The Gift of Being Together

by Creedance
(Seattle)

Now it doesn’t seem like the typical teenager would appreciate an intricate project like I am about to suggest, but the fun is definitely in the adventure.

Recently, my daughter had fallen in love with salted caramels. Every candy store we went to or saw she would have to try their version of these treats. When her birthday was coming up and I had wanted to get her something unique, I came up with the idea to buy the ingredients as a surprise and then we could make them together on her birthday. She was so excited when she opened up the gifts of dark chocolate and mixing bowls that I knew I had been on the right track with her present.

We got started that afternoon making the caramels. The first batch went horribly wrong, bubbling over and spilling onto the burner and oozing out all around the stove. We carefully, but clumsily dances around each other and the hot pans and burner trying to clean it up before it hardened. When all was sparkling again, we could not stop laughing at our ordeal.

Luckily we had enough ingredients to try again and the second time was a charm. The caramels were perfect. But then we couldn’t figure out how to dip them in the chocolate! After a lot of creative pondering, we decided that salad tongs would be best.

We had the messiest batch of salted caramels in history, but the taste was amazing. And with all of the fumbling and improvising we had to do, I don’t think I can remember the last time we laughed that hard together. She later told me it was the best gift she had ever gotten. And it was for me, too.