Birthday Snow

So we expected a little bit of snow for Christmas, and got a dusting.  It was enough for us to call it a "White Christmas!"

It was quite a surprise for us to awaken on L's birthday to 1/2-1 inch of snow!  Luckily, our friend, C, spent the night, so the girls spent a couple of hours playing out in it.

Even Stella had fun.

 

I think L had a nice birthday.  It took most of my energy to bake her this Tres Leches Cake, so JP brought home Chinese take out for dinner.  We also tried playing her new Harry Potter Clue game, which is actually quite complicated!

This is a narcissus that she planted and grew.  It is the birth flower for December.

Over all, we had another nice vacation day!

Christmas Miracle

I am home after spending 2 nights in the hospital.  I did it again - scheduled elective surgery for a few days before Christmas!  This time it was a bit more extensive - a hysterectomy.

I stressed about the worst case scenario, but everything went better than expected, and I'm actually feeling better than I anticipated after sleeping in my own bed last night, and getting a shower.  I just have a strangely poochy belly, and walk a little more slowly than I'm used to.

I stayed on the Labor & Delivery floor, so my walks every couple of hours took me past the nursery, where I could see lots of tiny toes & noses.  I'm so glad that I did not bring a baby home this time - I'm long past that point in my life!

Once again, I worked really hard to have everything done ahead of time, so I have just been sitting back, watching Christmas movies, and sipping hot tea.  Unfortunately, the dirty clothes hampers that I emptied out right before surgery, filled up again while I was away.  We are slowly working through that as well.

We are expecting snow tonight, which should make Christmas day even more perfect!

Filets de Poisson Gratines, a la Parisienne

Yes, I've been channeling Julia again.  This time I made fish fillets poached in white wine with cream and egg sauce - it was supposedly the dish that made Julia want to learn French cooking.

Some things I've learned in the past two recipes:

1)  Butter, butter, butter - I'm all out, so no more French cooking until after I go shopping!

2)  Wine - L asked why I had to cook EVERYTHING in wine these days?

3)  Channeling my inner Julia is becoming quite messy - as in "every pan in the kitchen is dirty and the floor is sticky" kind of messy.

4)  It is delicious!

Channelling My Inner Julia

Today I prepared a recipe from my "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", by Julia Child, for the first time.  I must say, this is the first time that I ever sautéed bacon in butter - a sure sign of a French recipe.  I also added cognac, which I subsequently lighted - it made an impressive flame!  The recipe that I tried was "Coq Au Vin," and it was absolutely delicious, although it wasn't much to look at.

 This weekend, we attempted to get the Christmas baking done, as it is the last weekend before my surgery.  I made "Millionaire's Shortbread," which tastes like a million dollars, and looks like at least five bucks. J made "Chocolate Mint Cookies."  L baked peanut butter biscuits for the dogs, and mixed up dough for gingerbread men, which is in the fridge.  I attempted to make sugar-free buckeyes for JP, which apparently taste better than they look.

 

L has been busy writing a Harry Potter/Crazy Cat Lady inspired Christmas story this weekend.  She looks super smart with her new haircut and glasses.

J has been working hard on making personalized gifts for her posse.  Speaking of new doo's, here is a picture of her enjoying a "Candlestick Salad" and sporting her new haircut.  This recipe can be found in one of my go-to cookbooks, "The Mennonite Community Cookbook."  It can also be found here.

 

That's about it for tonight folks, I hope you are enjoying these days before Christmas!

The End of Deer Season

Well, another hunting season has come and gone without my even seeing anything that I could shoot at, let alone shoot at something.  It seems that it has been a fairly poor season for everyone concerned...except the deer.  Our neighbors were complaining that they didn't get anything, and my dad only got one doe during the senior season in October.  Oh well, as long as I don't hit any deer with my car this winter, I'll be ok.

JP and I took advantage of a hunting-free day today, and hauled more wood to store under the barn lean-to near the wood burner.  We also cleaned out the hen house, since the hens have been treated twice with wormer and have about 4 more days until we can keep their eggs again.

In the meantime, I have collected 5 feed buckets of eggs in the garage. 

JP, the girls, and I took them down by the creek and threw them across into the field.  We didn't want to dispose of them anywhere near the house or the chickens.  The girls and I took advantage of a tree and practiced our aim.  It looked pretty gross by the end of our session!

We finally got our trees decorated.  Our main one is in the family room downstairs, and the girls have a small one in their room.  It looks so festive!

J decided to get her hair chopped off.  It looks cute.  I'll post a picture when she lets me take one.  L decided to have a couple more inches cut off her tresses once she saw her sister.

Next weekend, I am hoping to finish up Christmas shopping and bake our Christmas cookies.  I only have 11 days until my Holiday Surgery, so I need to have things done ahead of time.

This week is L's Christmas Chorus Concert, and J's is next week.  There will also be one or two Basketball practices and some voice/guitar lessons thrown in as well.

I hope that all of your Holiday preparations are going smoothly!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It has been longer than normal since I last posted.  That is because there has been no end to the activity going on around here.

L started Basketball practice the week of Thanksgiving.  It appears that her team is quite small, so she will have LOTS of playing time.

We had a wonderful visit with a lot of JP's family over Thanksgiving weekend.  My parents were kind enough to allow us to use their house for sleeping a couple of the families.  We had SO MUCH to eat, so my nightmares where we ran out of food were moot.

 

On Sunday, JP, the girls and I went to see the newest "Thor" movie.  It was J's request, since her birthday was the previous weekend, and we really didn't do much, and it was quite enjoyable.

The following weekend was the premier of J's first ever HS show.  She had a nice little part, and even had a song or two that she sang with just 2 other girls.  The school put on "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," and she played Alice (the Sunday School student that ALWAYS plays Mary.)

 

L and I went both nights, and both shows were equally well done and fun to watch.  J had a cast party and sleep over Saturday night, so she was a tired girl when cast and crew were called back on Sunday afternoon to strike the set!  The director is not letting any time slip by before embarking on the Spring show - auditions are December 20th.



 

On Saturday afternoon, L had a presentation of her own.  She and another girl sang a few solos of Christmas songs at our local Historical Museum during their Holiday Open House.

 

This week hasn't been a cake-walk either!  On Monday, J's soccer coach called a practice "just for fun."  It seemed a bit sadistic to me, especially since L had basketball practice at the same time, and I was stuck in a Board Meeting.  J also restarted voice/guitar lessons, L had voice, and J had an appointment.

L also picked up her new glasses this week.  The school sent a letter home before Thanksgiving that she failed her vision screen at school, so I took her in to our Optometrist for an evaluation.  L requested that I cut her hair, so on Wednesday, she went in to school, sporting her new look - glasses and hair about 6-7 inches shorter.

This afternoon is L's rescheduled voice lessons, and now J wants a haircut too.  Both girls also want to go Christmas shopping.

I managed to get the Christmas trees up (but not decorated), and most of the other decorations up this week in between activities, so that is on the docket this weekend as well.  I had time to sit out for rifle season for 2 mornings, but didn't see anything that I could have safely taken.  I plan to go out one more time tomorrow morning.

We had a bit of blowing snow yesterday, and things were almost white up here on the hill for a brief time.  They are calling for more snow tomorrow - a coating to an inch.  It's about time that it starts acting like the Holidays around here!