This week in a nut shell

It's bee a busy week. It started with me taking a final for my class on Monday. I did really well, and was relieved to know that my brain still works. We made treat plates, enjoyed a little Christmas concert at the school, and still have a few parties up our sleeve for this weekend. The other big project we accomplished is our Christmas letter. This year we were too cheap to send our cards, and so we made a blog. It was a lot of fun and a lot easier to share pictures. Here is the address. We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.

http://nordstromholidaygreetings.blogspot.com

Monday Morning Adventures

So the plan for this morning was to get the kids off to school, go to my water aerobics class and then putter around getting things done. First wrinkle, snow. No problem; I got up early and went to shovel the drive. Steve was getting a ride with a neighbor because of said snow, and didn't have time to shovel. The girls were excited because a neighbor lady gave them a kid sized snow shovel. So they got booted up and came out to help. About 8:00 am we were done, and I started herding everyone in for breakfast. We had already happily waived goodbye to Steven. We put the shovels away, and continued onto the house. This is when wrinkle number two comes in. The door was locked and we have no spare key hidden or at a neighbors. So I started knocking on doors. We finally found a neighbor home. She was in her rob, but she let us in. Thankfully she gave the girls some breakfast so I could at least get them to school on time. Meanwhile I called Steven so he could borrow a car and bring me keys. I got the girls off to school, then jogged in place by our door until Steve came. This is where we discover wrinkle three. He did not bring his set of keys. He remembered his wallet but not the keys. He carries them in his backpack and so that's where they were. I get in the car, and think quickly of a good plan. We'll stop by a friends house to see if she can follow us in to campus and bring me home so that Steve will at least get a minimal amount or work done before his day is over. She is glad to help, but her husband had taken the kids to school and hadn't come back. She calls him, he's on campus working, even though she thought he was working from home. I did however find out that he was coming home mid-morning to work from home. So I drive into campus with Steve, call our friend and ask to hitch a ride home with him when he leaves. He is glad to help out. I finally arrived home at 10:45 am. Then I had to make lunches for the girls and take them to school so they wouldn't starve. Wow!

Gingerbread Train

We have a tradition of making a Gingerbread House at the beginning of December. This year the girls saw a picture of a gingerbread train, and really wanted to make one. So I googled it, and found a pattern. No problem I thought. So I started making gingerbread on Friday night. It's best to let the dough refrigerate for several hours, so Friday night it went in the fridge. After a few errands Saturday morning, I cooked my first batch. Once it's cooked you have to cut it into the shapes you want quickly because after it cools and hardens, you are out of luck. So I had all my pattern cut out of card stock and ready to go. I cut up the first batch, and then came to the realize several things: 1. The train was going to be a lot bigger than I had thought. 2. I was going to have to make at least two more batches of ginger bread. 3. I should have scaled down the pattern, but it was too late to look back. So I proceeded bravely onward; three batches of gingerbread and a double batch of royal icing latter we have a giant gingerbread train. It was a lot of fun to put together and decorate, and it only took about 1 1/2 hours. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.