Our Christmas Tree for 2003

Merry Christmas everyone!  May you have a joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year.  God bless us all, every one.

Photo by Chris Duffy . . . . . . . A house in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

All that gingerbread, and none of it edible.   This house is typical of so many of the homes in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It's obvious that the Victorian style was very much in vogue when the town was being built.  And in the historic district the Victorian flavor has to be maintained . . by law.  You can only build a new house or remodel an old one if the outside appearance is in keeping with the rest of the district. . . ie if it maintains the look and feel of the neighborhood. 

New Sun Room

As long as I'm getting caught upon my Xanga posting, it dawns on me that I've never shown you our new Sun Room after it was completed.  The last pictures I posted of it were in mid construction.  It has been a very busy fall and I've not kept up with my postings.

New Sun Room

My husband and I enjoy the room very much and all the more so because we did it.  We (along with my husband's brother and our son) did all the labor on it ourselves, with the exception of laying the tile floor.  After our last tiling job we both decided our knees could not take that again.  We did however do the staining and the sealing of the floor.  I do think it's my husband's favorite room in the house now.  He sits in that chair and reads the morning paper and soaks up the morning sun before heading off to work.

Candy Days 2003

Photo by Mike Duffy

I'm afraid I'm a little bit behind in my blogging, so  I thought I'd start out by sharing a couple shots from our recent Candy Days.  Here the three of us (my mom, my sister and I) are rolling and forming coconut bon bon balls.  It's definately the least fun thing we do (besides cleaning up of course) in connection with candy days. We start with a large bowl filled with the gooey fondant filling and roll little balls about the size of a marbles until the bowl is empty.  Of course, when we mix one of our favorite passtimes, which is talking, into the process it becomes a lot more fun.

Photo by Chris Duffy

We talk about anything and everything.  Here we're making the centers for the chocolate covered cherries.  I think we were discussing the absurdity of us making them by hand when people can buy a box of two dozen for 99 cents.  But then ours are made by hand and with love in them.

Photo by Chris Duffy

Here's my sister Alice making peanut butter cups.   The two of us have a long standing disagrement with our mother about which is the better method of making the chocolates . . . molding or dipping. We prefer dipping while mom prefers making them using plastic molds.  The molds take more chocolate and more time PLUS many recipients of the candy still think that they're not hand made because they look so perfect.  Several years ago mom made the statement that we could dip the chocolates after she's dead, but we're gradually gaining ground.  This year  half the candy was dipped and half was molded.  We made sure that mom's favorites, the coconut cream bon bons, were molded.  And of course the chocolate covered cherries were molded, but mainly because we haven't been able to think of a way to dip them because they're made with not only the ball of cherry flavored fondant, but also a cherry. 

If any one has a suggestion as to how to keep the two segments together while being dipped we'd love to hear it.

A house in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Well, it's that time of year again. . . Candy Days.  Each year my sister, my mom and I all get together the first part of December and spend 2 or 3 days making candy.  It started out with just my mother making candy to give away at Christmas time, but them when it got to be too much for her to handle my sister Alice started helping.  After a couple years she suggested that I drive to OKC to get in on the fun and now we alternate the event between OKC and Dallas.  We've been doing that for about 6 years now, and this year is MY year.   Alice and mom will be heading towards Dallas in about a half hour and they should be here when I get off work.  The work is exhausting but we have a great time.  We make candy, stopping only for meals and bedtime until all the different varieties are completed.  We have kinds that we make EVERY year, and some years we try new kinds and decide whether to add them to our permanent list or to never make again.  We are all three "kitchen" women and love just gabbing, cooking and being together. . . and a little bit of what we like to call "quality control" . . ie taste testing the candy we're making.