Oh Christmas Tree and Adventures in Candy Making.

Last night John and I got our Christmas tree. It is beautiful; a seven foot noble fir. I named him Lewis. I have always named my Christmas trees. I don't know why, something weird about me I guess.
When we were at the Christmas tree lot all the trees were $50 or more so we decided to leave. The attendant asked why we were leaving and we told him that we did not want to spend $50 on a tree. Then he said that he could negotiate the price.  He then asked us how much we wanted to spend. $30 I said. Thinking that that would be a fair price and not the insult that $20 would have been. He countered with $40. and then John said $35. We settled on $37.99; okay, sold!

On the way home we stopped and picked up the pizza we ordered and John ran into Skyler Judd, a guy that he lived with for a time on his mission in California. That kid knows so many people. I can't take him any where.

Once the tree was up and dinner was over I started my endeavor, to make some divinity for Christmas boxes. I boiled the sugar, water and corn syrup and waited until they reached "hard ball" stage. then I whipped the egg whites to stiff peaks. When i tried to combine the sugar mixture to my egg whites, it was a mess. The sugar had cooled too much. I called mom to ask her what I did wrong. She told me to not let the sugar cool. Okay, thanks. I said. I put the pans in the sink with some warm soapy water, but the sugar was not budging. Eventually I had to boil some water and pour it into the pans and scrub with a knife and sponge, because the water was too hot. An hour after I had begun, I was ready to begin again.

My second attempt, although better was still not perfect, and I beat too much air into the mixture making it not want to stick together. Hopefully my third and all subsequent attempts here after will be successful. Today I am going to make truffles; also something I have never done before.
Wish me luck.

Good Day

Today was a day of cleaning in preparation to christmasify our house. I cleaned the kitchen from top to bottom including the fridge. I can't tell you how many times I did dishes today. Well, maybe I can it was 4. I never do dishes that much. I also swept and mopped the floor.

I was going to move onto the bathroom but then John came home and he wanted the carpets cleaned before we got our Christmas tree. He borrowed his friends, Zach's carpet cleaner and we figured out how to work it. Then I cleaned the carpets. They look a lot better. I was able to get most of the oil stains out. Once Christmas is over we will have to clean the floor again.

In addition to all this cleaning, I threw a chicken in the crockpot with potatoes and carrots. Six hours later we were eating a wonderful dinner. Today I felt like a good wife.

After dinner we headed over to Barnes and Nobel to once again look at the Nook e-reader (it is on my Christmas list) and once again decide that there is something missing. John and I decided that an ipad would be better. It is more user friendly, I can get books from other sources than just the company I purchased the e-reader from and it already has color. one con is that it is back lit, but they have different colors that make it easier on the eyes and a night time and daytime feature. In the world of e-readers this is just the beginning. you wouldn't want to buy a first generation car, so why would you want to buy a first generation e-reader?