I’ve never tried canning before but it’s kind of fun.  Kind of fun after the stressful parts.  What if I cook it too long?  What if the lids don’t seal?  What ? How?  Why?  Bah!  Stressful! 

Then you hear a “pop” of the lid being sealed and all is well.  And after that you get to eat it.  Then it’s fun.

I tried this recipe because I like vanilla.  Needless to say, I didn’t use mixed berries.  It’s all raspberries, all the time in the Charboneau backyard.  The jam turned out really yummy!  One batch down, another on the way and who knows how many more after that.  Don’t be surprised if you get jam for Christmas!

We wanted to share the finished product and a little story of lessons learned in hopes  that next years “trim the tree” goes a bit smoother.

My Mom had given us a really cool, old retro tree stand that we were excited to use.  It took a few tries but we finally got the tree to stick to the pokey things in the stand and stand on its own.  We were ready to decorate and naturally, started with lights – but only half of them worked!  Luckily we tested them before we put them on the tree but lesson learned was test them the day before so you don’t have to run out to buy more at 7pm, mid-trimming.

The tree was all decorated and looking lovely, we were ooing and aweing at “our first tree together.”  We remembered we needed to water it and learned all too quickly there was a hole in our cool tree stand.  So now, there was water all over the floor.  And sadly, this was not a slow leak.  We ran out again to buy a new tree stand.  I wasn’t excited to take the tree apart to move it to the new stand so convinced Kevin we could carefully transport.  It worked and then we ooed and awed, a little less excitedly, all over again.

It took a little longer than we expected but next year we’ll be professionals for sure!  And, in the end we laughed a whole lot more than we probably would have without the silly mishaps.

So, for our first Halloween in our new house, we carved pumpkins and eagerly awaited trick-or-treaters.  We weren’t really sure how many kiddo’s we’d have so we started out with big handfuls….figuring it wouldn’t be too many.  Turns out that was a mistake as we ran out of candy!  I was pleased to see that kids still trick-or-treat, just like we used to.   There’s something about dressing in costume, running from house to house in the dark, rain and cold asking for candy.  Best idea ever!

Jack-o-lanterns!

Kevin's crazy shower costume - he won a prize at his work!

“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson