Merry Christmas

So, as it turns out, I wouldn't have been able to travel home for the holidays even if I'd planneed on it. The blizzard kept DIA closed until noon Friday and then only a few flights made it out. And, if driving... I-70 was closed to the Kansas boarder until Friday eve while they cleared huge drifts from the interstate. So, I stayed put and have had quite a lovely holiday.
Saturday was cookie baking day.
Then Sunday - Christmas eve - I was busy around the house until late afternoon when I went to Christmas eve service. Funny, it started snowing - AGAIN - just before I left home. Now as I said on the last post, DOT has been able to clear the mainstreets quite well, however the side streets are a nightmare with 8-12 inch ruts that you'll crash through or that act like rails taking you careening thru the streets - parking even worse. After finally finding a lot to park in and hoping they'd be gracious and not ticket me while attending Christmas Eve service - I parked and nearly broke my neck getting to church. But, I arrived, got some cider to warm my chilled bones, and found my seat with my friends.

After the service, I went to dinner with my firends in this picture - they are my family away from family. Lala and Hgirl are the sweetest and make me excited to have my own little one some day.
After dinner I drove home and got stuck in the frozen over ice rink that used to by the alley behind my house. It was 9pm, so I figured noone will be traveling the alley on Christmas eve, so I left the car until a kind stranger in a beat up Jeep Cherokee with only 3 tires - the 4th being one of the spare donut thingys- pulled me out today. (The roo hung it's head in shame for being bested by a 3 wheeled Cherokee.)

This moring woke bright and early and headed for Copp*r Mtn resort for a little skiing. It was a beautiful day with good snow, short lift lines and happy people everywhere. Kittbo drove up - thank you very very much, and we had a great day of it.






Happy Holidays everyone.
Peace to you and yours.

Yum Yum

Someone from the ALT group posted the link to My husband cooks. After being housebound from the blizzard wanting so badly to bake cookies, but having no supplies..then viewing My husband cooks... On my first outing I headed straight for the market to get eggs, flour, cocoa... all the fixins for some yummy Chiristmas cookies. I was able to shovel my way out of my garage, and once off the sidestreets and onto the mainstreets, the roads were ok. The grocery store however, was bare. I was able to get all that I needed, but if you were there for fresh produce - outa luck! The trucks were having trouble delivering shipments after the blizzard - I think a lot of people were having to improvise for their holiday meals.
But, for cookies, all OK! Sat night I spent in front of the stove making all the Christmas cookies that My husband cooks made. Look at their blog for the recipes and much better photos....


The toffee has a great flavor, but I wasn't able to get the "crunch" - I don't think I cooked it long enough...next time.


These chocolate cookies are devine! The texture light and crisp, the chocolate flavor... heaven. Try them.
I also made the chocolate shortbread and the creme anglaise clouds (substituted sour cream for creme anglaise). They're all so good and I was able to give some away to my friends.

Greek Art

Lovely Angel
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I'm playing catch up after no blogging for a month.
Here's photos of the art I bought in Greece. Two paintings very different styles. One a typical painting of the Greek Islands - A boat dock with azure,shimmering water. It was beautiful and this painting can take me back there.
The other whose face you see now is an incredibly beautiful painting of an angel. The gallery sent a short bio of the artist and a sentence from her regarding the painting. It says "This painting is inspired from the Byzantine Hagiogrpahy. It represents an Angle that brings good news to the villagers. She flows and flies through the houses of the village, it has metaphorical meaning.: The artist's mane is Agni Mpampiska, she's originally from Poland. The gallery owner said she would bring in some beautiful, but traditional Byzintine paintings and he encouraged her to step out a little and she's become this graceful imaginative (my words) painter. I love my angel and am happy to look at her each day. I love her sweet serene face. I also love the idea of her bringing good news to the village. I know the adoption village could use a little good news these days!

What the....

The Nightmare Next Door
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Ok, my neighborhood is a "transitional" neighborhood, if you will. My house is cute and fun, but happens to be placed next door to this.... I think the guy fancies himself a set designer, because each halloween he drags out these tired decorations. That would be one thing, if they were halloween and then gone... but no there's more. After halloween, he slowly begins the transition to Christmas. The coffin becomes Santa's sleigh - What had once been a creature thingy, now wears the jolly man's outfit, without the heft - it's creepy to see skinny skeletal fingers poking out of HoHo's suit - I think it knows I don't like it and watches me... The cauldron becomes the christmas tree stand and the headstones suddenly don stockings and wreaths....
It's a fright I tell you, and the neighbor seems to think "his public" would really be disapointed if he didn't do it. I try to reassure him that it would be ok, but to no avail, this horrid display shows up each year early October, and if I'm lucky, it comes down mid February.
This alone is enough to make me a scrooge.

Blossoms of Light

CIMG0330
Originally uploaded by MBmama.

Each year The Denver Botanic Gardens goes hog-wild on their holiday decorations. I went last weekend with several of the single adopty moms (specifically Jannine, Jan and Burnadette). The lights were quite pretty, we just happened to pick a bitter cold night to go. The dinner afterward in the warmth of Dizaly (with a name like that, this place won't be in business long...) and a bottle of red wine.
I've enjoyed getting to know these women throught the various parenting classes we've been taking and lately the outings - much more fun. We've planned to take a Chinese New Year cooking class in Feb, and sometime between now and then we will have a knitting night - I've promised to teach them..hmmmm...hope I can
More picture of the gathering here.

By the way, if you click on the photo above, you will notice the view of the lights through the Hologram glasses that Burnadette bought. All the lights look like snowmen...see.....

The final picture in the set of photos is of my friends Danielle and Nancy. We've spent the last 5 or 6 Thanksgivings together - like family. This year I don't remember if there was a storm or what, but Danielle and John lost their electricity for about two hours - it's a little hard to fix dinner without an oven... they improvised and fired up the grill... about 10 minutes into it they ran out of propane - Luckily they have nice neighbors and were able to borrow a tank of propane and the meal went off without a hitch. Thanksgiving at their house has been a nontraditional affair of late - much to my pleasure. Last year steaks, this year duck -none for me, thank you - and ham.
Creative Danielle has a tradition of making Christmas ornaments after dinner each year - the photo is of Danielle and Nancy modeling theirs. It's fun each year to pull out the ornaments and remember each Thanksgiving.

Blizzard 2006

It's Cold!!
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Leo had a heyday in the blizzard - I had shoveled the sidewalk twice already, but it was coming down too fast to keep up with it. This time was actually the last time because it quit snowing about two hours later.... Notice the cars in the background and how deeply they're buried... My ambitious neighbors had just gone inside after shoveling their sidewalk and trying to shovel out their SUV

more photos here

Well,
this has been quite a storm.
It's my 3rd blizzard with the first one 1997 (22 inches)- that one kept me housebound for 3 days - my roommate snowshoed to her boyfriend's house - I was bored!! Once it quit snowing, I made a snowangel she was pretty with branches for wings and cut-out lips from a red pepper. She was the cutest little snow angel on the block.
The 2nd was 2003 (the BIG ONE - 36 inches)- that was probably the most devastating of the three because it had more snowfall and happened in the spring when trees were starting to bud - many branches were broken snapping power lines and tons of people were without electricity for days. I lost my phone line, but electricity stayed on.

Now the Holiday 2006 blizzard... 18 inches at my house - just a light dusting compared to some areas! This one has been hardest on DIA - you wouldn't believe the wind with this one. It caused drifts up to 12 feet high in some places - glad I didn't have to shovel that! I-70 was closed to the Kansas boarder until this afternoon trying to clear the drifts, and I know everyone had heard of the fiasco at DIA. I really feel for the travelers that have been stranded there since Wed and may not get out until Monday - some reports are saying it may take until Wed. I think I'd be renting a car!
I've passed the tiime by sorting my stacks that I never seem to have time for, knitting, talking on the phone, and shoveling.
I was working Wednesday when it started - I slid the whole way into work and I have a snow-friendly car - I knew it was going to be bad. There was so much nervous energy at work that day. I happened to be rounding at one of the local hospitals (only two miles from my house)- the nursing staff there were told that they could not leave until their replacement showed up, and if they were scheduled the next day, they must spend the night at the hospital or at a nearby hotel. If they went home and were not able to get back to work...big trouble. I just wanted to get everyone seen so I could get back home. I had left two pooches in my house - one of which (Lannie) saw the snow on the ground that morning and refused to go outside.
I got home around 3pm - Lannie refused a potty break until about 9 that night (probably close to 24 hours from her previous potty break) - she's really developed an aversion to the snow - I may need to get her a sweater and some booties -perhaps pink with rhinestones!

Flashback to earlier...Before leaving the hospital - I stayed a little later to help one of the docs - more moral support than anything... Anyway, he had a severe complication resulting in the need for emergency surgery for the patient... Unfortunately there was a blizzard going on outside. One of the three thoracic surgeons was in surgery, one stuck in traffic - standstill, the third not responding. Finally after 30 min or so of the poor pt receiving life saving measures, the staff working as hard as they could - the 3rd surgeon was found, arrived and took the patient to surgery. The doc I work with was devastated - understandably so... he was going to wait to leave until the surgery was over - very afraid that the paitient wouldn't make it and he wanted to be the one to tell the family. I haven't heard the outcome, but I really hope that when I return to work Tues that this guy's name is on our rounds list. I love all the snow, but this is really some of the scary complications that can come from it.

On to more cheery things. For some reason I LOVE these sproadic blizzards we get. I love shoveling - that's why I do it, even though the snow is still coming down in bucket fulls. On Thursday, all my neighbors were out shoveling at the smae time - it's the only time we really see each other in the winter. I like having the snow days from work - I mean really, in health care that is RARE! The one thing that hasn't been so good, is the eating... My pantry wasn't too well stocked and I've been in the mood to bake cookies - no eggs, flour or sugar...bummer! I did manage to walk through knee deep snow to get to 7-11 for chocolate chips, pretzels, milk and diet c*ke (must save the calories!).

Enough babbling... for more photos of the snow, check out Kittbo's blog. She's been out and about braving the roads. Seriously, you should check her's out - she has some cool photos of her view from her office looking downtown... Denver is beautiful when the sun comes out to shine on freshly fallen snow - stunning!!