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.