Chocolatey Peanut Butter on Vanilla Wafers and other Wintery Delights

Scott is having a ping pong date with a local buddy, so I am having a date with my blog. I tell you what, it is AMAZING what can get accomplished in an afternoon when one chooses NOT to touch the computer or her cell phone. It's a love/hate thing for me.... I feel more productive and happy with myself when I steer clear of such technology and communication devices and yet I LOVE email, blogging, and keeping up with folks on the phone. What's a girl to do? Needless to say, I've been a bit lagging on my verbal descriptions of life due to the productive side of me winning lately.

But since I have the writing bug now, let me indulge in a few random updates.

#1) I have developed a new (desperate) snack. When my sweet tooth is a raging and no major Christmas baking/candy-making has been accomplished to provide sugar at my beckoning call, I have found myself opening and closing cabinets - the same ones - over and over at around 8:00pm each night. A few nights ago, I FOUND IT. THE perfect bad-for-me-and-probably-for-my-baby-too snack... Simple recipe: place several (oh, alright a ridiculous amount of) chocolate morsel along with two heaping scoops of peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave until melted and gooey. Proceed to dip either vanilla wafers (my fav) or pretzels in substance. Then, lean back and let your belly just hang out (not a pregnancy-specific set of instructions!).
I'm eating my concoction right now. Mmmm.

#2) The Minnesota snow has made its first REAL mark. We've had an inch here and there that never made its presence lasting previous to this weekend. But on Saturday night it really started going. It was the REALLY fine, REALLY light kind, so we don't have serious depth.... but it's the kind that sticks. And, given our temperatures in the low to mid 20s, it's the kind that STAYS. We have been told that, after the first REAL snow of the season, you can expect a white coat THE REST OF THE WINTER (well, some of you folks might even call it Spring.... thru part of April anyway!). I actually woke up this morning and ran all the way to the TV to check if school was delayed. Yeah, right. I asked in class today if today was the kind of day where you could expect for some sort of delay or cancellation. My kids said, "Mrs. Arthur, it's gonna take a lot more than this." RATS.

#3) Given the wintery weekend outside, you can imagine what an ABSOLUTE BLAST I had in my home decorating once we returned from Thanksgiving. Hot cocoa. Fluffy robe. Christmas CDs blaring. Bare in mind, I have two homes' worth of Christmas fun to decorate with; I proudly inherited the product of my mother's years of holiday collecting. She loved Christmas. And I have inherited that passion as well. In fact, the first Christmas Scott and I were married I remember feeling so confused about how our decorating day unfolded. It went something like this: Scott brought up the boxes from the basement in lightning speed. And he proceeded to randomly disperse decorations on any surface at an equal lightning speed (I had to explain to him that if the nativity scene went on the toilet base, baby Jesus had a strong chance of ending up in the Cleveland sewers! Who puts Jesus ON THE TOILET???) . By the time he was ready to lay horizontally on the couch - his portion of the decorating "job" decidedly complete -and proceed with a relaxed Saturday of TV-watching, I hadn't even finished carefully unwrapping, then gazing sentimentally, then hanging the first of about a bagillion ornaments! Let's just say, I LIKE TO MAKE AN EVENT of the decorating. Scott (and most men???) look at it as a job to be completed as quickly as possible.

My husband has spent the last four years transforming his view of the big decorating day as a gift to me. If he had it his way, he'd still have the whole thing haphazardly completed in 20 minute's time. But he humors me - and I really believe he even has inadvertently tricked himself into loving the day's tradition.

Two very specific moments that I loved were: when I stood back and gazed at our beautiful mantle in the formal living room and had a "oh-my-gosh" experience (we hung a stocking for "sesame" and also decided we wanted duncan's present this year againt too - making a total of 5 oversized socks dangling away) in thinking that ALL THOSE STOCKINGS belonged to OUR family, MY family (I'm an adult. I'm a wife. I'm a mom. Scott and I are creating a LIFE and a FAMILY together - does anyone else get these weirdo moments?) AND (moment #2) when Jackson happened upon the framed matted set of 8 or so photos of Mom from the time she was a baby to her most recent pics (this had been created for her visitation and the GGs brought it along for me to keep when they visited... i had moved it around when we were holiday decorating) and he plopped down in front of the glass pointing to each of her faces saying a two syllable baby-version of "Grand-Jan." Precious moment.

Anyway, Saturday was it for us. And it looks like Christmas just EXPLODED in here. How did it EVER fit in my quaint little cape cod home in Clintonville? It must've tripled on the moving trip.
Yeah, that's it.

#4) Remember when I posted about "circling the pool" and not knowing when/how to jump in here in Rochester? Here are my decisions... drum role... I have applied to be a Girl Scout leader and am in the process of gathering my 4th grade girls for my troop! YEY! I have contacted the community coordinator of the Ronald McDonald House here in Rochester and will begin serving as a welcome volunteer immediately following the pregnancy (looking forward to April as my start time!). I put my hat in the ring and accepted the position as "welcome team member" (it sounds more official than it is) for the Moms and More group I've grown involved in (I can see future leadership here being a good thing for me - awesome group of intelligent, interesting, caring women). I am corralling some ladies from Scott's work and my work to consider a book club starting January at our home. I feel good. Progress has been made.

#5) Grandma Lynette is visiting Wed. YEY!

#6) Update on Dad: He is marrying on Jan 11. He and Nancye will have a very small and private ceremony in Charlotte, NC (where my uncle lives, who will marry them) and then head on down to Hilton Head for a honeymoon. They are busy reorganizing their condos to squeeze into one and joining together for Christmas plans.

Scott is back home. And I have done NOTHING productive while he was gone. See how dangerous the computer can be? Over and out.