KALEIDOSCOPE

It was tradition in our family to give gifts to all unmarried cousins that had not yet graduated from high school or college.  It was also tradition to give a gift to the households of those who were married; these gifts usually consisted of candles, holiday knick knacks, holiday towels, or homemade edible goods.

Money was tight the year my oldest was born and we were struggling to figure out what to give as the house to house gifts.  I finally decided that it would be fun to make several kinds of candy and create a candy sampler for our gift to each house.  (I hate gifts that will probably get thrown out or put up for sale at the next garage sale.)

I had my mother come over and we turned the kitchen into candy making central.  We made fudge, marzipan, three layer jelly candies, rum balls, creme de minthe  balls, caramels, and even marshmallows.

We still talk and laugh about the “stained glass” candy we made.  We made the hard candy syrup and, as the directions said, poured into a pan lined with foil.  Then, we proceeded to snip the cooling candy with scissors and drop it into powdered sugar to cool.  The idea was to make several batches of different colors and flavors and combine them into a glass jar.  They looked pretty; however, our fingers were burned and sore by the time we finished; the candy had to be snipped before it cooled.

Later, someone told us that we should have worn white gloves to avoid burning our fingers.  Oh, well, live and learn.