Chef Bryan makes his Christmas fudge.

It’s become an annual tradition. Bryan comes to spend part of a day with us to kick off the holiday season by cooking treats and wrapping gifts for those important people in his life.

This year he decided on an easily-made dark chocolate fudge. He carefully measured the ingredients, put them in the pan and then cooked them on the stovetop – enlisting me to help him when the glop was too difficult to stir. We spelled each other off. Once poured into the pan, he chose the type of red, white and green candies to cover each batch and generously sprinkled the crunchies on top. Three batches in all. We set them outside to cool as we were in a time crunch, hoping no critters wanted a sample.

While the fudge cooled, Bryan and his dad wrapped the presents which he had purchased already. He also addressed multiple cards, some including gift cards for the many people who help him in his daily round. We made fudge and wrote out cards for twenty two individuals and made a tin of fudge for his coworkers and job coaches at Ann’s Choice. It was a very busy morning!

After lunch, the fudge was packaged, the presents and cards were loaded in the car and Bryan was on his way to his very first mani-pedi!

He proudly showed his buffed pink nails, cuticles trimmed and neat, to us at church this morning. When asked if he would do this again, he responded with an enthusiastic, “Oh yes!”

I’d say he deserved that treat to himself after all of his hard work making treats for others. Don’t you agree?