I kept telling Scott when we paint the ceiling in the kitchen either him and Meadow need to go away for the weekend or we need to plan it when we don't want to cook. He went ahead and started anyway making cooking a little difficult. Things would never get done around the house if I put them on Brooke's timetable.

Dec 17 We Made Chocolate Truffles Meadow requested we light the Swedish candles during breakfast. We had chocolate big pancake with chocolate syrup. It was basically cake. It was delicious. I have a Tea Cakes and Candies pan that I bought many years ago that I have yet to use. I decided this year I was finally going to try making chocolates.  I had planned to do this at the cottage, but they don't have a candy thermometer. I needed one to temper the chocolate first. Since this is a metal pan and not flexable like candy molds I was nervous that it wouldn't work. I did a half batch as test. Not exactly perfect, but it worked! Meadow was excited that they were little Bundt pans. Dec 18 - We make a Christmas Gift Scott saw a snowfort kit at REI recently. We both thought it would be a great New Year's Christmas gift. While trying to find it online we found a  tutorial  on how to make your own snow blocks. We used a diffe...

I forgot to feed kitty this morning. Oops.  Last night we had a pizza party and gift exchange at Tyler and Emma's. They got us a new dish drying rack. It was meant to replace the small one we have now, but I kind of like using two at a time. That's cause she's ghetto. I finally put in the storms above the fireplace. We've got new homesteaders to the south of us. They've been fixing up in the inside since summer. Looking forward to them fixing up the exterior come spring. Our new Sunday tradition. Mac and Cheese for lunch. Sorry abou the slightly blurry picture. I wanted to go to try our snow shoes out at our neighboring park, Theo Wirth. Most of the golf course and park is designated to cross country skiing. The snow shoeing is on the mountain bike trails.  Without leaves and other foliage you could spot buildings you never knew were abutted to the park. Snowshoeing Theodore Wirth couldn't live up to last week's...

  Last night our dining room and staircase hallway were finished and painted. I love how the color looks with the dark wood. I guess after living in places with white walls we're both pretty excited about painting our walls.   We could now put our dining room back together.  It snowed more than an inch for the first time all year. Brooke shoveled the last time, so I was out the door, clearing the sidewalk and driveway.   I hoped that I'd have breakfast waiting for me when I got back inside, but Brooke was busy putting stuff back in the dining room. Less than a week later our house was back to normal.   I also brought out all our Christmas decorations. Scott was pretty upset that breakfast wasn't made when he came back in. Brooke wanted waffles, but I thought we should use our new griddle.   We planned on getting a Christmas tree, so Brooke brought out the Minnesota Growers map to find a tree farm nearby.  ...