Christmas Candy!

Christmas candy is a big deal in my family and I grew up making it every Christmas. It used to be a big family afair, when all of the aunts and girl cousins went to Grandma's house and would make candy all day. Normally us little girls stuck to creatively decorating the sugar cookies, I suppose we were best "helping" yet "out of the way" with that job. I miss those days, spending time with family and making yummy candy. Those times are some of my most cherished Christmas memories.

At my house, we would make Christmas candy to give as gifts. We made all sorts of goodies, from candy to cookies to cinnamon roll wreathes. Since I love to bake and be in the kitchen, I decided I would carry on this tradition in our home. I realized I couldn't make all of the candy I grew up making on my own, so I chose some of my favorites. On Monday I began my endeavor of making Christmas candy to give as gifts....

I began with...
15 pounds of sugar...
10 pounds of chocolate....
2 pounds of caramel
Lots nuts pecans and peanuts...
Cream Cheese...
White corn syrup...
Candy Canes...
Oreos...

I ended up with...
20 pounds of three chocolate and dark chocolate fudge...
100ish peanut clusters...
80ish turtles...
60ish oreo truffles...
50ish divinity...
2 pounds of peppermint bark...
and a ton of cinnamon candy!!!!

It provided to be a lot of fun, work, and dishes, but I loved every minute of it. I am blessed to have a husband who was willing to lend a hand--he even became pretty good at making the fudge! I took fudge to both nights of the living Nativity, and it disappeared in 20 minutes or less!Today we took big trays to the other 4 ministers on staff, the church secretary, and my aunt and uncle who live in town. Tomorrow we're delivering another one to Becca--weather permitting! And of course, I saved some for our family Christmas with Matt's family this weekend!

A Few Things...

1. Friday I went shopping all day with my mom. It was the first time I have spent that much one on one time with my mom in forever!! It was great! Except for the part where we saw triplets.... probably toddlers, they were in a train of plasitc wagons, three of them all hooked together, two boys and one girl...and so cute. I managed to keep it all together until bedtime when I was telling Matt about it and I totally lost it. But all in all, a great day with mom!

2. Saturday I got even more girl time with one of my best friends, Becca. We met in the cutest little German town to go to their Kriskindlmarkt (Christmas Market). Even though we spent most of our time sitting in the coffee shop chatting, it was so good to really talk with her. By the time we left the coffee shop the market was closed down, so we browsed a purse shop. We both bought cute purses, hers plain jane and mine super colorful and bright, of course, which finished out our perfect day!

3. Saturday night was the living nativity at our church. It was advertised on the local Christian radio station and they even broadcasted live from the event. Matt and I turned down the star roles of Mary and Joseph, but I volunteered to bring a snack instead! I made fudge because every time I have been to one of these types of things there has always been fudge. Needless to say, all SIX pounds of my fudge was gone in 20 minutes. Amazing. We had an incredible turn out, with 300ish cars--and that was just the first night! I wanted to take pictures, but I forgot my camera--story of the weekend.

4. Today was obviously church...which is always good. The church is all decked out with its christmas decor, and I love it! Lunch with friends, a lazy afternoon, making more fudge, and then living nativity again tonight.

5. We did go to NYC Dec. 3-6. Dec. 6 was our due date, so we knew we'd need a huge distraction, and we thought a huge city might do the trick. It did an okay job, but needless to say, its been a really hard few weeks, and I imagine its going to continue to be hard through the holidays. But I don't want to depress you with my depressing thoughts, so back to the city! We went with no plan (I know--so not me) but we managed to happen upon many great things! Including the tree lighting ceremony at Rockefellar Center Wednesday night. Other than that, my most favorite part was all of the window displays, they were amazing! Plus we did the usual tourist things, Empire State Building, Times Square, Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island, Macy's, Tiffany's, Carriage Ride through Central Park (Third Favorite), Dylan's Candy Bar (Fourth Fav), shopping, great food and lots of walking!

T-Day

I cannot believe Thanksgiving has come and gone, and December is here! Time has flown! We had a great Thanksgiving with Matt's family. They came to our house, so it was nice not having to drive anywhere! I cooked the entire Thanksgiving dinner by myself, and had a blast doing it!

I fixed a sweet potato souffle, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade stuffing, homemade rolls, corn and green beans. I found the recipe for the turkey, but Matt did all of the work with that. We soaked it in a cider based marinade all night and then grilled, yes grilled, our turkey using indirect heat to free up my oven. The turkey was amazing, very moist and delicious! All in all, we had a yummy Thanksgiving feast.

Friday we did some black Friday shopping. Thankfully Matt convinced them to leave around 7:30 instead of the crack of dawn! I didn't really buy much, although we got some great steals on dvds! Saturday, some went to a St. Louis Blues game, while Matt, his mom and I stayed home. I put up my Christmas tree and started decorating the rest of the house too!

Sunday after everyone left we got the house back in order, other than sweeping, mopping and finishing up some laundry. I am off work today (thankfully) so I am hoping to finish up the cleaning...in which I'd better get started...Happy December!