Winter Beauty

I wish I could have captured better the beauty of the snow yesterday.  This is driving down our alley; I stepped outside with the girls yesterday and was simply awed by the wonder of the snow on the trees against the backdrop of a blue sky, sun shining.  We received a light dusting Sunday afternoon/evening which added a very fluffy layer of snow on top of that which we had received last Friday.  This extra dusting was sparkling... little crystals... and it covered every limb and branch beautifully.  I took the girls to Des Moines yesterday and the drive was beyond gorgeous.

I received an email yesterday from my mother-in-law titled, "Snow Be Gone" and inside it said:

Thurs & Fri, 48* predicted for you.

 

That makes me sad.  I actually really love winter and one of my favorite things about it is snow.  What's the point in all of the cold if there isn't going to be the beauty of snow on the ground?  Knowing how testy our winters are here, it could be weeks and weeks and weeks before we see snow again.  So, I am going to enjoy it today and tomorrow and hope that we truly don't see it leave this weekend.

 

erin

Hat Finished!

We had some friends over for dinner tonight, and after dinner, we played Dominion (Adam's new game that he got for Christmas)... yes... I actually learned a bit how to play... but, while playing, I put the finishing touches on this hat... kinda sad that I'll be seeing this one go to a new owner, but I really enjoyed it and looking forward to giving it away... and to eventually making one of my own!

 

erin

Merry Christmas from the Pella Draegers!

Merry Christmas!

 

I hope that you all have a wonderful day and enjoy your family and your friends or... if you are alone, simply enjoy the peace and quiet of the day.

 

We've had a lovely day here so far... the girls have enjoyed their gifts... my first batch of doughnuts, while not stellar, taste good and will become a tradition (hopefully)... and, well, I'm ready for a nap.  Hee, hee.

 

Lots of love to you all, on this day, Jesus' birthday!  Despite all of the gifts and the tree and the cooking and the eating, I hope you are all able to take time and remember the reason for this holiday's existence...!

 

love,

erin

Snow

Here is a picture of our backyard from last night... to be honest, I was a little concerned that we wouldn't have snow for Christmas... by Thursday, most of our front yard had melted completely.  But, it started snowing early Friday morning and here is the result.  Yay!  Sure, not conducive to traveling, so we are thankful we didn't have to drive anywhere this weekend, but certainly beautiful!

So much fun!

The cabling is done... now just to finish the rest of the hat!  I was surprised by how quickly this worked up and I love how it is turning out... I may just have to make one for myself!  Yay!

 

erin

Happy Christmas Eve!

I have these jammies for the girls from last year... as you might guess, Raven so didn't even remotely fit into hers last year... but, it was fun to put them in the same jammies tonight and try to get some pictures... yep, these were the best... ha!

 

erin

Mile High Peanut Butter Brownie Pie

I think that I just made the most perfect sounding pie in the history of peanut butter and chocolate together... the Mile High Peanut Butter Brownie Pie... we haven't eaten any yet, but if the taste of the topping is any indication, it is going to be one good tasting pie...!

 

Kudos to Adam for the suggestion... I never would have thought of it!

 

erin

Stockings Finished!

Here are the stockings finished.

 

Considering that they weren't meant to be a quality craft, I'm fairly happy with the outcome.  Originally I was going to hot glue it together, but that is pretty much sacrilege when one owns a sewing machine, so in a few minutes I was able to stitch the socks together and present them to the tree. 

 

Now I'm hankering to make some REAL stockings and were it not for the fact that I don't think the fabric store is open today, I'd be out like a flash to get Christmas fabric... hmm.......  :)

 

erin

Cookbooks

This was my kitchen island today... it's hard for you to tell, but there are five different cookbooks in play here, all opening to different spots and being used for different purposes.

In the last week, I've found peace with my cookbooks and have fallen in love all over again with cooking.  Planning our Christmas dinner was just the start, but then I began planning what we could have for Christmas breakfast and Christmas Eve night and Christmas Eve morning and that morphed into, "Oh, Adam's home early today, what can I whip together for lunch?"  It's been a lot of fun digging through my cookbooks again, finding recipes I haven't yet tried and foods that tantalize the taste buds.

One of my goals is to try a number of new recipes before Adam leaves for Siebel.  I think we can have a lot of fun with different meals in the month or so before he leaves, before it's just me and the kids and before we're on a skinny grocery budget.

One recipe I found today that sounded promising was for poori.  From the description of the recipe, it reminded me of Indian (Native American) fry bread, but upon further research, I found that poori is Indian (from India) fry bread... the main difference between the two being the use of sugar in the Native American version.

Regardless, I whipped these puppies (see below) up in a short amount of time and between the four of us, we tried all sorts of concoctions... horseradish, cheese, jam... and Adam and I turned a number of them into tacos.  (If you have ever had Tasty Tacos fried tacos in Des Moines... well, have I got a treat for YOU.  Heh.)

So... what's on the menu for the next few days?

Breakfast tomorrow (Christmas Eve) morning... Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake.  (I taught myself how to make "pie filling" from a few glaze recipes I found and was able to use some frozen fruit that I had instead of buying a can of pie filling.)  I'm very excited to see how this turns out... I've been wanting to make a coffee cake for some time.

Tomorrow night... ha, well, I still don't know.  I have some ideas.  We'll see.

Saturday (Christmas) morning... fried donuts.  Yum!  Tomorrow I will be preparing the dough... Adam and I have discussed turning this into a Christmas tradition.

Saturday evening we are having some friends over for dinner, and the menu that night includes...
Turkey (made the Alton Brown way, and bought from our friends Ryan and Janice of Wild Rose Pastures)
A Corn Casserole (provided by our friends Derek & Ann)
Mashed Potatoes (again, another Alton Brown specialty)
Gravy (no idea on the recipe yet... I'll just pick one out)
Stuffing (the only way to go is Stove Top... ha!)
Cheesecake (again, thanks to Derek & Ann)
Mile High Peanut Butter Brownie Pie (requested by my hub; I'll make this tomorrow)

We also are having slush (a Draeger family tradition that we've brought to Iowa) and homemade Irish cream.  The slush still isn't... slushy frozen yet... so that could be interesting.  I don't have room in the freezer for it, so I've had to set it out on the deck hoping that the temp drops enough in the next 48 hours to turn it semi-solid.  The Irish cream... I'm looking forward to making that tomorrow... I found it in a recipe magazine at my Grandpa John's over Thanksgiving.

I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas holiday and enjoy any food you might have as well!

erin

Cutting Up

Julia is finally the owner of a pair of her very own safety scissors... she's been attempting to cut things here and there with adult scissors, and after some thought, I decided it would be best if she had her own pair that we monitored but yet still made her feel like she had some control over her life when it came to scissors.  We laid some ground rules today regarding where the scissors go (UP HIGH) and what to cut (PAPER ONLY) and when (WITH MOM OR DAD).

Yes.  I know.  One of my kids is going to be missing some hair.  Sooner than I would like.  Heh.

erin