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Holiday and End of 2014

A little before Christmas Stacy wanted to make some more holiday treats. She'd already made a couple of batches of caramel candies earlier and we thought to tackle some divinity, a favorite of mine as it is a childhood favorite my grandmother used to make.
Photo above I'm in charge of the mixer as the ingredients get mixed.
Photo below, the first batch with the first 6, the ones that look like paint drops, not mixed quite enough. They still tasted good though! And the others after mixing a bit longer. Stacy did the ones that look like they should, mine are the scary looking ones in this batch since I couldn't get the mix to fall off the spoon cleanly. Those still tasted good too!
With this new baking push, and at my request, Stacy agreed to try a batch of shortbread cookies. One of my favorite cookies next to chocolate chip, I thought they came out great! I couldn't decide what cookie cutter to use so I used a hand and a fish, this was after all experimental!
Stacy had tried to use a cookie tube with a shaped die to squeeze out the cookies in the shape of an old fashioned scallop like many of these cookies used to come as but that method just caused grief as they wouldn't cleanly stick to the parchment paper so most of the dough became hands and a few fish.
The photo below was just coincidental of the 'broken hand' when daughter Laura called and told us how she'd cut her hand at work earlier that day. I texted her this photo but she wasn't amused.
Below was Christmas eve when we had the first substantial snowfall of the season and in snowing assuring a white Christmas for the area. It had actually been a concern for a lot of people, would there or wouldn't there be snow on Christmas. Even some wagers being talked about on the area news but snow it did.



The above set of photos were all from the Christmas eve snow in our forest with the directly above photo being Stacy's tire tracks as she went out the driveway for the half day of Christmas eve at work. 

The photos below are after the heavier snow came through on the 27th with myself and Stacy going out to clear some areas like behind the vehicles, pathways to the house and clear the driveway while the snow was still fresh and powdery. 
Below, while the quad snow plow rig is warning up this was the view of the about 8 inches of snow I was about to tackle. Stacy had already cleared behind the Chevy so I could take the snow away more easily.

Above is Stacy working on clearing behind the Prius with one of our snow shovels. It took us a little over an hour to get everything cleared and plowed. The photo below is the all cleared driveway and how it looks from the street.
Christmas 2014 was fine, first thing in the morning Stacy had a video call from Sandy that made her very happy which made me very happy too! We had gotten a few things for each other but this year neither of us wanted very much. We had wanted to take care of grandkids mainly. A Pebble smartwatch for me and some sewing supply items for Stacy. 
We spent the day watching the last of the new Hallmark Channel holiday movies on the DVR and just had a nice day. And no turkey or ham this year, Stacy made an excellent Prime Rib this year that I loved, and since I'm the only meat eater it lasted over a week.
With the damper of my laser surgery on the 12th, this Christmas was overall good but subdued because of me. Next year will be better!
We can't wait and are looking forward to spring and getting to try out the new trailer. Yes, there is often talk about "cabin fever" especially with the cold, snow and really short days, but we had the same thing back in California.
The high desert was not like being down in the valley! In the valley it could be in the 60s and short sleeves comfortable, up in the desert could be very windy and in the 30s or 40s! I remember all too well wearing my long parka at work and still freezing as I stood outside getting gas for the work truck with the cold wind blowing. Going out to feed the animals we had at the time it was every morning it was chip away the top frozen layer of their water containers so they could drink during the day. And with winter temps like that, even with never much rain, you still couldn't do too much outside and we spent a lot of off time in the house.
I hope the readers had a good holiday season!
Tad

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