I don’t know about you, but every year is the same for me. You just know that everyone is in the Christmas mood.. but you’re not quite there yet. You start to wonder if you’ll ever find it and you start to buy Christmas gifts hoping that soon you are one of the group that can’t wait to wrap the presents or drive around looking at everyone’s lights on the houses. Then all of a sudden it happens – just when you’re not expecting it. You feel like putting up an extra strand of lights or turning the Christmas music just a little bit louder so no one can hear you while you’re singing to it. I was worried this year if I was going to be able to get in the mood of the Holidays. This is the first time that our family won’t all be together for Christmas and I know that I shouldn’t be such a baby about it. I mean – Kyle is 25 already and has an opportunity to spend Christmas with the Pope. Let’s see – Pope or us. humm…. It’s going to be really cool for him to be at the Christmas Eve’s Mass and I’m truly glad that he’s going because he’s wanted to do this for a couple of years now. Then it finally hit me today. I was really in the Christmas mood. And the funny thing is that you know when you do feel it. I was making candy while there was Christmas music on and all of a sudden I was listening not only to the music but also I was whistling to it. It was so nice to be in the kitchen making Christmas candy. The house smelled like caramel, chocolate, and candy. When I was standing in our kitchen looking outside checking out our lights, I realized everything was good. Our family exchanged names today and will unwrap our gifts on Dec 24 th. We’ll Skype with Kyle and that’ll be a lot of fun. Now I need to get Kyle’s Christmas box ready and sent to him so he’ll have something to unwrap. Below is what I spent this afternoon working on. I wanted to try a new caramel recipe and when I got started, I thought I might as well make more than than just that one. I still want to make a couple more things yet before the weekend and will be bringing the candy to my sisters on Sunday when we celebrate St. Nicholas day. The only bad thing about making this much candy is the amount of dishes that it creates. Wow! I ran the dishwasher 3 times and hand washed the big stuff. Thank goodness for dishwashers!
Cookie Dough Truffles, Peanut Clusters, Almond Bark Pretzels, Pretzels dipped in homemade caramel and chocolate, 2 pans of Pecan Turtles, Salted Nut Roll Bars, and 2 pans of Snicker Candy