Penny & Bob, Me, Randy, Mike & Rene, Rita & Denny
This has been the week for catching up with distant friends, as I heard from Rosemary, Leslie, and Arlene and also had a nice, long Google Duo chat with Tom.
I went to Ben’s on Monday afternoon and walked to the park with the girls. They were getting cabin fever being cooped up in the house and Ben and Jill were struggling to work. We had a nice time, playing tag and exploring the ice on the shore of Lake Harriet, throwing sticks and challenging each other to get the stick to slide the farthest. Camille won that one, then her hands were freezing, so we headed back home. Charlotte tripped and fell, blaming it on Norah, and scraped her knee. Norah felt bad and let her lean on her on the way back home.
I made a batch of fudge earlier in the week to share with the family and the next morning as I was putting walnuts in my oatmeal, I realized that they were not Gluten Free, so I packed up that batch and set it down in the lobby near the mailboxes for the residents to enjoy. It wasn’t long and it had disappeared.
The decision has finally been made that we will gather as a family, including Jill’s parents for Christmas Eve and Day dinners and gift exchanges, but will not have sleepovers as we have in the past. So I placed my last grocery order at Cub and picked it up on Tuesday night, so I will have ingredients to make scalloped potatoes and Cranberry cake for dinner on Christmas Day and another batch of fudge - this time with Gluten Free Almonds. The problem with nuts is that many are processed in plants that also process wheat products, thus there could be residue on the equipment.
Winter arrived yesterday when we went from a rainy 44 degrees to steady drops in temperature and blizzard conditions through the day. For quite a while, the snow was blowing sideways straight out of the north. I’m not sure how much snow we actually got but because of the high winds, there are a lot of bare areas. It is -2 degrees this morning and wind chills are expected to be in the -35 degree range. Frisco took care of business in no time this morning. I feel fortunate that most of December has been mild with no snow and above average temperatures.
