My Grandma died when I was 5, so I never really knew her. And she had cancer for a long while, so what I do remember of her was lots of sad times. But from what I have been told she was an amazing woman. Who painted, created mosaics, taught ceramics, went on picnics in the rain and..... made FABULOUS chocolate with her sister.
I have been raised by her son who LOVES chocolate. One year he presented us with my grandma's candy recipes and a request. To learn how to make her candy.
Unfortunately her candy recipes were mainly just ingredients. Not methods, tips, or any other such goodness. So each year at christmas my sisters and I have labored to learn. (A laborious task, I can assure you. DANG! We have to make candy again. How torturous.) I feel about the same as my daughters look in the pictures above.
Fast forward 7 christmases. Each year we have to relearn a little. We started with the simplest and have taken on a new recipe each year as we master the easier ones. And we always budget in ruined batches. Last Friday we were given the confirmation. We achieved the goal. We made her fudge to the creamy amazingness that was remembered by my dad. YAY!!!
WE DID IT!!!
What is the best about this is that we learning these recipes is that we have grown closer our grandma. We have learned more about her. Its thrilling to pass along this tradition to our children. We could have finished everything on friday while the kids were in school. Instead, we left some dipping and wrapping for the children to "help" with. As you can tell, more eating was occuring than dipping. But with memory making moment such as these... Who cares? Certainly not this mother.
I love the excitment that my daughters feel about chocolates each christmas. I love the warm and happy bonding we have as we work together. I love the time we spend caroling as we deliver the goodies to families we love.
Our next challenge. She left ceramic molds of the nativity that are INCREDIBLY GORGEOUS and we want to make them. ~ AH!
A few nights ago, we had our typical crazy evenings. Homework and dinner and chores and reading and baths. You can see the effects of the craziness behind Kyle. Papers everywhere, ingredients out from dinner making. Drawers left open from finding a pencil with an intact tip. We had just finished eating dinner. Kyle and Miss H were going to clean up and Miss E and I were going to finish homework. I looked over and Kyle was playing "My Little Ponies" with Miss H. I fell in love even more that night. It was a sweet moment. They had stolen it from the hectic rush that comes in the evenings after school. Instead of getting things done they decided to play. Savoring the moment, enjoying them as they are little and small and innocent. I adore my husband. I adored him this night because of the time he took to play with our daughter, showing her that she is important to him, She is loved. I wonder how many moments we miss, rushing from thing to thing. But this moment was not lost!! And I love that Kyle is truly enjoying his time with his daughter.
