My First Ever Attempt at Fudge

Yesterday I tried to make fudge for the first time. It will probably be last as long as I can put off my chocolate cravings with plain chocolate chips. It did not turn our pretty. Hence no pictures showing off my Martha Stewart abilities. I turned out a little too hard, too crumbly and not smooth. The recipe called for cream cheese and I only had the 1/3 less fat kind in my fridge. So you can see tiny balls of white. The positive side is that it still tastes good and because it is not the grandest sight to see only a select few will ever see this fudge. The bad side to that is my back side may get larger and rounder.

The Christmas Countdown has Begun

The tree went up last Sunday. I am really grateful to my friend Brenda who threw an ornament exchange party last Christmas season. It seems as if my other ornaments have gotten lost in the black whole I like to call a storage unit. When we moved we didn't organize it very well because the idea was we wouldn't need the unit for too long. Luckily in October my family helped me clear a walk way through the clutter and some Christmas boxes were found. There is still an abyss behind an electronics stand and the the piano. Those beautiful keepsakes from that fun party are what adorn my tree this year. I almost started to cry as I hung them because they hold such wonderful memories of some very special friends.

This was not the only tree that went up that day. My kids were begging to decorate Christmas trees when their Grandma Carol had her tree out the day after Thanksgiving. I had to hold them off until Sunday because of other things going on. They had some much pent up decorating energy that we took them over to my mom's house that same evening to do some tree decorating. Of course there is no pictures of any of this, but all of you who have or had little kids know what the bottom branches looked like. Macy liked to also group the same ornaments together on one branch. I know my mom has done some rearranging.

You may think two trees is a lot, but we don't. On Tuesday we went over the meadows to my Grandma Bonnie's home to help with her tree. Warning: Any family member that has not given updated photos to grandma has blackmail hanging on her tree. I know she has kept an old photo of mine behind my recent one and I wish I could have torn it off. Some don't even have a recent photo to hide those glory days of past.

Of course the tree decorating couldn't stop there. On Wednesday it was through the woods to Grandma Lue's house to put up all her Christmas decorations. After this tree the kids were finally through with tree decorating. They are now into pulling out the days from the advent calendar and cutting out pictures of toys they want.