Peppermint Bark: Redeemed

A little follow up for those of you who are (or not) interested... A while ago, I posted about my peppermint bark fiasco-- I gave it another go!

Success!!!

Folks, this is how it's supposed to look! And very tasty, might I add!

A Lovely Christmas...

Christmas this year was definitely different from all the other years we've had-- It was every one's first time spending it here in Spokane, which makes it way more low-key than when we go to Seattle, and I actually got to spend Christmas Eve with Mo, since usually I'm in Seattle by that time and he can't leave until early Christmas morn (usually 4am!).

We started our morning with pumpkin Belgian waffles (sooo yummy!), then had a few gifts to open.

(Ava loved the doll she got from her Grandpa George & Grandma Anna!)

Then off to Dan & Cerissa's to celebrate with the whole fam. We read from the Bible, ate lots of great food, the kids danced to Grandpa's jazz music on the piano, and of course, more presents were opened.

Our last stop for the day was to my Mom & Dad's to spend the night there. We all watched Horton Hears a Who together in our new Christmas pajamas, and just enjoyed each other.

Our day was wonderful, and I hope yours was too!

Tucked in...

The other night, Mo and I were doing our normal routine putting Ava to bed, but that night had something extra sweet about it...

Ava kept pushing our heads to rest on her belly so she could stroke our hair. Anytime we lifted our heads, she'd just gently push them back down and continue stroking our hair.

Mo left the room so she could fall asleep, but there was no way I was leaving! Maybe I should blame it at least partly on the trance I was in with my hair getting played with, but I couldn't not cuddle with her! We both wound up falling asleep together, and Mo secretly came in and took this picture about an hour and a half later.

Yeah, can you believe I actually slept like this? Neither can I.

Snowflakes...

Yesterday morning Mo, Ava and I were going out to the car to take Mo to work, and we were amazed by the snowflakes that were falling! It actually looked like we lived next to a cotton field, and we literally just blew the snow right off the car!

These are the best shots I could get, but don't they look like the snowflakes we all saw in the cartoons growing up?

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the snow was actually "fluffy".

God is so amazing, if He makes each and every snowflake differently, how much more does He care about our lives!!

What a day!!

For those of you not from Spokane, let me just say these past couple days have been crazy!

It started snowing Wednesday morn (if I remember correctly), and didn't let up til Thurs evening. It was also dumping this (Fri) morning, but stopped after a couple hours. It's the most snow we've had in history in a 24 hour period!
Thurs morning, Mo was determined to go to work (& we didn't watch the news telling us to stay home unless it's an emergency!), so thank God it only takes us about 2 minutes to drive there, because he ended up walking --in knee-deep snow, might I add! There were only a few others there that live just across the street and one that drove in her big truck, so she was able to give him a ride home after a few hours.

Around 5, when the snow stopped falling, we all bundled up to go out and PLAY!

Some cars in the parking lot:

And this is Mo's normal ride to work (yeah, that thing's not going anywhere!):

The snow was knee-deep, and extremely powdery, which was kinda nice since it wasn't really wet.

I think this was Ava's absolute farvorite part of our time outside, Mo taking her to the top of this hill. Although, Ava referred to it as "Tall Mountain", because she has a Dora book and a movie that talk about Tall Mountain. Poor Mo ran up that steep hill with her I don't know how many times! Everytime they'd get to the top, Ava would yell "Hey 'erybody, LOOK! Taaaall Mountain!"

Then, of course, the ride down is a thrill!!

And finally, some pretty pictures from yesterday and this morning:

One of the things I LOVE about Spokane as opposed to Seattle is that when it snows here, the skies clear up and are blue again, while the snow still stays fresh and powdery.

Hope you all are enjoying your weather!

Beauty Shoppe

Last night, I was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, and Ava decided she wanted to do my hair. Who am I to say no to that?!

(this, by the way, is her version of giving Daddy a really big smile!)

Then, she remembers I have lots of fun make-up brushes in the bathroom, so in the gurgly little voice she has, she tells me to "hold on, I right back, K?" And comes back with my make-up bag.

This has got to be one of the perks of having a girly girl! I praised her beautiful (although pretend) hairdo and make-up application on me. Afterall, why would I ever want to discourage her from doing this again?

I figure in a couple more years, I could get near spa-like treatment with the right training!

Everything's better with Daddy!

When Daddy comes home from work, it's a whole different world...

Then on to a bubble bath (which by the way, Mommy NEVER makes this many bubbles!)...

Now to end a perfect night with a game of classic Hide-and-Go-Seek:

While Mommy, in the meantime, gets to do this:

EVERYBODY WINS!

Yummy winter morning...

We started off this morning with delicious pumpkin/egg nog pancakes, then followed that up with crushing candy canes for some peppermint bark I needed to make for a cookie party I'm supposed to be attending tonight.

Ava had a blast crushing and pounding the candy canes, and to my surprise, she didn't even try to sneak any! Next came melting the chocolate chips in a homemade double-broiler --so far, so good:

While that's melting, we sip our chocolate milk, and I get a genius idea to pour a splash of chocolate milk in with the melting chips.

Anxiously waiting for the chocolate to melt. ...And waiting. ...And waiting. ...And waiting.

It's time for Ava's nap, so she goes down, while I try to figure out why the heck this chocolate isn't liquefying like it's always done in the past... --The chocolate has now been "melting" for about an hour and a half. I figure that maybe I tried to melt too much at once, so I take about 2/3 out. Still no luck! I've determined the culprit to be the chocolate milk.

The finished result:

Needless to say, I'm not going to the cookie-exchange tonight. Does anyone have any good ideas for these solidified clumps of chocolate that don't melt?? I can't just throw it all away!

On a brighter note, Ava woke from her nap to this:

Although the day didn't go quite like I had planned, I still enjoyed it because I got to spend some quality time with my girl.

I guess better luck next time with the peppermint bark.