Making Lemonade

So with 2 work-snow days and a Saturday around the house, what did I do during DEEP...EEP..EEP FREEZE...EZE...EZE 2008...8..8? Well, I wrote our Christmas letter, put all of our contacts in an Access database, mail-merged our Christmas card list to avery labels, got the cards signed, sealed and (mostly) delivered. I also got the Chickens ready for the storm, restapled some of the plastic sheeting that is covering the coop, cleaned out the bedding and restocked the feed. I also got Christmas presents wrapped and shipped to distant family and, oh yeah, did the Christmas cookie baking! Mix in a lot of dishes being washed and some straightening up and there you have it!

This year I made several varieties of butter cookies. Plain, plain with dark and white chocolate, plain with dark chocolate and toffee bits, walnut, walnut with dark chocolate, coconut, coconut with white chocolate, and back by popular demand (E asked for them) chocolate cherry biscotti. I also had some leftover chocolate, toffee and coconut, so I mixed them all together...yum. These are our little Christmas gifts this year, so some of you will get to taste them! Hope they're as yummy as they look. (okay, you caught me, I tested them...ALL...and I have to say my faves are the walnut and the plain with toffee.)

Christmas Cheer!

Recently we spent a lovely evening catching up with friends at a good old fashioned gingerbread house party!

Some of the lovely friends

First things first, there were adorable babies present

Very adorable, and very new in this case

Our hostess, Kiki, had everything ready, including pre-cut walls and roof panels

and all of the fixin's to spruce up a home

No joke, this was CJ's fist taste of sugar...he was literally shaking and couldn't keep still

Ah, and then the competition began

That's my creation on the right, I ended up having to lighten the roof panels...in case you didn't know, necco wafers and spree are heavy

Here they are coming off

And here are a few shots of my finished creation, notice the architectural details, the skylight, marshmallow supports and licorice trim.

the pretzel rod and the unfortunate cookie-man are actually supporting the roof and wall...hey you use what you've got

home, sweet home

and here was one of the competition...mid-century trailer...or a purse, you decide.

dreaming of a white Christmas

While up late finishing laundry, I looked outside to discover that everything outside had been tucked beneath a bright white sheet of snow. Have you ever noticed how quiet it is when it snows? Especially when it's falling, it seems to absorb all of the little noises that are normally present.

Looking from our front door...I didn't expect that we were going to see snow until the week after next when we visit family up in Alaska...who knew.

You can't see any of the weeds under the lovely white blanket. :)