Tikatu's Travels Through Time

Lake wind advisory for our area means my windchimes in front and back are dancing while there's a God Almighty draft through the tatterered weather stripping on the side door (thank you very much, Inky and Kami). The kids are playing either Okami (PS2) or Pokémon (DS). I have a crockpot full of chicken corn chowder going in the kitchen. Hubby has the car so I don't have to pick him up. Fortunately for him, his thermal underwear was ready for him to wear today as I'm very sure he needed it.

More later if I'm in the mood.

Now that the tree is all trimmed (I put it together with a little help from Boy #1; I did the lights and the garland, and chose the ornaments to go on it - though Hubby and Boy #1 actually hung the ornaments), the Christmas letter is sent (I wrote it, printed it, printed the return labels, and the address labels, bought the stamps - the Girl and Boy #2 stuffed the envelopes and put the various sticky things on; Hubby mailed them), it's now time for the fudge! Fudge is our usual gift to the teachers, and Hubby takes some to his workplace food thing during the weeks leading up to Christmas. This year, the Girl has a few extra people to hand out to, namely the librarians who have seen her through the years at GHS. Plus, she wants to take some to her "un-party" on Wednesday, and Boy #1 wants to use it as a gift at his party on Friday.

Guess who makes the fudge?

You got it.

Not only do I make it, but I cut it up and package it. And this year the packaging got a little more complex.

I usually head down to the If It's Paper store in a nearby town, not wanting to brave the traffic congestion of the road where the admittedly closer one is. But when I got there today, I found out that they were going out of business! (Just at that location, though.) It was good in a way; they had 75% off everything in the store, but it was pretty picked over by the time I got there. I like to use little Chinese food take out boxes (aka, food pail) as packaging - they're usually printed for the holidays and work really well to fit three to five really big hunks of fudge. I also like to get the larger ones to give as gifts to our mail carrier and the neighbors. This year, I found 9 of them at the store. 5 small white ones, two large shiny blue, and two large red. Far from enough for our needs.

But there was something else at hand - some little 2.5 x 2.5 inch boxes. Red, with snowmen printed  on top. Really cute, and big enough to hold some fudge - if I was careful about how thick it got. Good price, too, with the discount. My usual method is to make a double batch and pour it into a 9x13 pan. Makes for pieces at least an inch and a half thick, probably more. No way to do that with these little boxes.

So, I bought some smaller pans, and poured my double batch into both pans, spreading it out and reducing the thickness. Seems to have worked; I've done the servings for the boys, and they fit pretty well. The Girl doesn't want hers until Thursday so she can give them to all her teachers at once (one of them being her driving instructor - who she sees only on Thursday). I tried to cut the fudge up into pieces that would fit in the box, then cutting them into smaller chunks, wrapping them in waxed paper so they didn't stick. It worked, mostly. The boys put the boxes together.

The fudge was still very fresh and soft - I hope it firms up a bit more. Boy #1 wanted to refrigerate it, but that makes it grainy. At least it's wrapped up and the recipients can get it out!

I love the holidays, but I don't think the rest of the family realizes how much work goes into them... sigh.