Skip to main content

On the Third week of Advent...


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 different size board than what the instructions called for. We cut all the pieces and realized we didn't do our math right to adjust to their directions. Our mistake turned into three different size containers.

They didn't look too bad.

Dec 19 - We Drank Hot Chocolate
Yup I had nothing else planned for today.

No other plans are needed when hot chocolate is involved. 


Dec 20 - We Went Ice Skating at Holidazzle
After a few weeks of sub zero temps the weather turned to a balmy 30 degrees. I suggested we do something outside. Ice skating seemed like the right idea.

Technically this is just Winter Skate at Loring Park since Holidazzle is closed during the week.

I thought the rink would have been busier with the mild temps, but I'm not complaining.

Meadow refused to skate with her buckle on skates.

Her straps were also not staying on since her boots were too big.

Since she was refusing to skate we decided to go after 15 minutes. When we were in the warming house she said she wanted to try different skates.

The Minneapolis Parks are awesome and have loaner skates at their rinks. The closest skates to her size were 4 sizes up from her and single blades, but we thought whatever she wants to try them. As soon as we get back on the ice she was an old pro.

I guess she saw everyone else on single blades and wanted to try too.

Now we need to find her new skates before New Years.

Dec 22 Candlelight Dinner for Winter Solstice 
Being that it is the darkest day of the year I thought we could light all of our candles and have a candlelight dinner for the Winter Solstice.

It was beautiful.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

 Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

I Go to Oregon and They Go to Cottage

  I had to get back from Little Chute just to fly out to Oregon for another shoot out there. This was after also doing an overnight shoot in Worthington, MN.     Meanwhile, we had left Meadow in Little Chute during the week. Theo and I headed to the cottage to pick her up.  Still winter up here.  Theo looks so cute in the Stormy Kromer hat.  There's still ice on the lake with a few open spots of water.   

A Weekend with Grandpoppy Tuska and Nanna

Friday We decided to break up our drive to Milwaukee by camping halfway. Instead of rushing Friday morning we left right after I was done with work on Thursday. Scott texted me as I was leaving work with the idea. By the time I got home he had everything ready. We had hoped to camp at Devil's Lake, but we were worried we would get there and it would be full. We settled on nearby Rocky Arbor State Park. For being so close to Wisconsin Dells the park was practically empty.