Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
As so many of us, I will not be on my computer all that much in the next few days. As a matter of fact, Hubby has off all but one day next week even, so I probably won't be on much then either. It is so nice when he can be home. We really enjoy the time as much as possible when we can just be our own little family and be together without a ton of things we have to do, but can relish in what we may want to do.
Baby C is making mommy take things easy for a while too. She started acting as if she wanted to make an early appearance, but we are holding her off for as long as possible. If I don't make my myself rest as much as possible these next weeks, I pay the price. So, here is just hoping that we don't have ourselves a Christmas baby, but if she really wants to be a New Years baby, I won't say too much as then things aren't as crazy for the family and all. :)
So, anyway...

Merry Christmas!

Annual Fudge Night (Pic Heavy)

Okay, so here is the long awaited Fudge Night post.Like I mentioned last night, There is a lot of stuff that goes in to four batches of fudge. You may remember, 2 pounds butter, 16 cups sugar, 8 bags chocolate chips, 4 cans of evaporated milk and some vanilla extract. Well, This is what that looks like (tins included).

My mom has been making this recipe for about 27 years now. We have found through the years that doing one stick of margarine and one stick of butter works pretty nicely, so that is what we use now.  Again, you can refer to this post for the full recipe.
It all starts with the sugar and milk in a big pot and the chips, butter and vanilla in a big bowl.

I like to break up the butter/margarine a bit so that it melts faster and things get all happy in the bowl quickly. The milk/sugar gets heated up on high until it starts to boil, then we turn it down closer to like 4-5 (just enough to keep a boil but not too much that it boils over). Boiling over is just a total sticky mess!

When the sugar is boiling and someone is stirring constantly for 8 minutes, we make sure we have our tins (or plastic containers) well greased with a cooking spray and ready to go when they are needed. Once the sugar is poured in to the chip mix bowl, things can move pretty quick, so being prepared is a good thing here. :)

My mom is always the one to pour the sugar mix into the bowl while I am at the ready, just waiting to start mixing like mad (without splashing hot sugar on anyone)

Mix, mix, mix until it is all happy and smooth (just make sure you don't take too long or it will start to set in the bowl) :)
Then we pour it all into the tins. Mom pours while I move the tins into place so she doesn't have to move the bowl too much.

When we have things set in their containers, we put them out on the back porch which acts as a second refrigerator in the winter.
Repeat all these steps for each batch. Yes, four batches can be fun and a bit of time. There is a reason we set aside a night to do this. You need a night to do that many batches.
Curious what it all looks like when things are done? Well, my sister and I love to make fudge so that we can lick the bowl when we are done. Here are my closing shots. First, the table of all of the fudge tins. Then Hubby took a picture of Sis and I licking the bowl and the spoon. Then of course he had to take a picture of the bowl when I was done with it.

Baby C loved mommy licking the bowl. She has made me all about the chocolate!






So, there you have it. Our Fudge Night in picture form. I know this may have taken some time to load because of all of the pictures, but I love to share. I hope you enjoyed.

Do you have a recipe you have to make every year? Make a night of things? I would love to hear all about it!

Until next time... Happy Christmas Preparations!

Take Time to Share: Traditions

I have wanted to participate in more of these weeks of Taking Time to Share our Christmas Traditions, but of course life has gotten the better of me. Plus there were a couple weeks when I just could not think of anything to write about. This week though, I want to sit back and share some of our Christmas traditions. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to share some of your traditions!
1. Each Christmas Eve my father's family all get together under one roof to celebrate Christmas together. This used to be at my grandparent's house, but now we rotate between the kids' houses since it is too much for my grandfather to do on his own. Sometimes this is the only time each year that we are able to see some of this side of the family. Things start mid afternoon and run into the evening hours. We eat, play, unwrap gifts and just enjoy the company of family. It has been great to watch as we all grow up and now the grandkids have kids so my grandfather can watch his great-grandchildren grow and play even for a little while.
This picture is of my grandfather with LJ at LJ's first Christmas, 2008.

 2. Fudge! Yes, remember that recipe I posted a few weeks back? Well, that is another family tradition that will continue for years to come. Each year my mom has to make it, and each year I help. Now my little sister helps as well. We make a night of it along with celebrating my dad's birthday which is Dec. 22nd. When my mom can no longer make the fudge, I know that my sister and I will make it with our families and pass it out as part of our gifts each year.

3. New for one that I have become a part of. Each year Hubby's Dad's side of the family get together the Sunday after Christmas to celebrate as a family (to lessen all the running around to families that always happens on Christmas day). We all get together and of course eat and exchange gifts. But, you don't just open the gifts willy nilly. We go in order from youngest to oldest around the room opening our presents. It is sort of nice because you can watch each person open a gift and you don't miss things like you can when everyone is opening gifts at the same time.
The picture to the Left is LJ sitting with his Uncle Jim last year and reading a new book.

4. Advent Calendars. As I was growing up, we had a very cute cloth advent calendar. It had a scene of Santa and Mrs. Claus in their house with a nice fire going. Below that were the days in December leading up to Christmas. Each was a pouch where a little mouse would go. Every year my sister and I took turns each day moving that mouse. Some years we would count down from 24 to 1, others, we would go up. This year we are doing the manger scene with LJ as a sort of Advent Calendar and I have up the one I had as a child. I am hoping that some years we will make a calendar as a family. I will just have to wait and see.

I can't wait to see what this year brings for my LJ. Last year he was getting in to Christmas for opening presents and things like that. This year we are starting to teach him more of why we have Christmas to begin with. I don't know what new traditions we may start as LJ grows and Baby C joins our family. I look forward to this time of year as it was always my favorite and filled with wonder.

What are some of your family traditions for this time of year?  I would love hear about them!

Until next time... Happy living!

The Season of Advent - Day 2

While most people know or have heard of advent calendars and Advent for December, not everyone knows that the true Season of Advent starts 4 Sundays before Christmas. That means that  this year November 28th was the beginning of Advent.
We want to teach our children about Jesus and God at an early age. One way to begin to teach children about the true meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the Advent season and explain take the time to explain it to them each day.
It can be hard to teach young children about something and know that they are really understanding it. I had seen a great post on Advent calendars and making your own over at Keeper of the Home, and it made me start thinking about Advent season in our house and how we can celebrate it. I wanted to make our calendar this year with LJ, but that isn't going to happen as we have had to much going on. Then while I was out with my mom on Saturday I saw the cutest thing at Walmart. It is a set of wall/window clings that are the Manger Scene.

There are a ton of stars with this so there are more than enough images for the entire Advent season. I like that the images are kid oriented so my son loves it.
We didn't get to start putting this up yesterday like I had hoped, so I did two images today. I got my son together with me and we cleaned the wall to make sure the clings would stick. Then I picked what would be the best images to start with: the manger and the words.

First, i put up the manger as this would be the center of the rest of the season. LJ wasn't too interested in it at first, but then he saw that mommy had put something on our wall, and that made him want to see what I was doing. I explained to him that we were starting our advent season and that this is when we celebrate Baby Jesus being born.

Once the manger was up I told LJ we were going to put up one more picture and I read what the words said. After peeling it off of the backing, I had him help me put it on the wall. He really liked helping me put something on the wall and making sure it was stuck on.

I think this is a really cute manger scene. One thing I like it that it can come off and be repositioned on the wall. I don't know if it will last more than one year, but at the price I paid, it wouldn't entirely matter and maybe next year we will finally be able to make our own family Advent Calendar that we can use year after year.
I look forward to seeing what picture LJ will want to put up tomorrow. I am going to let him pick the picture each day and then before we leave our house on Christmas Eve we will put up the last cling which I will of course make sure is the Baby Jesus asleep in the hay. :)

How do you celebrate the Advent season with your family? Do you have a calendar you use each year or some other tradition you have in prepare yourselves for Christmas? I would love to hear from you!

Until next time... Happy Advent!

Take time to Share your Christmas Traditions - Recipes

This weeks theme is "Recipes". How yummy! Also, who doesn't have a recipe that they make every year? I know my mother has one that she has been making for over 20 years and now it is to the point that if she shows up to our big Christmas Eve with my Dad's family without her fudge, she can't come in. Yes, fudge. Noone said these recipes would be healthy. Heck, most holiday recipes are exactly the opposite. This is the time of year that everyone lets loose a bit and we all gain weight because of it. I am starting to get my own recipes of note, but I think for now, I am going to share my mom's awesome recipe, that I have now begun to make as well. This fudge is super simple and oh so yummy!

The ingredients:
two sticks of butter (you can mix one stick of butter and one margarine if you prefer, but you need some good old butter in there), cut into pieces (for ease of melting)
two bags of chocolate chips
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
a can of evaporated milk (not condensed)
4 cups of sugar
Tin pans or plastic containers for storage and packaging (well greased)

Directions:

Put butter, chips, and vanilla in large mixing bowl. You want to make sure the bowl is large enough for all ingredients plus room for vigorous stirring. Set aside.
Pour sugar into large sauce pan and add the can of milk. Heat over medium to medium/high until it comes to a boil. Boil 8 minutes, stirring constantly. You may need to adjust your heat from time to time to keep from boiling over, but you need to maintain a good boil as well.
When 8 minutes is up, pour mixture over the chips mixture in the bowl. Stir vigorously until chips and better are melted and mixture is smooth. Pour into containers and allow to cool. We tend to use the 4 or 5 inch decorative tin pans that you can buy at the store. The smaller tins allow you to cool it and then give it as a gift without having to cut it into smaller pieces first. Allow the fudge to cool overnight or until firm. Do not put lids on the containers until the fudge has cooled. This recipe can make about 4or 5 containers of fudge that is about an inch thick.
I will post a follow up to this post with pictures once we make our fudge for this Christmas. It should be just in time for Christmas, as we are planning our Fudge Night for the weekend of the 19th of December. Yes, we do a Fudge Night as we make at least three batches each year.
You may want to keep your eyes open this week as I just may post some more great family recipes throughout the week. ;)

Until next time...Happy Cooking!