Explosion

The bread ate the dish (tasted wonderful). 

My Favorite Gift

We arrived home Wednesday night after visiting family for Christmas and found what is probably my favorite Christmas gift in the mail box.  While we received some wonderful gifts this year, this particular gift has some very wonderful memories attached to it.  You see, every year my friend Sarah and her five children come to visit for a fun filled 24 hours (we also typically visit them when we go to Virginia in the summer).  This past year, after walking along the river behind the Red Mill in Jericho, the kids decided they wanted to go the the museum inside.  The museum is dedicated to Snowflake Bentley and his snowflake photographs.  When we opened our Christmas gift from them this year, there was a book about Snowflake Bentley and some snowflakes made by the four older children.  In the past few days, we have read the book several times and have hung the snowflakes in Little Man's bedroom window.  The book contains pictures of many places we know and love. In addition to this, both the snowflakes and book bring back wonderful memories of strawberry picking, walking by the river, visiting the museum and blowing bubbles in the backyard with our friends.  The bonus part of this gift: there was a huge snow storm the day after we opened it.  Definitely the best gift of the season. 

 

Loving the Snow

While I regret to say we did not have a White Christmas this year; I can happily say we have made up for it the past two days.  Yesterday's storm dumped well over a foot of snow on our area and we have been out enjoying every minute of it with a few hot chocolate interludes built in here and there.  We spent a big chunk of the day yesterday sledding with friends and today we just hung out at the house and enjoyed the backyard.  Winter has finally arrived!

 

 Little Man hanging out in the cherry tree, while I cleared the driveway before Andy slid into it on his way home. 

 Our snowshoe trail around the yard has officially been made. 

 

The reason we have a snowshoe trail; so we can enjoy the snow on the pine trees of course. 

Small Local Businesses

This year, there has been a small movement on Facebook and in the area we live in to support small local businesses this Christmas.  We decided as a family that we were going to attempt to make a conscious effort to buy as many of our Christmas gifts from small local businesses as we could. To be honest, I was not sure we would be able to pull it off.  As of right now, most of our shopping has been completed and ALL of it has been purchased from small local businesses.  In addition to that, most of the items we have purchased were also made locally.  While I did not think we would be able to do it, I have to say I am grateful for all of those people who posted things on facebook and blogs, so thank you if you were one of those people.  So what did I think of the whole process?

 

For starters, I have to admit it was slightly harder than shopping in the past.  You have to actually think about where you are going to go, what you are going to buy and how much you are going to spend.  You can not just go to the nearest box store, buy all of your gifts and be done.  It is a process, you have to consider what is near you for local businesses and if they actually have items you would purchase for those on your Christmas list.  Since locally made products tend to be more expensive, you actually put some thought into what people would like or need, you don't buy one item for everyone and you certainly don't subscribe to the "buy several gifts and one is bound to be the right thing" methodology.  In the end, there is a lot more time and effort put into your gift giving. 

 

While it is harder, the final product is so worth it.  You feel good about supporting local businesses and you know each gift was specifically picked out for the individual it is being given to.  I would certainly recommend this method of gift giving and can't wait until we actually give out the gifts we have waiting for people.  Of course I need to package all of them first.    

Patience

Patience: something I am trying really hard to have this holiday season.  My first mistake of the season was making a list of all these great things Little Man and I were going to create.  At this point, you would think that by now, I would have caught on to the fact that things that sometimes seem easy are not always.  My original goal: to do an art project almost every day of the holiday season with Little Man.  My new goal: to finish the Christmas presents we have set out to make.  No, I am not totally crazy, everyone is getting the same thing from Little Man this year.  The second mistake I made, the first activity we did for the season may have been a little too easy; we made salt-dough ornaments.  Simple, mix the ingredients, roll out the dough, bake and paint.  We have tons of them! My third mistake, choosing the Christmas present idea from Pinterest.  You would think I would have learned from the whole cup cake incident at Halloween.  Nope.  I should start by saying we have been working on this since the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  For those of you who are counting, that is 11 days and counting.  We have done this project in stages, because that is about all I can handle.  First Stage, teach Little Man how to use a glue gun.  Second stage, attempt to make little circles with hole punch.  Stage three, attach little pieces.  Stage four, teach Little Man how to use fabric shears while fearing he is going to cut my fingers off. Can't tell you stage five, that would ruin the surprise.  Finally, hand off final stage to daddy, who sits Little Man down at table with a cup of hot chocolate while he completes the gifts.  Yes, Little Man is currently sipping hot chocolate at the table, while daddy finishes his ornaments.(Can't let Little Man work with the explosives...that would be bad....)  Next year, I am sending him to M&M's to make ornaments, she has much more patience than I do. 

The Man Takes His Cooking Seriously

Note the look of concentration on his face.

Here Comes Santa Claus

For the second year in a row, I dressed up with 2,000 other crazy people and ran a 5K.  While my time tends to be slow in these races due to the fact that I am trying to hold my Santa pants up about halfway though the race; this is by far the race I have the most fun in all year.  While there is no way to fight the urge to race, the spirit among racers is happy and the spectators are a lot of fun, especially those who have no idea what is going on (one of our neighbors looked at me like I was insane as I emerged from the house in full Santa garb this morning). And next year I am planning to do it all over again!

Winter Farmers Market: Week 3: When The Samosa Man Knows Your Name

 From the minute hockey practice ends, through the trek across the auditorium, Little Man is on a mission.  His mission: to find the Samosa Man. Now, you might ask, just who is this Samosa Man?  He is a gentleman who came to Vermont as a refugee from Africa and with him he brought this fried pastry stuffed with meat, fruit or vegetables. Little Man loves them and the Samosa Man can spot him coming from across the gym.   I have tried to deter him a few times with offers of pastries, soft pretzels or maple cotton candy, but Little Man has his mind made up, he is going for the samosas.  He is a man on a mission.

 Once Little Man has filled his tummy with fried goodness, the family is free to roam the farmers market and purchase items for the coming week.  One of our missions is to eat foods we do not regularly include in our diet.  It is not that most of these foods are bad, it is just they are not typically available at the grocery store and when they are, it is for a limited time.  This week the item of choice is celeriac; a root in the celery family.  While it does not look very appetizing (Andy calls it a vegetable brain), this thing is amazingly good if cooked the right way.  Often it is cooked like potato pancakes or hash browns, or at least that is what we have done, and the results are amazing.  It is worth the roam around the farmer market to find.