We woke up this morning to snow. Not much, just a light dusting really, but it was enough to delay local schools from opening by two hours. That was ok by me, since I’m not a morning person and appreciated the extra time to get going.

Since Robert took the car today, the kids and I walked to school. Normally, it’s a nice journey, but today the fluffy white stuff provided them with continual distraction and I was hard pressed to keep them going so we would make it before the last bell rang. We made it–just in time–and both kids were soaked through and through.

When Claire and I made it back home, she changed into warm, dry clothes and sat down to watch the latest Pingu disc we rented.

I took the opportunity to work on Cassidy, which is nearly complete–but not close enough that I’ll be able to wear it to my knitting meetup tonight. Darn it! A knitter needs to show off their big creations now and then I still have a ton of seaming to do, a few more inches on the hood and the front bands to work. Still, a new sweater is on the horizon and I’m excited about that!

It snowed again. I was royally freaking out because I needed Sam to go back to school. Working hard in class and playing hard with his friends wears him out, which is a fantastic thing. When he comes home, he’s nice and calm. As much as Claire and I try to keep him busy, we can’t compete with six hours of school and 30 kids.

Apparently the People in Charge also had enough of letting the snow interfere with what should be a regular old day and/or they couldn’t stomach the thought of spending all summer in school, so school was back in session and on time today…despite all the snow.

I’m looking forward to a few hours of quiet today in which I’ll take a look at some of my favorite websites, do some laundry, figure out what to cook for dinner and play a silly game or three with Claire.

The snow has added another element of excitement to our lives. It’s breaking things.

The tree next door lost a couple of large limbs, which are blocking our neighbor’s driveway. The snow has also caused our street light to tilt over at an alarming angle. I called the Street Light People, who are supposedly sending Street Light Engineers my way, but I haven’t yet seen hide nor hair of them. I hope it won’t take them the six to eight weeks they estimate for fixing street light outages…

On the crafting front, choosing which mitten to knit has turned out to be more difficult than my former plan made it seem. I initially tried Bella’s Mittens, but the yarn I was using was variegated and too busy for the pattern. Then, I started on Bird in the Hand, but had serious gauge issues. Using size 2 needles made a mitten that was so tight it could have been used as a tourniquet. Using size 3 needles resulted in a tube of fabric that could have comfortably encased my thigh.

It’s a pretty pattern, though, and someday I intend to try it again using a DK weight yarn. (Ooh, and working those braids was loads of fun. I say this even after it caused me to break one of my beloved birch DPNs).

Currently, I’m trying to knit one of the Selbuvotter mittens, but am feeling paranoid about sizing issues despite the fact that my gauge appears to be spot on–and continues to be correct even after checking it 5,629 times. I’d post a photo, but I don’t want to jinx myself yet.

We had a storybook Christmas. It really couldn’t have been more perfect. Just a few days beforehand, it started snowing and it kept snowing and snowing and snowing. We hadn’t had this much snow since….oh 1996. The whole family spent lots of time outside playing in the stuff.

1. Frosty, 2. Kids in the Igloo, 3. Shoveling, 4. Sam’s Baby Blues, 5. Claire, 6. Claire

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

I tried to coax the kids into making a snowman, but they were more interested in shoveling the sidewalks…and the street. Eventually, we had a large enough snow mound to create an igloo.

What fun! Some worrywart neighbors expressed concern for letting kids play in a structure that might collapse on them, but we weren’t worried. First of all, we were always supervising them when they were playing outside, so if something happened, we’d be right there to take care of things. Secondly, Robert and I built snow forts like that throughout our childhood. My brother also used to go winter camping at 7000 feet and built similar structures to sleep in.

Know-it-alls really get my dander up.

Christmas Day was very relaxed. We opened gifts, played board games and ate an exquisite meal. I made beef bourgignon–and oh my gawd, the sauce on that dish is to die for! We sopped every bit of it up with homemade bread. Yum!!!!

As is traditional for my family, I baked Potica. It was gobbled up in no time flat. In years past, I’ve had trouble getting the sweet bread to cook thoroughly in the center without burning the outer portions. I baked it at a lower temperature this time and it was a big improvement! Wrapping the whole thing in foil for the first portion of its baking time is also something I’ve been meaning to try.

My brother and his fiancee also came to visit us for a couple of days. We don’t get to see each other all that often since they live far away in Montana. We had a splendid time playing Yahtzee (I won-woo hoo), building puzzles, eating, drinking…and clowning around in my handknits.

Will loved the hat I knit for him. It’s supposed to look like the cunning hat worn by Jayne in Firefly. I had a hard time knitting badly. It should look worse than it does, haha!