Candy Making Extravaganza

When I was growing up, my mom and her sisters and Grandma would always make Christmas candy and cookies for their very large extended family. Since we have a lot of new friends here in Cincinnati, I wanted to get them a little something, and who doesn't love delicious homemade goodies? So we planned a girls' weekend with my mom, sister, and sister-in-law. Unfortunately Jamie couldn't make it, and we might've roped in my aunt and grandma to help. And Kyler tagged along with the promise that he could make buckeyes. And what ensued after was organized chaos with lots of sugar and talking.

When Kyler woke up that Saturday, the first words out of his mouth were, "I'm making buckeyes today with my hands!"

Kelli thought he was kidding until he dug right in, and then she insisted on making the second batch with her hands too. (I think Kelli would like for me to clarify that all these pictures are of Kyler's hands. Hers are significantly less hairy.)

There was a lot of sugar involved, and I warned you there was chaos.

Grandma Faye got in on the buckeye-making fun too. And I would like to state for the record that even though we are living in the Buckeye state, we are not Buckeyes. We are Ohio Hoosiers. Ick, buckeyes.

While those guys were holding down the fort on the buckeye front, Aunt Imogene and I started in on the fudge.

I was never one to claim that fudge was non-caloric, but it sure is tasty. How could it not be with all that butter and sugar.

(Oh, in that bottom pot was the beginning stages of rock candy. I told you there was chaos. There were usually three different things going on at once.)

Kyler and I dipped most of the buckeyes. Considering our last method of dipping buckeyes in college involved a bobby pin, I'd say we made significant improvement this time using a little fork or skewer.

My cousin Alex was working most of the day. He had told his mom before we got there that he needed to get out of the house away from the girly work, so he was pretty surprised when he walked in and find Kyler making candy. We're here to break all gender stereotypes...ok, maybe just this one.

After buckeyes, Kyler was done, and Kelli and I started making chocolate-covered pretzels.

Ta da!

After a full day of baking, we had a fabulous stock of goodies.

After we got all of our goodies packed up, we had these pretty boxes to take home with us.

We also sent some home with Kelli and left some for Jamie since she couldn't make it last minute. And of course, we left plenty with Imogene.

Sidenote: Grandma Faye and Grandpa James brought these marshmallows for Alex. The boys used to have bonfires in the fall, and I guess they thought these would be nice for them.

However, we all spent the entire day laughing about the size of these 'Giant Toasters'.

They seriously were 2-3 inches big!

All in all, we had a wonderful (very long) day of candy-making and lots of talking. Just ask Kyler, his side of the story says that we never stopped talking for 12 hours straight. I'm not one to argue with my husband either :)