i know why i don't own a bakery!

Tuesday was set aside as a very important day. It was our first annual family cookie & candy baking day!!

Now, if you've read my blog very long, you know that I don't cook or bake a lot. I'm getting better now that I'm home with the kids! :) With that said, my mom gave me an important first job.....remove the Hershey's kisses from the wrappers. Humph.
I guess she was right in giving me a basic job! My next job was to melt white chocolate. I burned it. As the day went on, I got better, though!!! :)

Ok, who was there? Precious little Emmy came along to help!

My sister and I were raring to go at 9 sharp! (We were scheduled to start earlier, but the 2 hour snow delay put a kink in things!)

Sister-in-law Jen rolled in after she got little G-Man on the bus!

Of course, Maggers made her appearance in between naps. :)

My aunt Gail drove in from Indy!! And my Mom hosted - big mistake! Her beautiful kitchen was left in a big ol' mess!!! ;)

Alright, people. Here's the nitty gritty. We each brought two (mom and Tricia didn't stick to the two recipe rule!!) recipes and the ingredients. I wanted to make cinnamon candy and the peanut butter crackers dipped in chocolate.

We went way back. I'm talking old school. Have you ever seen one of these?? (Nice manicure mom!!)

It's called a candy thermometer. Yes. I had no idea they existed. You stick it on the side of whatever you are cooking. Now, this was my grandmothers, so it's really old. When mom showed me where it needed to boil to, it reads "310 - Hard Crack". I thought that was hilarious!

But, it worked it's magic and ta-da!!! Beautiful hard cinnamon!

It took us ALL.DAY.LONG. But we finally finished! I'm so proud of our baking so you have to endure a picture of each thing we made!!! ;)

Peanut butter crackers dipped in chocolate (even mini ones, too!)

pretzels with Hershey kisses & M&M's

haystacks

Peppermint bark

Peanut butter cookies with Hershey's kisses

Iced sugar cookies

Wreaths

Chocolate covered Oreo balls

Chocolate toffee pieces

Oh, and really cute little chocolate covered cherry mice!!!

The peanut butter fudge was probably my favorite! (Of course I tried everything!!!)

And, the finished products!!

We all had a really fun day! We made up little tins of goodies for all the kids teachers, Sunday School teachers, bus drivers, neighbors, and helpers. I love giving stuff away during the holidays! I have an incredible family and am so blessed to be able to do these things with them!!! Love you guys!