Caramel Corn

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  We celebrated my son's birthday Friday night and now that it has been properly celebrated I feel like I can enjoy Christmas.  I always feel like I need to make sure  his birthday is a separate celebration and isn't just thrown in there with the Christmas festivities.  And I'm pretty sure we did that.  It was a nice evening, and was very warm and personal.
My other big accomplishment is getting all of our gifts that needed to be mailed shipped.  WOW.  That took a bite out of our wallet.  It is ridiculous! We spent $98 shipping two boxes to Idaho.  I've already talked to my sister-in-law about how to avoid that next year.

All of my gifts are wrapped and quite a few have already been delivered so now it's time to think about our time at home.  Amy and I have purchased what we need to work on our gingerbread house.  We're waiting to do that when school is out.  We also have added a couple of new additions to our Christmas movie cache and we are ready to relax, bake, and be creative!  I love the days when we're all home together.
I told them that I have a really good feeling I'm going to rock the Wii games this year (and they all laughed hysterically.)
I'd love to have a really good snow.  My friend Susan who lives in Winona, Mn. (which is where Joe's little sister used to live) had 18.5 inches of snow Friday. I loved seeing her pictures.  What a blast that would be!  The weekend before that my friend Bonnie had about that much snow in Bangor, Maine.

But whether or not we have snow I'll be happy as long as I'm surrounded by family.

I have another Meemo recipe for you all!  This one is for caramel popcorn.  I think I'm actually going to make this one!

Caramel Corn

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup of dark Karo corn syrup
1 tsp. of vinegar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 T. butter
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
1 tsp. of baking soda
1 1/2 quarts of popped pop corn
1/2 cup of salted peanuts

Mix the first five ingredients in a 2 quart saucepan.  Cook over medium head until it boils, stirring occasionally.  Boil until 290 degrees on the candy thermometer.  Remove from heat, add vanilla & baking soda- mix well.  Mix with pop corn.  Can lay out on wax paper to cool.  Store in lidded containers.

Remember to take care of yourselves this holiday season!  Relax and BREATHE!!!!!

P.S.
Mazie wants a kitten for Christmas.  <3