking sheet and top with one kiss per pretzel.

Bake for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and lightly press one M&M in the center of each kiss.

Cool completely, refrigerating until firm if necessary.