It's Christmas! Day 19: Making Christmas Candy

It’s Christmas! is a 25 day blog and vlog segment that I’ll be doing this December to bring you crafts, reviews, and ideas to make your Christmas season even more fun this year (especially, with this pandemic thing we’re all trying to navigate).

Hopefully, my family can inspire yours to not let this crazy year ruin the holiday season for you.

In years past, we’ve made all different kinds of Christmas candy. From peppermint bark to chocolate peanut clusters, we’ve made it all. However, this year, we’re trying to eat healthier and be more conscious of our calorie intake. But that doesn’t mean that we need to eliminate all Christmas candy. So, we’ve limited it to just one kind this year.

This candy means a lot to me because my grandma used to make it. And since she’s not around anymore, it’s up to me to carry on the tradition. Plus, this is the candy that we put in our neighbor gift baskets.

So, we’re going to get started.
First, we need our supplies. We’re going to gather our double boiler, pot, spatula, wax paper, cookie sheet, 1 cup and ½ cup measuring cups, and a small scoop.
Now for our ingredients, we’re going to get 1 lb of almond bark, peanut butter, crisp rice cereal, dry roasted peanuts, and mini marshmallows.

We’re going to fill our pot with water, making sure it JUST touches the bottom of the double boiler and then put it on medium heat.
Let your water heat up for a couple minutes, about 5, and then we’re going to add our almond bark. Our goal now is just to get it melted. This will probably take a bit of time, but we want to melt it slow so as to not add too much heat.

After our almond bark is at a smooth consistency, it’s time for us to add our other ingredients. First, we’ll add 1/2 cup of peanut butter and mix that up really well. Then we’re going to add 1 1/2 cups of crisp rice cereal and 1 cup of dry roasted peanuts. Again, we want to mix that up.
Then, we’re going to add 1 cup of mini marshmallows. We want to stir that quickly and get our scoop to portion out our candies because we don’t want the marshmallows to melt.
As we scoop out our portions, we put them on wax paper and allow them to cool.
That’s it! Now that our candies have cooled for about half an hour, they’re ready to eat. And these don’t last very long in my house.

I hope you enjoy. And as always, from my family to yours, Merry Christmas.

Visit to Nashville, TN

One of the last stops on our Mother/Son roadtrip was Nashville. This is frequently our last stop on roadtrips. Nashville is such a fun place, even if you only have a day to spend here.

We drove into town and immediately went to Hattie B’s Hot Chicken to stand in line and get some awesome food. Parking is crazy in Nashville. We’ve never had trouble finding a spot, but it comes at a price, that’s for sure. This place is so popular, you definitely need to get there 30 minutes before they open on weekdays and possibly an hour early on the weekends if you want a table. I ordered chicken strips (medium heat) with pimento mac and cheese and potato salad. Owen got the kids chicken strips (southern, which means no heat) with fries. We also really enjoy their lemonade. I think it’s made in-house and it’s absolutely delicious. They’re not over-priced and the food is definitely worth a trip. It was hot outside and the indoor seating is incredibly limited so we did have to sit outside. However, it at least is covered and has fans.

Then, we headed out to the Adventure Science Museum. The cost was $28 for my son and myself. It was amazing! I’m kind of over children’s museums because they all have the same exhibits. So, once you’ve been to one, you’ve been to them all. But this is so different. First of all, it’s not just for little kids. There is a section just for them, but I feel like this “museum” is geared toward the older child, which is a welcome change. We played music, defeated germs, walked on the moon, hung out among the stars, climbed a spine, and slid down the digestive system. It was seriously amazing. We only spent about 2 hours here, but it was a fun 2 hours.

Owen’s Notes: “Oh my gosh! My favorite thing that we did there was doing the moon gravity thing. There was a machine that picked me up, lifted me into the air, and then put me back down again. I had to try to walk over to a flag on the ground and walk back. It was so fun, but way harder than it sounds.”

When we were done at the Adventure Science Museum, we headed downtown again to check out the Johnny Cash Museum. The cost was $20 per adult and $16 per child. It is ranked the number one music museum in the world. This museum is fairly small, but still worth a visit. We only spent about an hour here, and even that was pushing it. It seemed crowded, which was a shame, but we still had a great time. There was a ton of memorabilia and informational text you could read, outfits from famous moments and records displayed. But my favorite thing about the entire museum was that there were performances you could watch, a video history of Johnny Cash’s career, songs you could listen to with headphones, and a couple places where you could sit to do these things. They also offered a green screen photo you could buy. Overall, it was a decent museum that I’m glad we visited, but I don’t feel the need to go again during our many trips to Nashville.

Owen’s Notes: “My favorite part of the Johnny Cash Museum was taking a picture in front of the green screen and then getting a picture of me with Johnny Cash.”

Then, before heading back to our hotel, we popped into the Goo Goo shop to pick up some Goo Goo Clusters to bring back home with us. If you’ve never heard of a Goo Goo Cluster, you’re missing out. They are a regional treat that we discovered on our travels and we keep going back for more. It is a disc-shaped candy bar that contains marshmallow nougat, caramel, and roasted peanuts and then covered in milk chocolate. My family’s favorite is the peanut butter, though. Basically, they replace the marshmallow nougat with a soft peanut butter nougat. The Goo Goo shop is located right downtown across from the Johnny Cash museum so it’s pretty convenient when we’re in town. You should give them a try if you’re visiting the area. They also have a little cafe inside their store.

Owen’s Notes: “I love Goo Goo Clusters. We bought the peanut butter ones!”

Our hotel was the Wingate by Wyndham out by the airport at 1 Century Blvd. They have free wifi, free breakfast, a mini fridge, and a microwave. What else you could you want? It was clean and perfect for our needs. We always stay out by the airport when we visit Nashville. It may be farther from the action, but it is significantly cheaper. And saving money on our hotel allows us to spend money elsewhere.

Our trip to Nashville was a great one. I will always suggest this place to people planning a weekend getaway or as a destination on a roadtrip.