Stop, It's Caramel Time

December is a magical time of the year in my house.  It always has been.  Even when I was single I would send handwritten Christmas cards to my friends and family.  I delight in finding the perfect gifts and wrapping them in that year's selected coordinating wrapping theme.  The twinkling lights and snow force me to slow down and observe the beauty all around me.  

I am also a very big fan of traditions.  From watching "White Christmas" on Christmas Eve with my family, to consuming my mom's cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning around the tree awaiting the opening of the gifts, traditions are something I look forward to and comfort me from year to year.  

These days Christmas looks a little different.  Ever since I met my husband, Aaron, we have been forming our own traditions.  One of my favorites is the caramels that Aaron has been making for the last 4 years.... this has become a tradition which many of our friends look forward to as well.  

This year will be our fifth Christmas together.  The first year, we had only been dating for 2 months and we decided that we were going to take an entire weekend to make Christmas treats.  We found recipes from a cookie exchange cookbook, went to the store to buy all the supplies and went to it.  We were so distracted from the love stars in our eyes that we neglected to notice that each batch of cookies in the cookbook were for multiple dozens of cookies, since it was for a cookie exchange.  We made WAY too many cookies and ended up having lots of extra cookie dough left unbaked.  It was so much fun, we didn't care.  

The next year, we decided to make it a little more simple and decided on just a few treats.  Aaron stumbled upon a recipe for salted whiskey caramels.  The first year they were good, each batch an experiment different from the last - the final batch being the best.  By the following year, he had nearly perfected the recipe and our friends were requesting the caramels year-round.  This year he started taunting our friends with pictures of ingredients on Facebook only days after Thanksgiving. It's caramel time!  Seriously, they are so good.  They are now a Christmas Tradition - so you know I love that!