What?!! You want to give what for Christmas?!!!

This year. those on my Christmas list will be receiving homemade vanilla extract. At least, those are my plans.
I got the idea over at heavenlyhomemakers.com Laura gives a step-by-step tutorial and it seemed simple enough, so I thought I'd give it a try. There are only two ingredients: vodka and vanilla beans.

Since my husband and I don't drink alcohol and don't want to give others the impression that we do, I had to give some serious consideration as to how I was going to acquire a gallon of vodka ( Yes, you read this correctly, a GALLON of vodka). Fortunately, our little town doesn't have any liquor stores (makes for a nice community), but the next little town has a lot of them and I considered driving over there and purchasing some. But, unfortunately, I did teach in that town for a year and it would be just my luck that some little boy or girl would be driving by about then and think, "Wasn't that my second grade teacher coming out of that liquor store with a brown paper bag?" Let's see, those kids would be about 14 years old now and very impressionable.

So....on to my next idea. I was getting ready to take a trip to Oklahoma to visit my sister and decided to ask someone in her family to get the vodka for me. (Most of them drink and know that I don't approve of it, so I did feel a little like a hypocrite asking for their help.) Anyway, that didn't stop me though, and when my grown nephew walked through the livingroom, I called him over and said, "Kelly, do you still drink?" He stammered a little and said, "Well, once in a while, but, but, not like I used to." I could just see him thinking, "Uh-oh, here goes another of her little sermons," so you can just imagine the look on his face when I asked him if he'd mind going and purchasing a GALLON of vodka for me!

Did you know that you can buy vodka in plastic bottles? That was a relief! Because my second concern was that once I had the vodka, I might have a car accident, the bottles would break, and the newspaper report would show that I had open containers in my car! Anyway, despite all these obstacles and a very stressful drive back, I arrived safely with my vodka, ordered some wonderful smelling vanilla beans off the internet and set about making the vanilla.

It's now been in the jar for a month and once a week, I shake it, open it, and take a big sniff.

It's really beginning to smell more like vanilla and less like alcohol! I think it's going to work!!!

Now, on to the next problem.........where do I get little glass bottles suitable for gift giving? Do I order a case over the internet? Does that look suspicious? Will they think I'm making something illegal in my home distillery ...I mean, my glass jar? Next year, I'm giving monogrammed towel sets. That's a lot less stressful!