Time is certainly flying by at a mighty clip. We are closing in on the end of the year as we are now at Week 49. Doesn’t leave very many left. December is one of those months that I love and hate at the same time. I love the festive part and I hate that it is the end of another year. I love snowstorms, I hate rain in December. I love my family and I hate that they all have to go home. I love the mess, I hate having to do the clean up. Much more fun to make a mess.

A Quick Trip to Canada

We made a quick trip to our house in Canada at the beginning of the week. We had a few things left to do to get the house ready for our winter tenant such as cleaning out the fridge and freezer. Not an easy job but one that it felt good to get done. I also changed the water filter in the fridge which was due to be changed too. We had a few friends over for a visit and we sat in front of the fire and enjoyed each others company as we talked about a good friend who died while we were up there. He had been ill for a long time so we are glad he is now at peace but we are certainly going to miss him.

The Reverse Advent Calendar

Week 1 is in the basket and Week 2 has been started. Some of my friends who are also doing this seemed to think the concept was to get all the items at once, put them in the basket and that’s that. My idea was more on the lines of doing this week by week and day by day and thinking about it as I did it. Not something I wanted to rush through. We had a good laugh at the different approaches we all take to the same thing.

Walking This Week

We had a couple of good walks this week despite being gone for three days. As we came out of the field near the Proctor Ski hill we heard lots of voices and shouts. The dogs were very curious and couldn’t quite figure out what was happening. Turns out the ski hill was open for the first time this season and the skiers were very excited to be on the hill. Bean just couldn’t figure it out and kept looking at me to explain what they were doing. It did look like fun and they certainly sounded happy. A little bit of winter is here.

Birthdays

Our first child was born in December. Luckily it is early enough in December that it doesn’t really take away from Christmas at all. It acts more like the kick-off to the Christmas season. We decorate the house outside with lights and little trees and wreaths and then bring out the mantle and table decorations too. The tree does not go up until after the birthday. Slowly all of Katie’s Santa collection start appearing in corners and on shelves around the house. Some of my dolls are also displayed although the really good ones are still up in Canada. We put the lights on the outside trees usually in late October or early November on the warmest day that we have. We have had enough years where we waited and it was not a pleasant or fun project in the freezing cold or in the snow.

So we had a birthday party to kick off this year. We invited a few good friends, cooked up a recipe I haven’t used in years – Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate – and then I made a cake. Or rather I made two cakes. I decided to make the first cake after wine time almost right in the middle of dinner on Friday night. Something didn’t go quite right and the cake didn’t rise the way it should and it stuck to the pans. However, I made a ton of icing and covered up the whole mess. John and Katie teased me mercilessly about the cake fail so on Saturday I decided to try again. This time with a great deal of careful preparation. The cakes rose like they should and came away from the pan perfectly. The icing was fine but nowhere near as good as the night before. We decided to go ahead and serve both with homemade peppermint ice cream. We take good vanilla bean ice cream, soften it up and add smashed up candy canes (red and green) to it. Yummy. Both cakes were a hit but the fail was the one that folks seemed to like best. I think it was the icing. Just to keep us from eating too much cake, I donated the balance of the “good” cake to Messy Church for their dessert Sunday night.

The recipe I use for the cake is by Ree Drummond and is called Epiphany Cake. Ree makes it in a sheet pan, I use two rounds. It works 99% of the time just fine!