Dipping pretzels

We have a (fun?) Holiday tradition of dipping pretzels at our house. It's something we always did for Christmas when I was a kid. I loved it growing up, but it didn't take long after having kids to understand why my mom always got a slightly panicked look in her eye when we asked if it was time to dip pretzels yet. The number one reason: there always seems to be a NEVER ending supply of chocolate. Do you have any idea how many pretzels it takes to use up 1 lb of dipping chocolate? Two and a half pounds of those ever so tiny pretzels. Do you know the average time it takes to dip 2.5 lbs of pretzels? Three or four hours- depending on how much your kids want to "help". Growing up my Dad would say, "OK, you can dip 20 pretzels" and we always complained, "Dad, I want to do them all!" Umm...no I didn't. I'm sure he was both trying to limit the mess and also speed things along by taking a (quite long) turn in between kids.

Usually my kids also have a less than fun experience dipping pretzels. I have a tendency to micro-manage the whole process. They had to turn out just right, because I never knew when I'd have unexpected guests that I'd need to offer dipped pretzels to. Of course, those guests would in turn judge all of my parenting and homemaking skills on the quality appearance of my tasty little treat. I can almost see your eyes rolling...

Luckily for my kids, this year I have a severe case of CHAOS. I don't think anyone will be coming over and if they do, they'll get a piece of the huge globular mixture of chocolate and pretzels we made last night. It might be the only Christmas baking done this year.

I think the kids had a good time. I just let them do whatever they wanted. Larry got more chocolate on himself than on the pretzels. Taylor did a good job, but a large amount of chocolate still made its way into his mouth. Both kids gave out about an hour into it. I'm surprised they lasted that long. The sampling along the way must have sustained them. Then I sent them to bed and stayed up all night finishing up.