After a super lazy morning at my house, I went outside to throw the football with my son for a while. It’s a chilly day, but beautifully sunny, and it’s colder than a lot of winter days we’ll have in Georgia. The sky was the bluest blue, and the trees–now mostly bare except for those determined pines–seemed to be there only to show off that fantastic blue.

When I came inside, my brother-in-law was napping on the couch, and my husband was upstairs playing video games with some more family. No one was hurrying. No one was working. No one was arguing. No one needed anything more than exactly what he had. And on top of all that, no one has to go anywhere for the rest of the day.

At my son’s request, I celebrated this wonderful family day by making (no baking!) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Pie. It’s his favorite, and he sees a lot of pies go out the door for other folks, so I was more than happy to grant his request. It took a few minutes to unwrap (and “safety test”) the peanut butter cups I’d need for the pie.

If you are a peanut butter lover, or if you love one, you should make this easy pie. Here’s how:

Peel 20-25 peanut butter cups. Save 6-8 to decorate the top of the pie, and chop the others coarsely.

In a bowl, mix the following with an electric mixer:

In a graham cracker crust (store bought-no baking), fill the bottom with a layer of chopped peanut butter cups. Cover with a layer of the filling. Add another layer of chopped cups. Cover with the rest of the filling. Use the uncut peanut butter cups to decorate the top of the pie. I also piped (and by “piped,” I mean squirted out of the cut corner of a zip-loc bag) some decorative Cool Whip on the top. Chill the pie overnight (if you can stand it) for best results. If you’re OK with still-incredibly-tasty-but-not-perfect-looking results, then wait an hour or two and dig in!

If you’re fortunate enough to be with family today, show kindness and celebrate the gift of time together.  If circumstances prevent your family from being together, call someone you love, or send a card, or stop to pray for the ones you hold dear.

Family is indeed a gift to treasure.

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.”

                                             –George Bernard Shaw