traditions, traditions! st nick night and a recipe!

the boss and i were slightly older when we got married. i mean, we weren't 80 or anything like that...just...ahem. older.
so we were both set in our ways when it came to family traditions. my family has tons of traditions. from the random (banging pots in the middle of the street on new years eve) to the more...traditional (teehee...). the boss's family is no different. for christmas eve one year we had to dress like our favorite character from the christmas carol. yes, there are pictures. but i'm 8 1/2 months pregnant at the time. am i going to show them? heck no. actually, i contemplated it. but i can't find one of the whole costume. oh well. so sad, too...teehee).
now that we have the lady m. in our lives, we want to make sure we're celebrating the traditions that meant a lot to us as kids.

for the boss, one of those is st. nick night.  this was a new one for me. i mean, i had heard of it before. but never done it until last year.

as my father-in-law explains it, the friday after you set up your tree, you each write letters to santa, roll them up and put them in your shoe, and leave the shoes on the front porch. in the middle of the night, st. nick will come by and pick up your letter, leaving you with a little present. 
so that's what we do. well, our version of it anyway. st nick night is a day where we spend the whole day together. we go and pick our christmas tree (at least one of our trees has to be live, and cut down by us-why? tradition),

the boss and the lady off to cut down the tree

at the christmas tree farm, lady m got to meet a horse for the very first time!

bring it home, decorate it. eat take-out from our favorite mexican restaurant, drink yummy cider (and one tiny sip of egg nog...it's tradition, right?), write our letters to santa,leave them in our shoes on the porch,

ps, these are the only shoes that the lady will wear. she's such a fashionista

and watch christmas-y movies. (movie selection this year: elf. home alone. and the walking dead-the lady was asleep. stop judging.).
all in all, it's a really lovely day.

part of my tradition for the holidays, is drinking my momma's cider.
she makes the best. i mean, the best cider. well, that is, until mine came along (teehee. sorry, momma!). surprisingly, even though the boss generally doesn't like fruity things (especially cider), he loves this cider...even requests it.

so here's my recipe. the base is my mom's cider so if you don't like any of the additions (after you've tried, them, of course), just use the base. and it is phenomenal.
but, my additions aren't too shabby...
here it goes (my first ever recipe share on the internet...*cue drumroll, please.....)

the best face-melting cider in the world...
5 cups cider (not apple juice. trust me, i've tried it with the apple juice. it doesn't work)
2 cups orange juice (i prefer some pulp...and we've even gone with the 50/50 orange juice sometimes. it still tastes yummy)
about 1/4 cup brown sugar (don't worry about making this exact. you'll match it to your tastes).
1 cinnamon stick (or more...but i usually just start with one)
1/8 cup of caramel sundae syrup (the kind you put over ice cream. this doesn't need to be exact either-it's all about what you like).
combine the first four ingredients in a large pot over medium-high heat. bring it to a slight boil and then turn the heat to medium and just let it simmer. while it's simmering, add in the caramel syrup. stir and let it simmer. honestly, the longer you let it simmer, the better. you don't want it to burn, but you want to give the flavors a chance to meld. not to mention, your house will smell so divine.

now, here's the face-melting part, when you go to serve this, squirt a decent amount of whipped cream (and i say squirt because even though i've made my own whipped cream for this recipe, i just like the convenience of reddi whip) into the bottom of the cup and then pour the hot cider over it. stir.
ta-da.
genius. in a cup.
trust me on this one. try it. you won't regret it.