I had two things I wanted to accomplish yesterday.  I wanted everyone in my immediate family seated around the television at 7:00 p.m. watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on CBS.  And, I wanted to have the snacks ready to go for the first commercial.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, for some reason it took a Herculean effort on Steve’s part and my part to pull it off.  Gracie finishes dance at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and then we had to make a quick stop at the library and a quick run to Publix.  It was raining; both girls were grumpy (let’s just say I left Abigail on the canned vegetable aisle wailing about a Lunchable).  So, by the time the three of us got home it was after 4:00.  Which gave me less than three hours to get dinner cooked, everyone fed, baths for the girls, homework and a book for Gracie, the kitchen cleaned, and these little reindeer made.  Thanks to a wonderful husband and some kind of time warp that made the three hours feel longer than three hours, we made it in the nick of time.  At 6:59, the girls and I were piled up in our bed and Steve was sitting at the desk chair with the TV on.  The little reindeer snacks were on a platter in the kitchen.  I was blissfully happy, even when the girls started kicking each other and fighting over who got to sit next to me.  There’s something about the first holiday special of the season that just makes me smile.  And, yes, I know that I can watch Rudolph 365 days a year thanks to DVDs and streaming video and Netflix and iTunes, but there’s a special kind of magic that happens when you watch it interrupted by 12 gazillion commercials all advertising amazing toys that your children have never heard of but suddenly “need” for Christmas. 

These snacks were quite possibly the easiest I’ve ever made.  Seriously, the hardest part was finding the maraschino cherries in Publix (although, that was made significantly more difficult by the 4-year-old in my cart still wailing about the Lunchable).  I’m not sure where I saw these – I didn’t bookmark the site.  Sorry!  It was either Taste of Home or Pillsbury or Kraft.

Anyway, here’s the recipe.  You still have at least a million more opportunities to watch Rudolph before Christmas!

Makes 8 Reindeer:

8 Ritz Crackers

Peanut butter

4 maraschino cherries, halved

16 raisins

Pretzel twists, broken in half (Okay, I could have put 8 pretzel twists here, but honestly, it took me about 27 pretzels to get 8 sets of antlers looking the way I wanted )

Spread the peanut butter on the cracker.  You don’t want it too thin, but you don’t want it glumped on there either.

Then, put press the pretzels into the peanut butter for antlers; add the raisins for eyes, and for the finishing touch, add the cherry half for Rudolph’s shiny red nose.

Enjoy!