Homemade Gifts:
For a long time, I thought baked goods were the perfect Christmas gift. Nobody needs anything else to dust, I can't afford to give everyone cash or gift cards, and who doesn't love food? As I had more and more (and more) children, I decided that baking wasn't such a great idea. I love to bake, and do a lot of it in December, but only if I want to and only for my family. The thing about bakery items is that you want them fresh, which means making them very close to Christmas, which means that on Christmas Eve, you're still pulling pumpkin loaves out of the oven wondering why the inside is all gooey at the three o'clock in the morning -- not worth it so much anymore.
Last year, I decided to make candy. I made three different kinds, all in one afternoon, and it was awesome. The only problem was that I felt I needed more, so I quadrupled the amounts this year, both because there are more people on our list, and because I wanted to put more in each tin.
The meant making 500 chocolate covered cherries. That means rinsing them, drying them for two hours, then wrapping each individual cherry in a paste made of powdered sugar, corn syrup and butter, then sealing each one completely (so they don't leak) in chocolate. So after five hours, I got one quarter of them done. Actually, I got one quarter of them covered in sugar, and I have yet to try to cover them in chocolate.
So no more candy gifts. I'm not sure what I'm doing this year, and I'm hoping that everyone on my list is wanting a paper that one of the kids bring home from school, because that seems to be what I have in excess around here. And the kids won't let me throw any of it away, so maybe wrap a bow around it and pass them back to the teachers and call it even? I think yes.
PS: This is the text I got from my mom today after she accidentally sent me a text that was supposed to go to my dad:
"Oops. You probably don't even care, hog? Lol. That was for dad."
And this is how spellchecker can get you into trouble.
