I make candy and give it away at Christmas. I do this because the more I make the less I eat. It’s not fair but people do like the candy.

I don’t want to sabbotage anyone’s diet so I give small portions of a few of my favorite recipes. I thought I’d share them with you. None are particulary hard to make but if you try to make all of these at once it takes a couple of days. Ask me how I know.

If you package an assortment of these goodies to give away be sure to wrap the ones that are aromatic in separate bags. That would be the peppermint truffles and the bourbon balls. In fact, I bag each item separately in cellophane bags and then put the bags in a bigger bag.

Chocolate Peppermint Truffles are new for me this year and I think they may be my new favorite candy. A friend suggested that I add the crushed candy canes to the tops – and that I do the crushing in my coffee grinder. She was right on both counts. She was here to spoon the peppermint on the damp chocolate as I was doing the dipping. The recipe makes 6-8 dozen truffles depending on the size you make them.

Download ChocPeppermintTruffles

A NOTE ABOUT DIPPING CHOCOLATE: I order bittersweet chocolate from King Arthur Flour because it works better for me than semi-sweet chocolate chips. And I think it tastes better. I have an old electric skillet that I put about an inch of water in. I put a stainless steel bowl in the water with chocolate in it. I can set the heat to just below 150º. It’s the perfect heat no matter what kind of chocolate you are melting. I only use this old skillet once a year and it’s worth storing it just for this job.

Also new for me this year is Cayenne Pecan Brittle. If you have any vegans in your life, they will love this.

Donna, who does my nails, gave me this recipe. It turned out differently than I thought it would but it is surprisingly tasty. I think I’d add a bit more cayenne next time. I made some notes in the recipe document.

 Download CayennePecanBrittle

My english Toffee is always a hit. The recipe came from the Junior League of Tulsa cookbook back in the 80s. I use sliced almonds rather than the pecans in the recipe. It’s better if you toast the almonds before you start.

Download EnglishToffee

Chocolate Bourbon Balls make my mouth water. They smell so good and they taste so good… I am always happy to see them packaged up so that I can’t get into them any more.  

Download ChocolateBourbonBalls

My Chocolate Raspberry Truffles are not lovely but I’ve made these for almost 20 years and they are a family favorite. I think I’ve posted this recipe when I wrote about cake balls because the base is a chocolate cake. But here you go again… Merry Christmas!

Download Truffles

I've made Christmas ornaments with my grandkids for several years. They give them as gifts at Christmas. In years past Lorna's mom, Judy, joined me. This year Lorna's dad, Kelly, and made ornaments with Jack. We made egg carton bells. If you want to do the same here's how:

1. Cut up cardboard egg cartons to make 'bells'
2. Paint the bells so that they aren't gray
3. Poke a hole in the top so that you can run a pipe cleaner through later
4. Mix glue with a little water
5. Give the child a brush and the glue
6. Let the child paint the bell with glue 
7. Let the child liberally sprinkle with glitter (If you are smart you will place a folded sheet of clean paper below the bell so that excess glitter can be poured back into the bottle. We were smart.)
8. Let the bells dry
9. Put a bell on the end of a pipe cleaner
10. Run the pipe cleaner up through the bell
11. Bend and cut off excess pipe cleaner
12. Wrap and place under the tree.

Jack is 4. We made 13 bells. He painted the glue, poured the glitter, attached most of the bells, and he was about tired of it when we were finishing the bells. Gave him a snack and he sucked it up and managed to decide who got which bell because they were not all the same. I have a lot of glitter so he went from color to color and each bell really was different. (Luckily I got the turquoise one!)

Working with Kelly was way fun! He is just as good with the kids as Judy is. What I mean by that is that they are both way more patient with little kids than I am. I was not all that patient with my own kids when they were little and I find that, while I love them dearly, I expect certain behaviors from my grandchildren and I don't let it slide (much) when they don't comply. But they have a smile on their faces when they see me so I figure I'm not that scary. And as they get bigger I love them more – which is good because kids get bigger, not smaller. I can't wait until they are teenagers!

I had the bells ready for glueing yesterday. Kelly was in charge of a lot today. Kelly had not worked with glitter before so both he and Jack learned new things. I pointed them in the right direction and cleaned up behind. It was perfect and I say that truthfully. We all had fun!

Kelly looks a lot like Santa Claus these days. I gave him some white glitter that I think he should sprinkle in his beard. Often. Not with glue, just a bit of sparkle. It'll fall off everywhere he goes. I think life needs more glitter, don't you?

In other news, Linda sent me a small (6"-7") optical fiber Christmas tree that runs out of a USB port. I've plugged it into my computer and it's above my screen as I'm typing now. It changes color!!!! I may leave this up year-round!

It turns to red and green and blue… Can't wait to see it in the dark. If you have a place to plug it in, you can even put this in your car. Linda got it at Target – in case you need to have one too. Or more than one.

What I got for Linda this year was a repeat from last year. I didn't get her anything that needed to be dusted, or stored, or eaten. I sent a card and good wishes. She was oh so happy!

We made deal long ago to not buy presents for each other unless they were the perfect thing. Truth be told, Linda nailed it for me this year. I like shiny things! I'm still looking for her present and we're both OK that I didn't find it this year. She really doesn't want any more stuff. But I'm keeping my eyes open…

It took five days (many fewer than we thought it would) and we finished the porch! There were a couple of days of work between this post and my last post. In that time we/I painted the soffits and facing boards, finished decking the main part of the porch and got the step going.

My shadow is the only proof I was there! Chris was there right along with me doing the heavy lifting, post hole digging, concrete mixing, and more.

And he managed the screw gun and drill. He's working on the step below.

Today we built the framework for the roof, cut the 4×4 posts to the correct height, screwed the metal roofing sheets to the framework, and painted. I was mostly the go-behind, Chris did the hard work. Except for painting. I painted the second coat on the soffits and trim.

We also went bush shopping. Chris planted an elaeagnus and an abelia in front and a shade loving bush that I can't remember the name of on the side of the house. It was plant sale day at Twn Oaks so he got 2 more elaeagnus for the back yard.

We're finished! It's not flashy but it's functional and nice and clean and neat. Lorna, and Chris, are happy! Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas and happy birthday!

One cool new sort of tool that I got is this paint can led with a closing spout. I think it's silcone but it may just be flexible plastic. It's not for permanent storage but if you have to pour paint out of a gallon can, this is the best thing like it I've used. And it was pennies less than $3. It washed up well too!

What's next? Christmas candy making and projects with the grandkids. But not tomorrow!

For Christmas and birthday this year, I'm giving Lorna a new front porch. Her old front porch was truly awful. From Google Earth…

We took off the old metal with peeling paint front porch roof and the soffits and facing boards acraoss the front of the house because they were rotten. I mixed up a bleach/water solution to spray on the brick to make moldy black stains go away. It sort of worked as you may notice in future photos.

We bought Hardie soffit planks and they were long and heavy. Steve came to help because I really couldn't hold up my end of the planks. In the photo below they have a little more than half of the soffit and facing boards up.

Chris dug post holes and I helped level the 4×4 posts. My other jobs include carrying stuff, putting stuff up, getting it out, consulting, and keeping things moving. Have you seen crews of guys standing around looking at a job and disucussing what comes next? I try to keep dicussions short and people moving. That said, I'm not doing a lot/any of the heavy lifting so it's easy for me to say let's move on.

We started Monday, today is Wednesday. The old stuff is down. The soffits and facing are up. Unless we are hampered by rain, we caulk tomorrow so we can paint on Friday.

We finished laying the decking planks on this framework today (but I didn't take that photo). Tomorrow Chris hopes to dig the holes for the 4×4 posts that will support the step. If that goes in tomorrow we can build the step on Friday. Friday and/or Saturday we hope to get the framework up for the corrugated (wavy) galvanized metal sheets that will protect the porch. 

The front door needs to be trimmed out and painted, and a light needs to be hung. There are a few bushes to plant and then this job will be finished! (in time for candy making next week…)

I put up most of our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend. We had a party last night which meant that yesterday was spent preparing the house for said party. While we were cleaning, I added more decorations and did some party prepping. A lot of these ideas are inexpensive and easy to do so I thought I'd share in case any of you still have halls to deck.

This table is were appetizers tend to go. Once it's time to sit down and eat, people also sit at this table. Since appetizers can be drippy, I cut a length of wrapping paper to place over the tablecloth. The idea was that I would take it off to reveal a clean tablecloth at the appropriate time but it worked out that the paper stayed put all night. The thing is that the paper looked better even with a bit of stuff dripped on it than the tablecloth alone would have. And it's cute! I folded the cut ends of the paper and taped them but I don't know that anyone noticed this touch.

We close up the garage for extra seating. We bought several inexpensive green plastic drop cloths and Steve stapled them to the top of the garage walls. They cover the garage stuff and make the room seem less like a garage. Steve stapled the lights to the ceiling in such a way that we can leave them up until next year. 

I have a big canvas drop cloth and another smaller one that together mostly covered the floor.

When the sun went down and the Christmas lights came on, and later when I lit the candles, this was a really nice room that seated about 25. We used two small electric space heaters which warmed the room in a very short time. Honestly, this was the quietest, nicest place to sit and eat and visit.

I used a variety of votives holders on the each table. I realized an hour before the party that they would look better on mirror tiles. I don't have any mirror tiles but I do have foil. I wanted to cut 3 at once so I did what any quilter would do… I tore off 3 sheets of foil, layered them, put a salad plate on top and cut around it with a small rotary cutter.

Did you know that when you did that with foil the edges are stuck together? I could not separate them. So one of these is 3 sheets thick and the rest are 2 sheets thick because 1 sheet of foil was a little too limp. They did the trick and were fast and cheep and pretty.

The orange guy is the CottonMonster I bought in Baltimore. He lives on the sofa now. To Christmas him up I pinned a red net bow to his head. I'm here to tell you, a red net bow will make almost anything holiday worthy.

Sparlky garlands in glass bowls are easy and flashy and pretty. I added Christmas balls to them in these bowls. I did this last year, I'll do it again next year. I had one extra lenth of red garland and I nailed it around the front door trim, inside the house. It was a very nice addition that I'll do again.

I've mostly got a red and white decorating scheme for Christmas. We decided to put appetizers on this small table too. This picnic cloth doesn't scream Christmas but it worked because of the color. I could have used wrapping paper too.

I hope you are having fun with your Christmas decorations! I'm finally done and am enjoying them. It is very possible that they will all come down on December 26 so we have 2 weeks of holiday cheer ahead at our house. To be completely honest, that's about all I can take. I like my house with less stuff everywhere – but for the next 2 weeks I can love it!

I've been home from Baltimore for a few days and have not really slowed down yet. I found my Christmas cards at the National Gallery in DC (nothing like waiting until almost the last minute). The artwork on the card is by Saul Steinberg and was first seen on the cover of the New Yorker magazine on November 29, 1976…

The inscription inside is Happy Holidays – to which I had to add "all of them". The only thing missing is a birthday cake! You could send this card at any time of the year but the people I'm sending to are getting theirs just about now.

I finished my Christmas ornaments. I've made a Christmas ornament for friends and family for the last 18 years. I was seriously short on an idea this year and was forced to skim Martha Stewart's site where luckily I found an idea. I bought little birds, bird nests, and feathers at Hobby Lobby. There was paint and glue and lots of glitter involved. I made each bird a different color because I have a dandy set of MS glitter. I should have taken a picture of them all together but didn't.

The ornaments are now packaged and many have been delivered. If nothing else, they sparkle!

Lorna and I have been working together to get orders out. In fact, she's pretty much running the shipping show – oh happy day! She knows stuff I don't know and I'm finding it good to learn new things. My bookkeeping has never been better.

Tis the season of parties and we have one at our house tomorrow so I have been trying to make the place more festive – and tidy. I've been baking and have more to bake and candy to make. I've got work to do with Christopher at his house starting next week (more on that next week). The list is longer than this and I have to stop thinking about it all because it's making me queasy.

In other news – Mom now has a cell phone! We got her a Jitterbug. It's red and cute and incredibly easy to use. Mom loves it and can use it. I know because she called me on it. I haven't called her back on it but probably should to be sure she can hear it. That is going near the top of the to do list…

Those of you on the POC newsletter list have probably gotten an email. There is some new stuff on the site. Click here to go to the home page for more on that if you want to.

So, time for a deep breath. You too because you are probably as crazy busy as I am. It will all get done and if it doesn't, tomorrow is another day. In fact, so what if it isn't all done by Christmas? Late presents, goodies, and good wishes are better than none at all!