Some Holiday Adventures

Making a Gingerbread House

Meeting with Santa!

When we were covered in snow!

Opening Christmas Presents! Excited for Ballet Clothes!

Singing Karaoke Christmas Morning with Lindsay

Go away Snow!!! GO AWAY!!!!!!

I have to say that I love how beautiful snow is, and it looks beautiful when it's falling from the sky and on the trees and mountaintops. I've always enjoyed drinking hot chocolate from the comforts of inside watching the snow fall outside. However these snow storms we've had in the Northwest are causing real big problems. Especially in Gig Harbor! People have been without power for days, luckily ours wasn't out very long. Most communities in Gig Harbor get their water from wells which run on electric pumps, so no power means no water too.

The snow just keeps coming and coming! The cities here don't have the equipment to clear the snow between storms and won't use salt on the roads because they say it hurts the environment. So the roads, especially on raft island are awful. It snows and gets packed down, it freezes and turns to ice, then it snows on top of that and it becomes an vicious cycle. Today it started to rain and made it even worse. Now the slush will freeze tonight and make real dangerous ice.

I feel like I've been stuck in my house for a week, resisting the snow. My shoulder hurts from shoveling so much snow. Our driveway is really long and I've shoveled it twice. I refuse to shovel any more snow! The worst part is that we don't really see an end in sight.

Atleast the kids have been enjoying the snow. It has caused the school to take 3 snow days already, and it would have been more it the winter holiday break hadn't come. The girls have been playing in the snow all week. It's also a good thing we already had snow gear, since all the stores are out of snow boots and gloves. Not a single store in the county has snow chains for tires, and some gas stations are beginning to run out of fuel. UPS can't get me my packages before christmas because of all this snow.

What a Day!

All I can say right now is "What a Day!". It started at 4am this morning. I woke up to see the power had gone out and all the clocks were flashing. It appears the power went out at 2am. Then I got a telephone call at 6am from the school district telling me that school was being cancelled for the day due to freezing temperatures and snow forcast throughout the day.

Now, I had planned to spend the day making caramel and christmas treats to hand out. I even thought that having Emma home would actually help today since I didn't have to keep watching the clock. Well, needless to say, it was a nonstop, crazy day. First thing this morning, I helped the girls bundle up so they could go play in the fresh snow, hopped in the shower and started getting ready. Eddie called and said the Comcast cable guy was almost to the house to fix the internet, so I rushed to get the dogs inside so they didn't bother him. While the cable guy was here the two neighbor girls came over asking if Emma and Leora could play. I welcomed them in knowing they would help keep the girls busy. I started making caramel since it takes an hour to make and I had a lot of work I needed to get done. While making the caramel I was talking with the cable guy, talking with Zara from next door who seemed to be more interested in me than playing with the girls, and was trying to keep things for the girls to do (playdough & movie "Horton hears a Who" were some solutions).

With all the distractions this morning and my schedule being thoroughly thrown off I had completely forgotten to feed the dogs breakfast! The dogs get very irritable when they don't get their food. Normally it is obvious that when I forget to feed them because they keep bugging me until I do, but with the neighbors over I think they were distracted too. Molly started a fight with Leo over a piece of food the girls had dropped on the floor that she wanted! It was pretty intense between them so I got mad and put them outside. The dogs fight occasionally, and Molly usually instigates it. This time Molly got her comeupance! When Leo bit her ear during their scuffle he tore a 2 inch hole threw it and cut her in a couple spots on her face. She had blood all over her face and throat. When I saw the hole I flipped out.

Eddie had taken my car to work since his car couldn't make it up our driveway this morning. So I was left with his car and the truck, which wouldn't fit me, Molly, and the girls together. The roads were bad because of the snow. I just kept saying, "You had to get in a fight today! Of all days! Today!" I really didn't want to leave the house and fight the weather. I cleaned her wound and tried to bandage it. She immediately got the bandage off, so I decided I needed to take her to the vet. I called a few local vets cause I didn't want to drive the distance to her usual vet. No one answered their phones, and some of them were closed because the schools were closed. That's what you get for living in a small town I guess. I found a vet in Purdy that could see her, so my neighbor let the girls go over there and I took Molly in. The snow was bad enough that I just stayed at the vets office during the procedure rather than risk going anywhere. Molly is now all bandaged up, which she keeps trying to get off. We carried her to the truck because she was still pretty tipsy after the procedure was done and I wanted to get home.

It was an expensive fix for Molly too. My jaw dropped when they told me how much it cost for the procedure. I was wishing I had just taken her to her usual vet. It would have saved me a lot of money. They nickled and dimed me for everything. I'm going to dispute some of the charges when I go back on Friday to have her bandages changed.

So a day of making christmas treats turned into a day I don't want to repeat anytime soon.

Zoolights at Pt Defiance

Last night we went to see the Zoolights display at Pt Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. They had lots of fun light displays of all the different animals and local places. My favorite was Mt Rainier and the Tacoma Narrows bridges. Another good one was a display of a bald eagle flying down out of the tree, catching a fish out of a stream and then taking the fish up to a nest full of baby eagles. They really put a lot of work into the displays. They use only LED lights. Evidently LED lights will save you 75% on your holiday light bill versus regular lights. The zoo is of course into conservation.

Emma was disappointed that there weren't more animals out. We had to explain that they were sleeping and the zoo doesn't want to disrupt their sleeping patterns. It was nice walking around the zoo through all the lights sipping hot chocolate. Well, Emma and I were sipping hot chocolate. Oh, how we love hot chocolate!

My First Apple Pie - Experiment

I love to make pies! So I volunteered to make the pies for this years festivities. This Thanksgiving I had a request for apple pie by Jeff, my brother in law, who evidently loves apple pie. I am usually not a fan of apple pie for various reasons. The crust is usually too dry and overcooked because the pie cooks so long to fully cook all the apples. Then the pieces of apple are normally too large so they don't cook properly and pull out of the pie when you try to eat it, leaving part of your slice of pie empty. I admit I don't choose apple pie to eat if there is another option, so I haven't tried very many apple pies. However, because I've never had an apple pie I thought was really good and learned Eddie felt the same way, I was eager to take on the challenge of making an awesome apple pie.

I searched for about a week online, reading reviews and ratings, and looking at butter content. Jeff told me that a good apple pie is all about lots of butter. When I saw the "Elegant Farmer Apple Pie" recipe at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/apple-pie-baked-in-a-bag-recipe/index.html I knew I had found the recipe I totally wanted to try. You bake the pie in a paper bag! The logic behind it was so clear to me that I thought it could make the crust great.

The pie turn out tasting very good, but not so pretty. The pretty factor had a lot to do with my apple pie making inexperience probably. I have to admit that a scoop of vanilla ice cream was required to really make the pie good for me. I will try the recipe again. Next time I probably won't cook it as long and add a little more sugar to the filling. The apples were on the verge of being over cooked, but could easily be sliced through when eating which was a plus for me. I used Granny Smith apples. There is so much butter in the crust that it made it very soft and reminded me of a cobbler crust. The top crust fell during cooling when the apples settled, which disappointed me. It was very full of apples and not much extra filling. The apples punctured the crust during settling because the crust was so delicate.

Jeff kept a few pieces for himself before I took the remaining pie home so I took that as a good sign that it turned out pretty well.