Christmas Eve Candy

Merry Christmas lovelies! Can you believe there are only about 2 more weeks until the 25th?

With Christmas coming up, I have found myself relatively broke and strapped for time ;].  Which kind of makes blogging hard. I apologize for the lack of posting!

(Our Tree from last year. None this year, we'll be OOT.)

We are currently trying to save up for a somewhat impromptu trip to visit family. Originally, we had planned on doing our own Christmas. However, some things have come up that have compelled us to save the money and make the trip down to see our loved ones.

Which means some of our projects have had to be put off. At least until we have saved enough gas money for the drive. Among these post-poned projects would be my Emmie's Market. Ugggh! It is killing me not being able to put it all together like I want!

But I'd rather wait till we have the money, then to go into debt for something so silly.

Cool, granted. But silly nonetheless.

(The baskets I am going to spray paint a mustard yellow... <333)


That being said, I did go ahead and add stripes to the side of my awning. I think I will also scallop or round the edges on the side panels. It should add a nice detail.

Kev thinks I should cover the whole thing with fabric so it looks more like a real awning. I think he's right. But that's obviously not in the budget. Yet.

I also may have changed my mind about painting the grocery stand in chalk board paint. I might just spray paint the whole thing white... I guess you'll have to wait and see ;].

...And so will I.

Le sigh.

Thankfully, we pretty much have everything we need for the Lego table... except for maybe some extra Gorilla Glue. So I think we will be tackling that baby this week. At least I sure hope so anyways! It'll get my mind off of everything I want to do but can't (yet) afford to with Emmie's Market.

So, in absence of any real progress made on our Christmas Projects, I thought instead I could share one of my favorite traditions we have developed over the years.  Christmas Eve Candy Making.

(I had to crop the photo to hide my terrible self-haircut. I'm not kidding you. It was SO bad.)

Last year, we were lucky to live near family, so we were able to make candy with my parents and my brother and sister in law.

 I think my family may have more issues than Texas when it comes to doing things "BIG." ;]

 Not only did we spend the majority of the afternoon and early evening making caramel-wrapped, chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks... we also made peanut butter fudge, chocolate-covered peanut butter balls, a berry cobbler, and bread pudding.

(My beautiful mother!)

Did I mention there were only seven adults present at this shindig? Oh man it was a lot of sweets.

...a lot, a lot of deliciously delectable sweets! Yum!

This year we will be out of town for Christmas Eve, but we sure do hope we get to continue our tradition. It is the only time of the year we ever try and make our own Candy...and hey... it's fun!

Recipes we want to try next time around? Here, and here!

What does your family do Christmas Eve? Do you do a big dinner? Or do you save that for Christmas night?   We like to eat our homemade candy, open up our presents of brand new Christmas jammies, and snuggle on the couch reading about our Savior's birth. Can't wait to do it again this year! Happy Holidays everybody!