Merry Christmas

And the journey begins! Travel, friends, family, food... I hope you all have a very merry and peaceful Christmas. I'll bring news of my Christmas adventures when I return home!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

Holiday Snowflakes

WHERE HAVE I BEEN??? Making snowflakes online :) Make-a-Flake See the pretty flake I made? Pretty cool, isn't it... call it holiday therapy!

Wintery weather

I'm not sure what it is about this time of year, but it sure seems like the days and nights are consumed with activity ... but at the end of the day you don't have anything tangible to represent how you spent your time. It just seems crazy to me. I can't really even remember what I've been up to for the past week except Christmas shopping and wrapping.

Weather wise I can say it's finally winter here! We got right around 8 inches of snow between Monday night and Tuesday mid-morning. This would have been fine, except for the wind. All of us had some dandy drifts to either shovel or use a snow thrower/blower to get out of our drives and off our sidewalks last night. Last year I couldn't start my snow thrower, but it was ok because we didn't really have much use for it last year. HOWEVER, Scott over did it yesterday morning and hurt his back, and my back almost always hurts, so we really needed to get the snow thrower started. It took a little over an hour of cursing, walking away then cursing again, trying combinations of buttons and levers until I finally got things figured out (not that I'll remember next time though) and it FINALLY started. I love that snow thrower, cuts a two hour snow removal job in half (or better if you don't have to fight the wind).

Rice Krispy Treats!

Office treat time has started and I'm on the list to bring treats tomorrow and of course I didn't remember this weekend when I actually had time and a bit of ambition to bake. Last night I made a pan of Rice Crispy treats but decided that it didn't yield enough to appease the office staff, so I had to make an ingredient run after work. Since we needed a couple of other items as well, Scott came along. Poor guy was hostage in the truck on the one day of the week that I felt like talking! Anyway, it was kind of sleeting during our drive in, but the roads were just wet, not really slippery. Now the grass is almost covered in snow. It's going to be a fun drive into work tomorrow, but I digress. Back to my adventures with Rice Crispy treats. Last nights batch was fairly soft and gooey (of course we each had to sample the batch to ensure my co-workers were safe from food poisoning). Tonight I melted down the butter and tossed in the marshmallows - which must have melted at too high a temperature because they were a strange brown color, but being the stubborn woman I am, I finished making the batch. Then I made another pan, this time melting the marshmallows at a lower temperature and I must say they turned out even better than last nights attempt. I just finished getting all the treats cut into squares and wrapped in plastic wrap (for easier handling at the office), using the best of the three batches. I cut into the remaining pan to carve off a hunk for Scott and found that they were extremely hard, taste good, but really hard. Now I know what happens if you melt the marshmallows at too high a temperature. Let this be a lesson to all future makers of Rice Crispy treats everywhere!

I almost forgot about Trouble's Christmas tree climb last night. Scott put the tree up on Sunday night, but we decided to not decorate it until last night. While we were eating dinner Scott whispered "Do you see where Trouble is?". I looked at the tree and she had climbed up as high into the tree that the branches would allow. When she finally listened to us and got out of the tree, rather than climb down a couple of branches, she decided to launch herself from the top sending the tree toppling into the corner. I tell you, she has definitely earned her name!!