Random Glimpses of December

 I think December may be one of the best months of the year! We love it around here - except for the negative degree temps this year!  Those temps led to soup. Benny LOVED helping me make this yummy soup. I put it in the crock pot when Michael and I went out for our three hours of respite. 

Bella is such a great big sister to Jojo. 

📷by BreAnne

I do love these snuggly, cozy winter days. While I blogged both girls worked on novels they are writing. 

Allie, Stacia and Millie 

Allie sold her truck. They came to pick it up on one of the coldest; snowiest days of the years. The gals uncle picked it up and surprised us by showing up early. 

Millie still doesn't consistently bring Grandpa his paper, but we're working on the trick. 

Sweet Danny!

This is the time of year when I'm hard press to keep the hot drink mixes made. See those big mugs? 30 ounces - it takes commitment to drink a cup of cocoa that big! 

Aunt Mary sent the girls dresses...

Game night! 

Stacia, Tim, Allie

A blessing! 

Bre made a sugar free/reduced coco bomb for me. Yummy. 

Krista made an assortment of coco bombs too. These are all so cute. I am going to have to have the girls show me how to make them. I've noted it's much less mess at the drink station when folks simply throw one in their mug! LOL 

Some of Krista's bombs

Michael watching Millie as Millie watches the Christmas Goodies. 

It's hard to believe we are already moving into January...the days are getting longer by 2 minutes every day! I'd best get started on other winter projects.

Christmas Steve Tea, Urgent Care and Cocoa Bombs

We have an annual Christmas ADAM (as in Dec 23rd, the day before Christmas EVE) tea.  The 23rd didn't work - so we moved it to the 28th (briefly) and then to the 30th.  We decided it should be called the Christmas Steve Tea - inspired by the Alec Benjamin song titled Steve (linked).  The song satirically looks at what may have happened if there had been another person there to tell Adam, "Dude! Stop. Oh, you want what you can't have, but you've got all the things you need. There was Adam, there was Eve and there was Steve." It actually reflects the plot line of CS Lewis' Perelandra. 

The roads had us wondering if the Christmas Steve tea would be cancelled today...but the roads  were fine.

My mom started the Christmas Adam Tea in 2015. I have continued it because I like having a chance to get the girls together and I do it and remember mom. 

Stacia, Arielle & Danny, Allie, Benny, Krista

As you can tell - all my gals couldn't make it. Carrie had a migraine, so she and Liv stayed home. Bre, Bella and Annie stayed home as we had a health issue in our house this a.m. and we weren't sure if it was contagious when the decision was made. 

Stacia did a great job pulling out the food we'd made, setting everything up...because see Allie and I WERE AT THE URGENT CARE AGAIN.  That's 3x in 9 days. 

Allie & Me - regulars at the Urgent Care

Allie came up the stairs this morning and her face was red. Her neck, knees, crook of her elbows, hands had a red bumpy rash. I took one look at her and said, "Get ready. We're going to urgent care." 

She replied, "If you want to see Rob, maybe we should just have them to dinner." ::snort:: 

We were not home at noon when the tea was to begin. We could not believe we were in urgent care again. Rob believes Allie has an amoxicillin rash. We had discussed her mother's allergies to antibiotics before she began taking them for her throat and before surgery. She finished the meds and two days later the rash appeared.  She's got some meds to flush out the toxins, she's got instructions for building her immune system which took a hit with surgery, and we'll see a specialist to confirm which drug she is allergic too. We are all fairly sure it's the amoxicillin. I took photos to show the specialist. 

It's been one week since Allie's surgery. She's doing great! We were happy she'd gained two lbs since our last Urgent Care appointment. She's on the mend. 

We came home expecting the tea to be over. I told Allie I only hoped they'd saved me a scone. They did better than that. Krista and Arielle were here. They were watching a movie. They waited for us to get home for tea and treats.  It turns out we had five females at the girl's tea and four males. LOL It was an odd year for the tea all the way around. 

"I LOVE tea!"

I had a local potter make teacups for everyone this year in keeping with our goal to shop local. I try to gift the girls with a cup each year.  These turned out great. They are a bit bigger and thicker than the typical teacup. She was going to glaze them white with a butterfly. I love the glazes on her mugs and asked her if she could use that glaze. We love them. Some look like mountains, all have a northern lights vibe going on. 

Krista brought her mold and all the things needed to show us how to make Cocoa Bombs.  I think we can do this. They turn out pretty. I envision a Chai Bomb.

Melt chocolate and fill mold

Fill half, melt 2nd half

Assemble the two halves

Rub around the seam so chocolate forms a seam

Drizzle toppings 

Not only are they PRETTY, but they also take the mess away from hot chocolate breaks. No more spilled bits of chocolate at the tea station. 

I had 1/2 a roast left in the fridge from an earlier meal. I added BBQ sauce to it, made a salad, cut up fruit and wala - dinner!

Michael, Grandpa, the girls and I ended our evening watching 2 episodes of "Lost in Space." 

I cannot believe this is December 30th! I suddenly realized while at the docs we have New Year's Eve to pull off tomorrow.  I've got a plan...pizza, munchies, gingerbread competition and FIREWORKS at about 8 p.m. as the littles won't make it until midnight and we don't want the Anchorage/Eagle River crew driving home late. 

AND 2021 is blogged. I have 2 posts I'm "holding." 

Loaded Baked Omelet Muffins

Jacque shared the idea of a loaded baked omelet with me and they were a hit! I made some dairy free, some plain, some loaded with veggies and others with meat. Once they are baked, I double wrap and pop them in the freezer.  Everyone could pull them out, warm them up and enjoy....a healthy breakfast on the run. 

I found this basic recipe here at  skinnytaste.com. 

INGREDIENTS:

9 large eggs

1/4 tsp sea salt

pepper

Suggested toppings: 

cooked, chopped bacon

spinach or kale

diced tomatoes

diced onion

diced bell pepper

diced mushrooms

cheese

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350*. Spray muffin pans with cooking spray. Silicone muffin pans work well. 

Whisk the eggs, salt and pepper. 

Mix in the toppings you have chosen. 

Fill and place on a cookie sheet and bake 20 - 25 minutes, until set.

Notes: 

Recipe ways it makes 6...when I used 18 eggs, I got more than 12 omelets so they would be less calories than listed below. 

Easy breakfast for a school morning 

Serving size - 2 omelets; Calories 165;  Carbs 2.5 g;  Protein 14 g; Fat 11 g; Saturated fat 4.5g; Cholesterol 289mg; sodium 367 mg

 

Coop Cleaning Day

Michael and I took advantage of the warm weather to clean off the poop shelf in the chicken coop, shovel out all the shavings, and put new shavings down. They seemed appreciative of our efforts on their behalf. 

 We dumped one load in the compost bed and scattered the other over the ice and mud in this sheltered part of the chicken yard. They finally came outside. They've been inside since it started snowing.  The first two years the chickens were outside most the winter, but these are content to stay in. These haven't had any frostbite even when we were down to -16*. We don't like the freezing rain and ice...but it IS nice to have warmer weather to get out and do a few of the animal chores. 

Stacia and Millie must have been up late last night. I thought it was funny she was sleeping with one arm around her laptop and the other around Millie. 

WSA CGO of the Quarter

 Every quarter across the Air Force each base gives out awards for the best performance in a multitude of categories.  Each group's winner will compete at the wing (base) level.  

Today, Krista was notified she has been selected as the Wing Staff Agency's (WSA)  Company Grade Officer (CGO) of the Quarter. Her package will now compete against all the other CGO winners across the base. 

Krista has presented 61 suicide prevention trainings and another 40 that she oversaw. She has done 38 sexual assault prevention response trainings.  She has lots of counseling hours, written a zillion religious exemptions, led a service, planned and executed many resiliency events for the med group, coordinated and helped lead funeral training for both the Air Force and the Space Force, planned and executed a parenting retreat and I know there are many details I have forgotten. 

I asked for a photo....

We are proud of Krista! This is quite an accomplishment for a new chaplain. She's been busy the last 7 months. 

A fun side note - Krista is well known and loved in the Med group. She spends quite a bit of time in her unit and at the hospital. One day a volunteer at produce co-op asked me if my daughter was an active-duty chaplain.  She had noted the same last name before Krista got married. It was fun to see Krista through the eyes of one of med group. 

Septics, Produce & Coco Bombs

I'm sure this was not the best day for this...but it's the day they scheduled for us two months ago.  It is said one should pump their septic every 2 years. We've had several families living here and we haven't pumped for 4 years. It was time.  I think we're safe to do this every 3 or 4 years. 

The poor man got stuck trying to climb out of our icy driveway. Michael and Alex had shoveled, but when it rains, melts, freezes....there is only so much that can be done. 

It would have been interesting watching him climb to the top of the driveway and slide back...except I needed to be at produce co-op and had to wait until he cleared the driveway. 

Michael drove me to the next town over. I haven't had to have him drive me anywhere in 2 winters, but I don't like ice at all.  Michael and Dad went out to lunch, ran some errands and then drove out to Big Lake to buy FIREWORKS for New Year's Eve. 

I spent four hours with lists of produce, sorting, bagging, labeling, delivering... when we got home Arielle and the boys were here! 

Broccoli Cheese Soup tomorrow

We visited. Michael immediately ran out again. Cy found an ice auger for sale from a man north of us. Michael went to pick it up.  

I made soup and biscuits while he was out. It was tasting good, but a bit blah. The girls were retelling their afternoon adventures to me while I cooked...I just kept putting salt into the pot. I lost track of how many spoonsful of Better than Bullion I put into the pot. Too many.  Even Dad said it was salty. ::snort:: 

Allie update: She was up once last night due to pain. She has settled into Tylenol and took the normal dosage of it. She was up, out and about most of the day.  Her appetite is returning. She was sore tonight but feeling good about her improvement. We're proud of her. 

It's raining outside. It will freeze. We've already decided we will stay in tomorrow.  It seemed like the perfect night for hot drinks. We opted for coco bombs made by CoCo (Krista). 

We settled down to watch something on Netflix. I fell asleep halfway through it. Oh well, I tried. 

Another Lazy Day

It's a four moose kind of day! Two of them weren't even memorable enough to take photos of. LOL  I've been seeing lots of tracks in the yard, but we haven't been seeing them until the last few days.  When Cy and Michael were shoveling the path out to my compost bed they mentioned the tracks went right up to the bed. They said it appears I've been serving a buffet to the moose population. They may have a point. This little one was cute. 

Snow! I opened the door (this is 9 a.m. BTW) to go to the chickens and rabbit and was met with a wall of snow.  It didn't snow overnight. It warmed up yesterday, it rained yesterday afternoon and evening and the snow had begun sliding off our roof. It makes an amazing noise when it does this. I had to dig out a path to the chicken yard and then shovel out the door as the snow had piled against the coop. We've learned to park my car away from the house, so it doesn't get buried....

At the back of the house there isn't much we can do to avoid the mess. This was a clear path on the 25th. Today it's a pile of snow. LOL 

Remember that clearly defined path to my garden/compost bed? It's still there, after the hill of snow is navigated. LOL  It was 31* this morning...things are going to melt and be a mess. I much prefer snow to ice. 

The sunset was beautiful this morning - 9:41 a.m.

An Allie update - For the first night she and I slept through the night. I woke her at 7 to get some Tylenol in her as it had been 9 hours. She was happy to take the Tylenol and get ice for an hour before she got up and showered. She kept her Tylenol OR Ibuprofen down to every SIX hours...this from alternating meds every three hours. She was up more today, but still spends quite a bit of time sitting with an ice pack. Her throat feels better.  Her appetite is returning. She's getting bored. She insisted on making lunch today. Slow and steady. She's doing great. 

I got a late work out today...and as I trudged away on the elliptical this gal jumped right over the retaining wall and headed down the nicely shoveled path to the compost bed. Yep, she enjoyed a leisurely lunch before moving on. 

Michael and I filled the day with shoveling. He also worked on a puzzle and we both helped Grandpa. I wrote several September blogs and linked a couple which may still be of interest on Facebook. My goal is to be current with 2021 on January 1st.  The girls spent hours on the couches writing. They are both working on novels. Grandpa took a long nap. He's paying a price for his Christmas sugar indulgence. 

Jared called. 

Nolan, the girls and I watched "Arsenic and Old Lace." 

Another lazy day drawing to an end.