The Snow Can Fly
We’ve already had two big snowstorms this year. One dumped 16-18 inches, the other dumped 12-14 inches. We were totally unprepared for the first one and didn’t even realize there was going to be that much snow. That was way back on November 2nd. The second snowstorm hit on Thanksgiving morning and delayed our travel to Ohio until the afternoon. Unfortunately for both of these storms our plow truck was out of commission.
The poor thing was in the shop getting a new fuel system and getting the carb rebuilt. With a truck as old as this one, finding parts can be a challenge. Luckily we have a great mechanic that likes a challenge.
Earlier this week, we finally picked up the old red truck and it’s running like a top. Hopefully the plow will go on this weekend and we’ll actually be ready for our next snowstorm. We’re also hoping to get some snow this weekend because we want to feature this fabulous vehicle on our Christmas cards.
Have you had any weather recently that you’ve been totally unprepared for?
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Sending Holiday Cheer
I love Christmas card, I love to get them and I love to send them. We have yet to get our photos taken for our personal cards, but I’ve been working hard on the Christmas cards I mail out for work. I usually mail out around 500 for that and roughly 100 for ourselves personally. The result is that I spend a lot of time during the month of December working on them.
This year I printed our cards for work, I found a sweet little nativity stamp on Esty to use on them. I took them to Ohio and my nieces helped me fold them and stuff them into envelopes. All I have left to do is address and stamp them and then I move on to our personal cards. I’m waiting for a snow so I can take the photo I’ve been planning. My mailbox is starting to fill up with cards from family and friends as well. I’m always happy to see how much everyone’s kids have grown, Christmas cards are one of the beautiful things about the holiday season!
Do you send out cards to family & friends? Do you enjoy receiving cards?
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Freezer Soup
I’m a cook from scratch kind of person and I really hate producing food container waste. Thus I have all sorts of wide mouth pint mason jars in my freezer filled with all varieties of ingredients. When I’m cooking I often double or triple a recipe and freeze some. I do the same when preparing individual ingredients. Thus I can make a pot of delicious soup with ingredients from my freezer is only an hour and it will taste like it has been simmering all day!
Yesterday was the perfect soup day, but I was busy running errands and working until about four. No problem, I went to the basement freezer and came upstairs with: chorizo, black beans, red beans, green peppers, sweet corn, chicken stock, and spinach. I pulled onions, carrots, and garlic from the pantry along with a few spices and a soup was born. I love using wide mouth half pint mason jars for freezing because with only a minute or two submerged in warm water the contents will come out quite easily. They defrost quickly in a pan on the stove and are the ultimate homemade convenience food.
In about 30 minutes I had a delicious pot of soup, a big one to eat on all week for lunches. Some of it will probably end up back in wide mouth jars and in the freezer for when we need a bowl of soup in minutes. Best of all, it’s healthy, mostly homegrown, and best of all there was not one can or package that had to be thrown away!
What’s your favorite quick meal during the cooler winter months?
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Oh Tannenbaum
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!
They are green when summer days are bright,
They are green when winter snow is white.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!
We arrived back in Maine on Saturday evening right around 10 pm. I’ll share more of our eventful trip tomorrow. After coffee, unpacking and lots of chores on Sunday, we headed out to gather our Christmas tree in the afternoon. We like to cut a free range tree from our property, the less perfect the better.
We found a sweet little balsam fir conveniently located right by the driveway and decided it would be perfect. Out came the ax and down came the tree. The trees in this area need thinned out anyways, so it’s nice to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
Of course I did double duty and took some photos for the glove company I work for, why not, right?
I trimmed it with lights and then later in the evening I pulled out my etched glass balls to dress it up a bit. A tree like this really needs not much more than one strand of lights, it’s simplicity is really what makes it beautiful. I will give you one great recommendation, put your Christmas tree lights on a dimmer switch, especially if you use the big old fashioned lights. It’s nice to be able to dim the tree in the late evening.
Do you put up a tree to celebrate the holidays?
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Busy, Busy, Busy
You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t been blogging much this week. We’ve been fairly busy on our time back in Ohio. We’ve been catching up with old friends and spending lots of time with our nieces & nephew.
The kids are old enough now to spend the night at my parents while we’re visiting. So we’ve been enjoying hanging out with them in the evenings, hence no blog posts.
We’ve made Christmas cookies, decorations for the tree, we’ve had pizza parties, brunches and lunches. We’ve been focusing on spending time with friends & family and it has been successful.
Today we’re celebrating Christmas. There will be a big dinner tonight with ham and all the fixings. We’ll exchange gifts and enjoy time together. Then tomorrow we’ll hit the road back and head back to Maine. It’s been a good holiday in Ohio, but I look forward to getting home and spending a relaxing Christmas at home in a few weeks.
Are you celebrating any Christmases yet?
