Today marked my kids’ last day of school for this semester–now two weeks off. Hooray! It was also our oldest daughter’s last art class, so I baked a Chocolate Cherry Ring O Bling Pie for her and her classmates.

I modified a recipe from my favorite PIE cookbook for Chocolate Chip Pie. This time, however, I used heavy cream instead of milk and added some cherry baking morsels to the batter. Those cherry  chips are yummy. I’ve only seen them around during the holidays, and I’ve tried them in chocolate chip cookies. So tasty.

I gotta admit, turning this Christmas tune into pie has already been pretty challenging, and it’s only the fifth day! Some friends and family members have listened to my brainstorming and offered fun ideas. For the five golden rings, one person suggested I bake a pie containing Goldschlager, a thin liquor that actually has thin gold leaf floating in it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a pie with booze in it, but this one was for kids, so I bagged that idea.

While shopping in a craft store that also carried some baking items, I came across edible gold glitter sugar crystals. I’d found my solution.

I prepared the yummy chocolate cherry chip dough and poured it into a regular refrigerated crust. Just before I baked it, I sprinkled a ring of that sparkly gold sugar around the outer edge of the top of the pie. So pretty!

Now, it’s kinda hard to see in the photo, but even after it was baked, you could still see that shiny “Bling Ring” around the edge of the pie.I did not get to taste the pie, but my daughter reported that everyone loved it and that one student reported that I must have

Magic Pie Hands.

Wouldn’t that be awesome? Magic Pie Hands. Just think of the fun I could have. Or the damage I could do. Or the yummy pies I could give to everyone!

OK, so there weren’t really FIVE golden rings on today’s pie, but there was one tasty “Bling Ring.”

As it turns out, I sort of grew up with the 12 Days of Christmas:

My family had a set of awesome 12 Days of Christmas dishes. Each family member had a certain day, and the number 12 worked out perfectly for us. My Dad and Mom were numbers 1 and 2. My older brothers were 3 and 4. My older sister was the coveted FIVE GOLDEN RINGS, next came another sister for number 6, and I was the 7 swans a swimming. What was even cooler was that there were just enough plates left for when each of the five of us got married. All the spouses used up the rest of the plates up to my husband–the twelfth day.

My Mom and Dad didn’t plan to have five kids, but my Mom has said again and again that she’d do it all over again–wouldn’t change a thing. She’s 70 now, and still does a great job at serving a table full of family.

I’m very thankful to eat off of plate number 7.

A lot of good memories come from the times spent around my parents’ dining room table. In my family, we are hearty eaters, long talkers, and loud laughers. We leaned our chairs back, balled up our napkins, and passed A LOT of bowls of vegetables around.

We’ve been told more than a few times to get our elbows off the table and chew with our mouths closed and to QUIT singing at the table.We  sat pouting until we ate our assigned amounts of rutabagas or black-eyed peas.

We listened as my Dad prayed the same blessing thousands of times:

Heavenly Father

Accept our thanks

For these and all the blessings

Amen

 

I want this for my kids. I pray we’ll be able to stay home long enough and put down our iPhones long enough and just sit down together at the table for a while. Sure, it’s a challenge, but it’s worth it. I’m so glad my Mom and Dad made it happen for us.