Popcorn Balls and Christmas Sweets

When my mother was a little girl, her father brought home a special treat for his big brood of kids, and hid it in a shed beyond the house. Mother and some of her siblings discovered the stash. Whether together or one by one in the days leading up to Christmas, little hands slipped into that big, wooden barrel to take just one piece of sweet, crunchy peanut brittle, sure that it wouldn't be missed. Of course you know the rest of the story... When Grandpa Whitney went to the shed to retrieve his treasure to surprise his kids with candy for Christmas, he found an empty barrel.

Evelyn, my sister-in-law, started early in December making mouthwatering divinity, fudge, penuche, and the best red and green popcorn balls. She stored these make-ahead goodies in air-tight tins in the coolest spot, her bedroom closet. As a kid, I'm sure I must have sampled more than popcorn, once I had discovered the stash of heavenly goodness, but it is the popcorn balls I remember most. These were sweets unlike anything my mother made. Surely just one wouldn't be missed. Then one more... I don't know how many I had eaten before Evelyn discovered the snitch in her closet!

My youngest grandson, Max, is perfecting and perpetuating this family trait during a week of gingerbread decorating where more kinds of candy than he ever imagined fill the kitchen table in clear cups. No matter where the Cadbury Chocolate snowballs land on the table as these cute, little cottages are completed, Max quietly reaches from behind me to capture one or a couple in his small, 5-year-old hand.

In the days before Christmas, I remember my dad coming in from the cold outside, sitting in his big, grey, overstuffed chair and taking the nut bowl into his lap. He enjoyed every kind in the mix as he put the cracker and picks to use, separating nutmeats from shells. He seemed to love the fondant filled chocolate drops and chocolate covered coconut candy I remember having only at Christmastime. Mother's favorites were gumdrops and hard tack candies though I don't think she ever met a sweet candy she didn't like! I thought of them both looking through a Vermont Country Store catalog recently. The candies I hadn't seen on store shelves in a long time were right there on those pages.

Growing up with siblings to share Christmas with is not part of my memory. I'd like to hear more from each of them about the memories they have of those early years of Eve's and Morning's, when our parents were young and raising a family.