Black & White
Holiday Recap, Plus Photos
Now that we are through the first week in January, I thought it might be time for a holiday recap.
Christmas Eve
- Pack up Christmas presents, suitcases, 2 kids, 2 adults, one dog and a whole lot of gear.
- Drive through snow storm to reach Mike’s parents’ house in the Twin Cities.
- Avoid backed up traffic and accidents along the way. See a number of cars in the ditch.
- Arrive 3 hours after departing Duluth. The trip usually takes 2 hours.
- Miss Christmas Eve church service because we knew the kids couldn’t sit still for another 2 hours.
- Finally relax and enjoy the snow.
- Posing For Mom
- New Snow Block Maker + Snow = Fort
- Open Gifts
- Tom Working Hard Grilling Steaks
- Wait for Santa to arrive.
- Dreaming Of Tennis Balls And Long Walks
Christmas Day
- Wake up and open presents from Santa.
- Enjoy hearty breakfast prepared by Karen.
- Drive over to Sean & Melissa’s to enjoy more delicious food and open more gifts.
- Head back to Tom & Karen’s for some rest.
Kwanzaa/Boxing Day
We don’t actually celebrate either of these holidays, but we did celebrate what would have been Grandma Helen’s 102nd birthday. Tom & Karen hosted the annual family get-together that Grandma Helen once held at her house.
- Help shovel the driveway, tidy up the aftermath of two days of present opening, help with food preparation and arrangement of chairs, etc.
- Pose for a few family photos before guests arrive
- Enjoy all the wonderful food Karen prepared and visit with family that we haven’t seen in months (or a year for some), take part in holiday gift exchange – always a good time!
- Pretend to be a reindeer – actually that was just Sophia (see below).
- Start packing for departure the next morning.
December 27
- Pack up suitcases, 2 kids, 2 adults, one dog and way more stuff than we came with.
- Drive 2 hours back to Duluth.
- Unload suitcases, 2 kids, 2 adults, one dog and a whole lot of stuff.
- Shortly afterwards, Mike packs up and heads for his 3 day fishing trip.
- Mary comes to the realization that there is 2 feet of new snow that needs to be shoveled off the sidewalk and decks. Luckily our neighbor took care of the driveway.
- The holiday is over!
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
The temperatures remained below zero all day today so Sophia and I decided to stay indoors and bake cookies. We didn’t bake any Christmas cookies this year and we were both craving something sweet. We also wanted to make some treats for our neighbor who was kind enough to snow blow our driveway while we were out-of-town during the 24″ snow storm at Christmas.
And so we began…
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (or 350 for convection oven).
We started by adding one stick of butter (softened) with one half cup of Butter-Flavored Crisco to our bowl. Sophia was in charge of mixing.
Then we added 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup granulated white sugar.
Add two eggs.
Add one teaspoon of vanilla.
We measured the dry ingredients into a separate bowl – 2 1/4 cups flour, one teaspoon salt and one teaspoon baking soda. Sophia added the dry ingredients to our main mixing bowl.
Sophia was quite excited when it was finally time for the chocolate chips.
Once the dough was mixed, it was time to scoop it onto the cookie sheets.
Bake for 9-11 minutes until golden brown.
We let them cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheets, then transferred them to the cutting board to cool some more.
Time for the taste test.
How are they?
M. Sullivan Photography 