Winter Wonderland

I woke this morning and was pleasantly surprised by the snowfall that came in the night.



It reminded me of one of my favorite poems:

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
-Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
...

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

The last verse is particularly pertinent, I think. There is always SOMETHING on my list that "needs" to be attended to. Far too often, that list keeps me from experiencing those small things in life that too quickly pass by.

I took Kali out this morning before the girls were up, and we were able to enjoy the virgin snow in the relative stillness. I decided to build a small snowman down in the girls' window well to surprise them. I used the snowman light kit that I picked up off season last year some time. It was a hit!



After breakfast, we bundled up and headed out for some serious snow play. We built a giant snow man, had a big snow ball fight, made dozens of snow angels and tried to keep the dog from eating icky things. We came in wet and happy - all in all, a good end to a difficult year.



Happy New Year everyone!

Toasty Warm

JP and I visited with the Loan Officer today to refinance our home loan. We were able to decrease our mortgage by 1.3%, take 5 years off, and decrease our monthly payments by about $100. All good news!

My Dad finally got the stove pipe needed to get our little squirrel wood stove up and running. We have been using it for the past 2 days, and things are staying toasty around here.



Dad got the trim and fixtures in the guest bath, and I managed to get the trim painted this afternoon, so I figure that it's done enough to showcase. Ta da!

Much Merry-Making

Tonight, we celebrated the 4th birthday of this little munchkin.



She was a super good sport about waiting until today, since we travelled home yesterday, on her actual birthday. She wanted a "blue long neck dinosaur" on her cake, and then changed it to "Dinorella" at the last minute.



She was most excited by the gifts of an Ariel Barbie, and a Ken ("prince") doll.

Having celebrated this birthday means several things, first and foremost that my Baby is growing up! L traded in her car seat for a booster over the weekend.

It also means that I made it through this...



...and this...



and the 6 hour drive on Christmas night through freezing rain and fog and no open gas stations when a 7 year old needs to PEE!

It wasn't all JUST surviving, either. The girls were thrilled with their gifts, and very appreciative. We had an interesting Christmas dinner of lobster and garlic risotto, just the 4 of us. We listened to a fun story on the trip to and from Virginia: Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen. We had a lovely visit with family down South (where they were recovering from 2 feet of snow). And I even got to go to a movie with 2 of my nieces and the girls: The Princess and the Frog!

Today I took down the Christmas tree, and so we are also slowly regaining our space! Tonight the snow continues to come down, exceeding by far the 1/2" of accumulation forecasted. Now I am looking forward to post Holiday visits with local friends, and perhaps even the making of tamales for New Year!

Grouting tile is exactly like frosting cookies, except...

...that it is slightly less messy!

My awesome friend, T, who can do ANYTHING, came to my rescue last week and helped me tile the guest bathroom. Unfortunately, the weather, and her Holiday trip to Wyoming prevented her from helping me grout. She did leave her tools here, however, and after a quick tutorial or two on YouTube, I managed to grout it on Wednesday. I need to seal it tonight, and then it is ready for trim and fixtures



We baked up a storm on Wednesday and Thursday. And here are the results:



Clockwise from left: Thumbprint Cookies, Gingerbread Children, Haystacks, Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies, and 5-Flavor Pound Cake

We decorated the Gingerbread today, and the clean up was a slightly bigger project than the grout clean up.



Here are our anti-Christmas colored cookies:



This morning at 2 AM, I finally finished my sewing projects which I started the beginning of November. I have been sewing since I was 9 or 10, but I have never been one who can sew without a pattern. My first project used some really pretty cable knit fabric from my Mom. I wanted to make a sweater for J, but I ended up having to really re-work the pattern to make it work.



Next I made these doll sleeping bags and pillows. The girls have been wanting bunk beds for their American Girl dolls, but I'm too cheap to fork out the nearly $200.




Then I worked on these nightgowns for the girls and their American Girl dolls. Yellow for J and Pink for L. I gained confidence from the sweater project to make the doll nightgown pattern, and I re-sized the child nightgown pattern 3 sizes smaller for L.






Finally, I made these doll bathrobes. It's hard to see, but they have tiny monograms of the dolls' initials.



Today has been relaxing, and we have all picked something that we want to do. We have accomplished all but JP's. I'm feeling good enough to decorate my blog for Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, and may you experience the warm, snugly love of your family around you this season, imperfections, bad attitudes and all!

Misnomer

I recently received this email from my uncle, who lived for many years in Kenya:

'In Swahili, "Kali" means fierce and dangerous. The Kenyan equivalent to a "Beware of Dog" sign reads "Mbwa Kali!" ("Fierce and Dangerous Dog!") It can also refer to a "sharp" knife or a "serious" illness.'

This is a bit of a misnomer, by Kenyan standards anyway, since our Kali is quite gentle and pretty calm. L, however, thinks that she has "kali" teeth.

So there you have it...MBWA KALI!

One More Day Until Winter

Today is the day to recover from the snowfall. My official measurement with a yard stick was 7 1/2 inches at 11 PM last night. I shovelled off the driveway in front of the garage and front door (again). JP is out plowing the drive. He has a snow plow blade attached to the front of the truck. This way he can stay warm and listen to Prairie Home Companion while he works.

It is beautiful outside with all of the snow on the trees. This lovely "tree tunnel" is just down the road from our place.



Kali LOVES the snow! Unfortunately, poodle fur is like velcro, and she comes in with snow balls hanging from all of her dreads. I have discovered that the best solution (after giving her a bath yesterday...don't want to do that again for a couple of weeks) is to shut her in our shower until she melts.

My friend told me how to make this crystal snowflake, which the girls tinted red and green. (Directions here.)



Mom and the girls made a sugar cookie forest this week. Last night, I dreamed that the mice nibbled on it.



JP asked me if I was depressed last night when I said that I still don't have any Christmas Spirit. I don't think so, although I usually enjoy this season. This year, for some reason, I just want to get it over with. Christmas is simply adding more stuff to my already packed schedule. I need to get a better attitude, that's the biggest issue!

For Those in Texas...

Hi Texan Friends and Family!

Don't you wish you were out East today? We have received our biggest snowfall in a LONG time, and it's still coming down. I shoveled about 4-5 inches off the driveway this morning, and there is another 3 -4 inches out there now (plus my back hurts).

We girls had fun playing in the snow!




Kali and L stuck their faces in and ate it.




J tried the snowshoes, and we all did a bit of sledding.




Dad couldn't get the Subaru up the driveway, and John had to use chains on the 4WD truck. Mom and I didn't attempt to drive anywhere.

By the way, it still is not OFFICIALLY winter yet.

Kali has found a new favorite place to rest.




Here is a sample of the ceramics the girls and I painted at The Wow Factory two weeks ago. This is a Latte Mug that J did for her violin instructor (who very sweetly told her, "This is my new favorite mug!")




Still no Christmas Spirit...ho hum.

Busy Little Elves

It is getting nearer and nearer to Christmas each time I take a breath, and I keep hoping that one of these days I'll get to relax and enjoy it with my kids. So far, my life has continued at the same breath-taking speed that appears to be the norm, so I suppose I will have to forcefully put on the brakes and MAKE it stop!

In the meantime, I have been working on my Christmas sewing as I find time. J has been very busy making gifts for family and friends. It is a big secret, and all I know is that they involve a lot of scotch tape.

I spent the afternoon on Thursday driving to McMurray and meeting with my new Endocrinologist (finally...one that isn't passive, and has a decent bedside manner!) My mom spent the afternoon with the girls making these cute snowmen out of white chocolate, pretzel rods, gumdrops and fruit leather.



We decided to buy a (gasp) artificial Christmas tree this year, mostly because of J's allergies, but also because JP still has emotional scars from the corneal cut he received from our cut tree 2 years ago, and because I'm tired of vacuuming needles on a daily basis for 2 weeks out of every year. J was quite upset about this at first, but she has apparently warmed to the idea. She was very anxious to get out the "instruments" (ornaments) and start decorating!

The girls played very nicely together today, which allowed me to get a lot of work done. That is, until J glued her sister's butt cheeks together with her school glue stick! They were working on a "Crismis Show" which they put on for us this evening: the nativity play, complete with L as an angel saying "This baby will be healthy FOREVER!"

How are your Christmas preparations coming?

Hunting Season

*****SPOILER ALERT*****






**THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS IMAGES WHICH SOME MAY FIND OBJECTIONABLE!**





Rifle season for deer always begins the Monday after Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania. It is a big enough deal in rural areas, that the public schools are usually closed for the first day of deer season, as our were. JP took 2 1/2 days off from work to participate. This is his 8th year of going out, and he was beginning to get despondent after 2 days of sitting in the tree stand and seeing nothing.

I take that back. This morning he saw 3 turkeys, and a bobcat. (Yes, a bobcat!) The deer, however, were avoiding him. The rain started around noon today, and was drenching and cold. JP decided to go out once more this afternoon, but only to the back porch, where he could sit under the roof, out of the rain, and still see the deer that graze in our front lawn every evening. He was there 10 or 15 minutes, when we heard a shot, and he popped into the house to announce that he was finally successful at hunting!



The girls, especially J, were fascinated to watch JP and Dad field dressing the doe. I think that my girl is going to be a scientist in the future! They hung the carcass up from the bucket of the tractor for the night. I'm quite sure that we now have achieved Hick status!!



It is interesting living on the hill during hunting season! We share hunting privileges with the family that owns property on either side of ours, so there have been plenty of men in blaze orange and camouflage walking around for the past 3 days. J, and I took the dog for a long walk on Sunday...the last one that we can safely take for 2 weeks until hunting season is over. I meant to get the girls blaze orange hats this year, but never got around to it.

As for me, I meant to go out hunting this year, but seeing as the last time I shot my rifle (2 years ago) I did this to myself, I thought I should spend some time target shooting first!



There is not much else of interest to report from the hill this week...