There isn’t anything quite like having hot chocolate with your family when you open presents on Christmas morning and Sherry Gros’ cocoa bombs are sure to get you in the holiday spirit.

A resident of New Iberia, Gros works as a dietary supervisor at New Iberia Medical Center and when she’s not working, the mother of four children and a grandmother of 18 enjoys making her homemade cocoa bombs for the holidays.

Typically, a cocoa bomb is filled with different goodies inside a chocolate mold in the shape of a sphere that melts when placed in hot milk. When the milk melts the mold, the ingredients inside mix with the drink, creating a sweet, hot surprise.

After seeing them once on Facebook, Gros attempted to secure them at Costco but when she wasn’t unable to, she tried to make them herself in the middle of November.

“I just researched it and saw that it was doable, found the mold and decided to do it,” Gros said. “They’re really simple but time consuming sometimes.”

Some of Gros’ cocoa bombs have marshmallows, peppermint pieces, s’mores with chocolate chips, marshmallows and graham crackers, cookies and cream or even chocolate covered strawberries.

“All that was using the strawberry Nesquik mix with hot cocoa, you put it inside with your marshmallows,” Gros said. “There is strawberries and cream, which is hot cocoa mix and Nesquik strawberry mix inside of the white chocolate instead of regular chocolate. That one was popular.”

And while she’s pretty much mastered the molds, it wasn’t always strawberries and cream, if you will.

“It was trial and error,” Gros said. “Those weren’t so good, but they went to the grandkids and they didn’t care, they drank them. They got better and better.”

Gros said that chocolate is a lot easier to deal with than white chocolate in her experience because it’s a different consistency. Adding the cookies and cream pieces to it, according to Gros, changes the consistency of the white chocolate and makes it harder to work with.

“All in all it comes out,” Gros siad.

More than anything, Gros learned that patience is the secret ingredient to making them just right.

“From start to finish on one, it’s probably 15 minutes,” Gros said.

The patience is rewarding for Gros, though, especially when she gets to see the pure joy on children’s faces when they see the bomb melt in the milk. Gros’ cocoa bombs are the perfect gift for families to enjoy together.

“Some of them said on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning when they’re watching cartoons they are going to drink that with their kids,” Gros said.

The cocoa bombs have been popular this year and have a magical way of bringing smiles to the faces of everyone on Christmas morning when mixed with the traditions with different families.

“What kid wouldn’t like to watch a marshmallow and watch a ball of chocolate explode in milk and watch it all come out of it,” Gros said.