Merry Yule! We hope everyone had a blessed day. It was the Winter Solstice today...the longest night of the year. After this the sun will return a wee bit more each day leading up to the longest day of the year at the Summer Solstice. It is a celebration of light.

The kids received 2 gifts this morning, a book and a pair of homemade pjs by Mom. They were excited and happy with their gifts. They were even willing to model their pjs for us so I could get a picture. :-) Morgan started reading her book right away. Our little bookworm.

Speaking of pictures...I have pictures up of our recent crafts & projects as well as the kids this morning. You can just click on the link on the right for the Yule & Christmas projects. Our paper balls, the relaxation pillows and Morgan's pillow are all there.

Today we had planned on finishing up the candy making so we got started. Last night we made the almond coconut balls and the dipping part was a disaster! We finally got just under 1/2 of them dipped and called it quits. We froze the remaining dough balls and I'll cover them later. I was really having a meltdown and Corey came over to rescue me from myself. He is such a sweetie and I'm so very thankful because I really had myself worked up GOOD about those darn candies. By the end of it he had me cracking up. Thank you honey! So...back to today... we were making orange creams covered in milk chocolate and mint creams covered in dark chocolate (thanks to my friend, Anita for the idea & recipe). So we made the fondant and color & flavor each half. We set it aside in the fridge and start with the milk chocolate. I had the melting wafers so I thought it would be easier than the night before using chocolate chips. Well, the fondant was too sticky and I couldn't roll it out or shape it. When I tried and dipped it in the melted chocolate it became a gooey blob. I about lost it! This was 2 candy disasters and I just wasn't dealing with it well. So I put the fondant back in a ball & back in the fridge and covered the chocolate and left it. LOL! I vented to some friends & went on with my day. After helping my mom finish up her house, we all went to dinner and she came over to our house. She helped the kids wrap their gifts to us. She was dying for these orange creams to be made and came up with a suggestion. Another friend suggested adding some more confectioner's sugar to the fondant & that helped...then my mom's solution was to drizzle the chocolate over the pieces instead of dipping them and VOILA we had candies!! I think she enjoyed herself as well. So thanks to a little help from family and friends, I got all my projects done. :-) Thanks!!

So for a complete rundown of what we've made, here ya go:
Oatmeal Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Chocolate Fudge, Peanut Butter Fudge, M&M Cookies, Pecan Pie Cookies, Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, Peppermint Bark, Almond Coconut Balls, Orange Creams w/Milk Chocolate and Mint Creams w/Dark Chocolate. In addition I made 10 relaxation pillows (3 of those with lavender), 2 jammies, paper balls, helped Morgan with her pillow sewing project, and painted wooden ornaments.

I think that covers it. :-) All that is left is gift wrapping and enjoying family & friends. My aunt and uncle will be in town tomorrow from IL....and let the visiting begin.

Merry Yule and Merry Christmas everyone. I'll be checking back in at some point and will have plenty of pictures to share. Enjoy your families and be safe.

The Larabie Family - Kelly, Corey, Morgan & Alex