Snowy Days.

 I love December. Even on the snowy days. And the snow today looks beautiful. This week I bundled the kids up (took almost 30 minutes!) to go out & shovel the driveway. I had bought Molly a shovel for Christmas, but she got it early (I didn't want to listen to them fighting). I got loads of help...and by help I mean hinderance, but the kids had fun. And it tired them out, they napped for almost 3 hours!

I have great memories of playing outside in the snow when I was little. We live in a cul-du-sac full of kids but n the snowy days it seems no one is around! It was just the opposite when I was little. We spent hours playing outside, skating on our home-made backyard rink, sledding, making 'forts', snowmen, snow angels and footprints in fresh snow. My husband has the same memories, only his includes a lot of street hockey. I don't think it was any colder than it is nowadays (is that a word?) but it seems the kids are all indoors. Our kids have definitely inherited our love of playing outside. Miles begs to go out everyday. And most days he does, I let him wander around the snowy backyard. But it is hard, because Molly wants to go and she is too small to let me know when she's cold...so that means I have to go...and that means nothing is going to get done inside. I look forward to the day when letting them loose in the backyard means I will have a quiet house all to myself.

I'm trying to figure out when it's too cold to go out. -10? Is there some unwritten rule I don't know? Do the neighbors see Miles playing outside & think I am a bad mom? Of course I always check on him and feel his

hands, but I wonder if there is a general rule... When I use to run, I never ran if it was colder than -20...but I would never send Miles out in that cold.

It's been busy days here at the Ross house. I know I have been busy when I look at my nails & see that they have grown.... Sounds weird but I chew my nails (Eww. Gross. Gag. I know, I know.) and I haven't even had time to do that! And it seems that when my head hits the pillow I am done!

Tonight before Brian went to work we decorated our Gingerbread Village. The village is a great idea, each of the kids get their own house (Brian & I included). Miles was determined to use each & every piece of candy we had, so we added snowmen, trees and anything else we could think of.

A quick update from the baking front... I have been slowly knocking items off my list. Three things this week and I am still in search of jumbo pretzel sticks. I might have to abandon those.

My Over-Zealous Christmas Baking List Update

1. Banana Loaves

2. Molasses Spice Cookies

3. White-Chocolate Peppermint Brownies (New this year!)

4. Sugar Cookies (For the kids to Decorate)

5. Peanut Butter Toffee Pretzel Cookies (From Real Simple)

6. Shortbread Cookies (I've already made these, they didn't make it to the freezer! Oops!)

7. Chocolate Chip Cookies

8. Nuts & Bolts (New this year!)

9. Fiddle Diddles (A tradition. No Bake = Easy to Make)

10. Peanut Butter Balls (Also No Bakes but a little more work)

11. Martha Klassens Saltine Cookies

12. June Bars

13. Cinnamon Pull Aparts (For Christmas morning)

14. Lemon Jelly Squares

15. Granny Ruths Butter Tarts

16. Chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks