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.

Truly a Season of Thanks

One thing about Halloween I really like is that it is sort of the beginning of the "holiday season", where there's fun holidays one right after the other, in quick succession.  So there's Halloween, then Thanksgiving, followed shortly by Christmas.  In all of that its a pretty sure deal that we will get to see lots of family.  I especially like that part.

So this year it was  Erdbeere's family's turn to come to our house for Thanksgiving - that's a happy thing, and it meant that we were able to have everyone here except Moosebeere's family and Stachelbeere, six people short of the whole crew!  Not too shabby!  That's a better turn out than we got for the reunion last summer. That meant that during the Thanksgiving holiday we had 19 people parade through the house!  Pretty darn okay, if you ask me.

Lots of noise, lots of confusion, lots of little kids under foot, lots of babies being passed around, get up off your chair to get something and its likely going to be occupied when you get back, toys all over the place, madhouse crazy at times, lots of fun.  All these people together that love each other and enjoy being together, so much talking that it sounds like dozens of conversations going on all at the same time (which is exactly what's happening) and people moving from one conversation into one of the others and then back again without missing a beat.

Grandma and Grandpa loving all the energy the little kids bring into the house, watching all those parents loving and caring for their kids and whatever other kid happens to be nearby.  Watching it all, thinking this is what families should be, this is a glimpse into heaven.

Little kids figuring out that there's always somebody to play with, someone to read them a story, someone to be interested in them.

Work getting done, playing going on as the work is getting done, everything coming together all at the right time.  Nobody starving when the time arrives for the big feed because everybody has been taste testing - we're not going to call it snitching because, of course, there has to be numerous quality checks along the way to make sure everything is just right.

Then its all ready and time to eat.  We had so many people that we decided to serve the food buffet style from the kitchen so we could have as much of the table as possible for sitting and eating.

All that yumminess was incredible.  We have some excellent cooks in this family.  We had three or four pies, which didn't last long enough to get a picture of any of them.  But, oh, man, were they good.  We had pecan, pumpkin (of course), cherry, apple, and chocolate.  And lots of whipped topping to pile on.

Everybody grabbed a plate and worked their way through the line, piling on whatever suited their fancy, parents helping little kids.

Not quite so little kids helping themselves, it was a glorious time!

Little kids mostly at the tables, parents and bigger kids, yeah, we are beginning to have some of those, scattered around the house.

Food, food, and more food.  Pretty typical for Thanksgiving - more food than can be eaten in one sitting, even though everyone that wanted to went back for seconds and more.

Pretty soon the noise level began to drop as everyone was busy with their plates and all that good food was enjoyed.  All that work and time (the cooking began a day or two ahead of Thanksgiving day) were ready and super good.

And pretty soon there was nothing left but wreckage - plates emptied, tummies stretched to the limit because it was too good to resist.  Sounds down right decadent.

It was so good.

Then nobody was in a hurry, we just talked and nibbled.

Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday.  Each year you tell yourself you're not going to over do it this time but each year the stuff is just too good.  We ran our dishwasher three or four times that day, despite having used paper plates and cups, and plastic ware at the table.

While everyone was here we also made a trip to the Children's Museum, always a fun place to hang out. The kids really like it because there's lots of hands-on things to do, lots to climb on, new and exciting toys, and lots of stuff to let the imagination run wild with.  Generally a good time.

Even the littlest ones found stuff of interest.

Miss C loves the dress-up stuff they have.  She put on the doctor's coat for a while.

But later switched to the cowboy vest.

The train set was a hit.

Young mister Townsend was intense in his play, as always.

Grandma went from place to place, playing with kids.

They have a music play area that we gave a bit of a workout.  A fun time.

Moon found plenty of things to be interested it.

Later, back at the house, the playing went on.  Miss R did her pencils and paper, albeit not in the usual fashion.

The door stop is always a hit.  Give it a flip and listen to it make its funny noise.  I remember being fascinated with that when I was a kid.

More talking and playing going on the whole weekend.

Schwartzbeere and his wife got a rousing game of Ice Breaker going on.

A very suspenseful ending - don't see this very often. That's kind of a tough configuration to get to in that game but they did it.

Our high chair got a good work-out with three little bottoms taking turns keeping it warm.

"Messy" is the fashion for high chair occupants.

Lots of good times in that high chair. Grandma and Grandpa enjoy having it, especially when there's someone to occupy it.

And lots of time just visiting, talking, laughing, enjoying, and playing.

Erdbeere put together a Thanksgiving Tree that everyone got to decorate with leaves of things they were grateful for.  That's still hanging on the wall, days after all the crowds have gone, reminding us of how blessed we are.

While all the grandkids were here we got the Christmas tree out and put it up. Lots of little helpers made that a lot of fun.

First all the lights go on, then the ornaments.

The ornaments were fun for the grandkids to dig out, inspect and then find a place for on the tree.

Miss C got to put the topper on, with a little help from her Mom.

Despite the fact that we periodically go through our ornaments and toss those that are worn or broken, we still have lots of them. Probably more than should go on the tree - it would be plenty crowded if we tried to get them all on.

We still have most of the set from our very first Christmas tree, all those years ago when we were in college and lived in a little two bedroom apartment and got some "do-it-yourself" decorations that we hand painted and hung our our pint sized Christmas tree.

When all the lights and decorations were on and it was pronounced finished, the kids had to turn out the lights and admire the colors of the lights on the tree. Such pretty colors splashed all over the wall.

Even little Moon got involved in the decorating.

It was a very good time.

One of the funnest things we did was decorate some Christmas tree ornaments ourselves.  Grandma got some plain, plastic orbs and those that wanted to got to decorate them how they wanted.

Her plan was to have the little kids put their hand print on them but not all of them were willing to have their hand painted for that.  Still, for those that did, it was fun.

Fortunately it was water soluble paint so that the paint that ended up on hands, faces, and clothes cleaned up pretty easy.

Miss R, despite the demonstration in hand painting by her Mom, was unwilling to get her hand painted.  Ah, well.  Maybe next year.

Heidlebeere did one of her own, not the kind that involved painting her hand, though she could have after her demonstration for Miss R.  But she did hers with cool silver striping, it looks almost like etching.

Once the hand prints were dry, we went back and painted detail on them to make little snowmen.  That was cool.

Lots of careful, close work.

Maulbeere painted hers by pouring paint inside the bulbs and letting it flow around until it was completely coated inside.  Pretty slick!

The finished products were hung to dry in the kitchen.  Some went home with families but we kept enough to be able to put some on our tree as well.

I thought they turned out really cute.  And they will be a fun things to have and remember the good times for years to come.  Those are the kinds of Christmas tree decorations that I really like.

All too soon the week end was over and kids began to leave.  Heidlebeere and her family had rented a moving truck so they could take the last of their stuff home, stuff they hadn't had room to take when they left a few weeks ago.  Mr Z was excited to ride with his Dad in the truck.

All those goodbyes, the fun and good times coming to an end.  That's the worst part about these get togethers - they always end.

Our family get togethers are getting bigger and are slowly turning into the kinds of family gatherings I grew up with, that I loved so much. It was so much fun having them all here.  I always look forward so much to when we can do this.  Someday we'll manage to get them all together at the same time - I am really looking forward to that!