Another Day, Another Pile of Snow

So far, this winter is off to a really snowy start. We got a few inches a week or so ago and then this last weekend we got nine more inches.  That's a lot of snow.

We measured out back and it came to 11 inches.  We're definitely in for a white Christmas.

Snow, snow, everywhere!  It makes for a really beautiful landscape.  I really like the look of all this snow.

We worried a bit because of this storm.  We had a couple of the kids coming to visit over this weekend and were worried the storm would interfere with the plans and all.  But they toughed it out and came despite the snow.

Soon enough they were all here and the driveway was full of cars.  A kind of nice problem, to have to juggle cars around to make sure those that need to come and go and come and go as they need to.

One of the most welcome things about all this snow is our good friend, the snowblower.  It makes clearing out the driveway so much easier.  And its electric start!  Don't even have to yank the pull-string to get it started! Now there's a truly beautiful sight on a snowy, wintry day.

Yes, sir.  I really like the snow.  The last couple of years winter has been pretty light as far as snow is concerned but maybe all this snow the last two weeks portends a winter with lots of snow for this year.  That wouldn't be all bad, to my way of thinking.

A Wintry, Easy Day

You know how the TV weather forecasters are, they like to play up the coming storm and make it sound all big and bad.  This wasn't our first snow of the season but the predictions were that it would be the biggest so far.

They began predicting this storm two days before it was supposed to get here.  At first the big snow was going to be farther north but as the storm got closer they began to move the predictions for the heaviest snow south. It went over us and then on south, but our area still was in for a lot of snow.

When it finally arrived it was a lot - the predictions were pretty close to what actually showed up.  This morning, as I was getting up and ready for some early church meetings the bishopric called and said to hold off, meetings were probably going to be cancelled.

A short time later they called back to say they definitely were cancelling church.  It makes sense.  While we live close enough that we usually have no serious trouble getting to church, even on bad roads, there are many ward members that live out a ways, bad roads are a big deal for them.  If you decide to hold church despite bad weather and roads you end up with a lot of people missing.  When its speakers and teachers that can be an issue.  So they called it and we got to stay home while the snow continued to fall.  Unless we have a pretty warm spell in the next two weeks we're pretty certain to have a white Christmas.  Nice.

What to do, what to do?  We're not ones to do a lot of Christmas baking but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do a little.  Besides, I had a new recipe I wanted to try.  These are supposed to be super good, really delicious sugar cookies.  And since sugar cookies are probably my most favorite kind of cookie I have been wanting to try them.

So today was the day.  The recipe called for over five cups of flour so I thought it would probably make a lot without doubling it.  Anyway, who needs all those cookies laying around, tempting you, right?  So I just made a single batch.

And they did turn out really good.  We ended up with about four dozen really yummy cookies.  Normally I prefer my sugar cookies frosted but these are really good, even without frosting.  Now, what to do with them?

Thinking Outside the Box

The other day we went to visit Heidlebeere and her family again.  This time Grandma brought the stuff to make little "gingerbread" houses with the kids.  It was a simple idea, use frosting to stick graham crackers around a little milk carton and then decorate it with candy. That turned out to be a lot of fun.  And the kids, of course, enjoyed it, even the littlest one.  As little Miss Bluebird worked on hers she was very careful to make sure she got as much of the candy decorations on the house as possible.

No snitching any of the candy for her - it all needed to get on the house. And it was turning out very well, too.

But there was one piece of candy so unspeakably yucky that it had no place on the house.  If you'll look in the front, lower rightish corner you'll see a piece of black licorice. Being the terrible, awful, icky candy that licorice is, Bluebird did not want it on her house.

Now grandma had set Bluebird up with a sandwich sized baggie full of white frosting to use as "cement" to stick all the candy on the house.  And this young lady was very generous with the frosting as she applied each piece of candy to the house.  Still at the end, when everything was on the house, she still had quite a bit of frosting left in the bag.  Of course, this frugal young lady did not want to waste all that frosting so I told her that if she'd eat the licorice she could have it.  That didn't go over very well.

But then she was smitten with some inspiration.  An idea that would make the impossible task of eating that dreadful piece of licorice doable.

She loaded up that little piece of licorice with so much frosting that you couldn't see it anymore.  Surely that would make it edible, right?

Maybe not so much.  Nevertheless, she got it down.

And, having earned her reward, the frosting was all the more delicious! What a silly kid she is!

And her house turned out very well, too!  All three of them had a lot of fun with it.  And their houses lasted until the next day before they were eaten.  It was a lot of fun.