10 Days of Thanksgiving

Day 8 of the 10 Days of Thanksgiving Crochet Event 2018

11/19/2018

Thankful for Traditions

I find it fascinating to hear the various traditions of families and friends and even others around the world. What is cool about it is that while many may be the same, many put their own little spins on a tradition to make it unique to their families.
When I was a little girl, I lived next door to my grandparents. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, she had her banquet table covered with a nice table runner and this beautiful candy dish (or a few of them) filled with Bridge Mix and Chocolate covered orange sticks. I love chocolate covered nuts but HATED the chocolate covered raisins and something about orange and chocolate mixed gives me headaches. I would always try to remember which color of chocolate or which shape may be the nuts. Sadly, I bit into those terrible raisins many more times than I would have liked.

Back then, my mom would sew each of us 6 kids a new pair of PJ's to be opened on Christmas eve. It was always fun to have a new pajama to wear to bed. My favorite were made out of Trico or some similar slippery fabric and they were comfy! My siblings and I would draw names and we'd be able to pick out one present for that person. Since all of us are married now, we play the white elephant game for our family Christmas party. Our kids have fun drawing names with their cousins and choosing 1 gift for them. I love that we're able to carry on that tradition for our kids to enjoy. It's something they look forward to and I hope we can keep it going a while longer.

The biggest tradition (and I think the best) is the homemade old fashioned candy. Every year, my aunt would make old fashioned fudge, penuche and boston creme and give a package of it to my dad. If we were lucky, he'd share with us. It didn't last long! My uncle would spend a bunch of time in the freezing cold of his garage dipping homemade cherry chocolates. Oh boy! I had the privilege of staying with them my senior year of high school and was able to help him a little (before I got to cold) and watch his process. Sadly, the family doesn't know where his recipe went for those.
For a few years, I asked my aunt for her candy recipes and she would just brush it off and we would forget. One year, she finally told me she would have me there when she was making the candy so I could learn the tricks. To my disappointment, she ended up showing her daughter in law. Great for her, but dang it!

It took some time and I think by the time I did get it out of her, she wasn't doing well health wise. I reminded her that if she didn't pass them on to one of us, the tradition would be lost. She told me the recipes and I wrote the small set of instructions out as best I could... "A little of this...", A dash of that..." You know how those old recipes go! But the trick wasn't so much in the quantity but more in the process.

It took me some time to really get it down but I love that I'm able to carry on that family tradition! She has since passed away and I try to take some candy to her husband so he can still have a bit of her legand during the holidays. It's truly not a holiday without her old fashioned candy!
In the spirit of holiday candy making, I chose to offer all of my Kitchen Towel Top crochet patterns for just $1 each for day 8 of the 10 Days of Thanksgiving Crochet Event.
I hope you'll enjoy a little holiday cooking too!

Download the Licorice Carmel recipe ------->

licorice_carmels.pdf
File Size:	59 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Special $1 crochet pattern offer for 24 hour

Below are the crochet patterns we chose to offer for just
$1 for the next 24 hours
Click on each link and use code 8Tradition to enjoy the discount
expires @ 6am MST 11/20/18
**Refunds will not be given for improper use of the code. Please verify that your total for each pattern is just $1 PRIOR to completing your order**