Monday, December 30th Sweet and Cold

A morning of maple syrup sticky buns....

 and an afternoon sanding an icey driveway in frigid cold temperatures.

Sunday, December 29th Syrup to Sugar

Don experiments with making maple sugar out of some syrup, and is very successful!

Saturday December 28th Dinner at Mo's

Friday, December 27th Ice Storm Beauty

Scott took these pictures which captured the beauty and  magic of the ice storm.

Bryce Road

Pleasant Valley Hay Wagon

Thursday, December 26th Grumpy Men

I couldn't not get this candid shot posted on POD, despite it didn't happen on the 26th.  It was taken on Dec. 24th during our lunch stop in Jeffersonville on our way back from touring Thunder Basin Maple Sugar House.  Who knows what caused the frowns, but I caught it in a candid moment. We went on to have a very happy lunch!

Wednesday, December 25th Abundance

Santa was good to us

Tuesday, December 24 Shock and Awe

Dale presents Mom with a plate of Christmas cookies for Christmas Eve desert.

 

They are absolutely beautiful, and look like they came straight out of Coastal Living magazine.

And then she proceeds to tell us she made them herself, which produced a reaction of Shock and Awe in mom!

Monday, December 23 Sugar Plum Fairy

The Sugar Plum Fairy is sprinkling fairy lights amongst the trees!

Sunday, December 22 The Arc of an Ice Storm

Saturday, December 21 Time to Make Christmas Cookies

Lots of my Christmas cookie cutters have gone missing, so we had to go free form on some.

When you don't have a cutter, you're not restricted to what you can make

Well baked

YUM!  Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 20th Bird Food

The Chickadees love this feeder.  The seeds are easy to get and they can choose from any number of them.

But then they have to spend lots of effort just to get at the meat inside

it makes me want to buy them shelled seeds!

But they get it out, chow down, and do it all over again.

Thursday, December 19th. Coop Christmas

Wednesday, December 18th. Right on Time

The Christmas Cactus is blooming and promises to be fully decked out by Christmas Day.

Tuesday, December 17th. Meeting #135

Last night was the 135th meeting of The Pistachio Book Club, and it was the annual pot luck Christmas Dinner at Pam's

Monday, December 16th. Royal Riviera Pears

If  I could only get one Christmas food related item, it would be the pears that mom sends every year from Harry and David.  They drip with juice when you cut into a ripe one, and the flavor is  rich and deep but fresh.  And one pair can feed a family!

Sunday, December 15th The Trimming of the Tree

 First you start with the colored lights and begin at the bottom
















Then you add the white lights until you have an even distribution of colored and white from top to bottom.

 

 

Then come the ornaments.

Viola!

Saturday, December 14th A Face only a Mother Could Love

That might be how you would describe these Guinea Hens that Paula is housing in her barn for her friend Ryan, who doesn't have the space to keep them all.  He pays rent for them by cutting wood for Paula. 

Profile of a guinea hen

Looking out over the frozen landscape

Huddling inside to stay warm

The Handsome Rooster who is sentenced to live with the ugly hens

Friday, December 13th The Cutting of the Tree

When it's 7 degrees F outside, you make a tree choice pretty quickly.  We found the perfect one in about 1 minute, in the front row of a big tree farm. 

 It was just the right height to reach up to the ceiling in the corner, and narrow enough to fit behind the big chair.

So Don cut it down.

Thursday, December 11th When it's too cold to go out

Window sills  come in handy for critter watching