Sunday morning I had to be at church at 8:00 so Jon made breakfast than took care of Ellie (I lay out her outfit and pack the diaper bag). We went to the worship service then Sunday School. During the second service snow started to come down, it was quite beautiful! I had to remain after the service for women's ministry stuff and by the time we were leaving the roads were completely covered and there was a line to get out of the church since we had to drive down one by one due to the lack of being able to stop at the end of the hill.
We carefully drove home and arrived without incident. After lunch Ellie napped for three hours (it was glorious) as I worked on Christmas gifts and Jon worked on researching our European vacation.
At five thirty Ryan Frey texted and said he would come down and plow our driveway (best neighbor ever). I had started a beef stew that would be ready by 6:30 so we invited him and Tara to join us for dinner. I threw some biscuits in the oven and they came by and we ate together. It's fun to have friends who are neighbors when we are snowed in!
The Freys hung around for a while - the boys researching stoves while the girls chatted by our fire. They said goodbye just as Ellie was losing it so she went to bed and Jon and I watched a movie - the ultimate snow day pass-time.
Monday morning we had a slow start after our "day off" yesterday. Jon went off to work and Ellie and I played with toys and got dressed in time to head to Elverson for lunch at Grandma's house! We dropped off Jon's lunch on our way out.
Grandma made lunch for us, Kelly and her kids, and the Iyas. Her sandwiches always hit the spot! Ellie knows what we do at Grandma's since she goes right up to her toys and turns on the "computer" one. After a few minutes she smacks her lips and walks to the kitchen. She was cranky so we were the first to leave but it is always our favorite way to spend lunch!
I cleaned up the house for my students who came at 2:00. Ellie wasn't ready to sleep yet but I put her down after the first of two lessons. She took another quick nap later that helped me get ready for dinner.
Since church was cancelled in the evening on Sunday due to the snow we didn't have our first choir rehearsal. Instead we had it Monday evening and Corinne and Daniel were coming to town for the event. I invited them for dinner and tried a new recipe on them, and they gave it a thumbs up. It was chicken, mashed potatoes, and salad. Following rehearsal they came back to our house and the boys played FIFA while Corinne and I worked on her Uganda skirt. They hung around for an hour or so and left since Daniel needed to study and sleep since it's his finals week.
Tuesday morning I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up to a blanket of snow! All of the local schools had cancelled and Jon decided on a two hour delay for work. Before he left I bribed him to go out in the snow with Ellie since she had never played in snow. I bundled her up and the three of us spent about ten minutes walking around. Ellie even helped shovel off the walkway (by standing in the way). Her favorite part of the snow was walking around and hearing the crunch under her feet. She walked around very seriously and quickly.
Once he went to work Ellie and I stayed home and I took full advantage of the snow day and sewed all day. I made Ellie a shirt and myself a skirt. Both were a bit of a flop but I definitely learned a lot.
Jon came home to a fabric covered kitchen and we ate dinner and I finished sewing after dinner before bedtime.
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| Modeling her new shirt |
Here's the new chicken recipe I tried. I used chicken breasts sliced down to a smaller size instead of chicken wings:
Japanese Chicken Wings
3 lbs. chicken wings, tips removed
1 egg
1/3 cup flour
1 cup butter
Sauce
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
3 Tbsp. water
1 cup white sugar
½ cup white vinegar
Cut wings in half.
Dip in slightly beaten egg and then in flour.
Fry in butter until deep brown and crisp.
Place in shallow roasting pan.
Mix all sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken wings.
Bake at 350 degrees for ½ hour.
Baste wings with sauce during cooking.
