An Evening Out

 After spending the day at my in-laws on Saturday, I drove to our son's home. We had all planned on driving into town to take in the Mountain Christmas Light Parade. Sadly, a case of food poisoning kept him from joining us so we made it a girls' night.

The weather could not have been more perfect. Coats and hats were needed, but no wind, and not so cold that you couldn't enjoy it.

We found hot pretzals and warm beverages as we waited for the parade to begin

We popped into a few shops and did a little shopping. The shops were all decked out and E loved this pink tree

Parade time!

Looks like there is a new sheriff in town

You know you're in a small town when the parade includes a road grader. 😂

After the parade, we strolled through the park 

And enjoyed more lights

We all 'deer-ly' enjoyed ourselves. 😉

It was the perfect way to kick off the Christmas Season!

What's Cookin'?

 I've been somewhat of a lazy cook since Thanksgiving, but we've kind of been on the go. On Monday, DH had an appointment in one town and drove another 2 hours to another town to look at some pipe.

I was in town on Tuesday to meet a friend for lunch and a long visit and to run a couple of quick errands. DH worked on some plumbing at the barn.

Wednesday, DH was gone again to pick up the load of pipe for fence and the orchard

Thursday, DH drove to Canyon (4 hours one way), to pick up our horse trailer that we had taken in for a new floor. Well that was the plan until it snowed so we spent the morning burning and tending to brush piles.

So Friday we made the 8 hour round trip to get the trailer. 

Saturday was the 1st day of a 5 day elk hunt for my father-in-law. So we were up at 3:30 and drove to their home. I stayed with my mother-in-law and put out some Christmas decorations for her, did a little cleaning, and cooked for them. My MIL was upset because she was certain someone had stolen her little Christmas tree. I spent quite a bit of time hunting in the attic and was successful in finding the tree and lights. I ordered the missing star and it should arrive tomorrow.

While searching for the missing tree, I discovered a huge bin of Christmas fabrics and I would LOVE to make Christmas quilts for the kids from this bin. They are all from the 70's and 80's.  I think they would be extra special to both kids. My MIL no longer sews, but she's not quite ready to let things go just yet and I want to respect her wishes, but I felt like I had opened a treasure chest. 🥰

That evening, I had another event I attended that I'll post about on Wednesday.

So I titled this post What's Cookin' so you're probably thinking so what DID she cook?

The day I was in town, I just made some Taco meat and grated some cheese so DH could have a Taco Salad or Tacos (an old photo)

I made Pumpkin Pie Spice Snickerdoodles

Then I made 4 batches of Whiskey Praline Pecans

I made a big batch of Sloppy Joes, coleslaw and fried potatoes on Saturday at my in-laws.

Then I made these Sugar Crack Cookies for the first time

Yesterday we were back at my in-laws'. I fixed Cornpone Pie, corn, and a salad

Cinnamon Apple Twists with ice cream for dessert

And in an attempt to keep my MIL engaged I asked her to help me with some baking. She used to do so much, but no longer does any and I knew they would enjoy some familiar Christmas favorites...we started with Pecan-Rolo-Pretzals

And then moved to Peanut Clusters (recycling an old photo)

I got a smile out of her so I'm calling that a win

Today, as this posts we will be making fudge.

Snow Day

I guess I should have waited a day to take the pictures of the Christmas quilt I posted yesterday because this morning we woke up to this

The mountain had disappeared into the clouds

When you hear 'Snow Day' what do you think?

 Curl up under a quilt with a good book? Sew? Do a little baking? Sit by the fire?

The answer? None of the above. Although I did spend time by the fire.

DH came in at 7 and said he was burning the brush piles and would I please monitor the one below the house while he went to burn others.

So I slipped into shoes and went out in my jammies. It wasn't very cold - 29 and it was super toasty next to the fire

Once it had burned down enough, I trotted back up to the house and changed into real clothes, grabbed gloves, donned my Stormy Kromer hat, threw a shovel over my shoulder and climbed into the Can-Am next to Skeet. DH had 7 piles burning 

and we went around with a pitchfork and shovel  

tossing outlying pieces into the middle

Not a great picture, but I had been working and that fire is hot!

Skeet has always loved the snow

At 9, 

he still acts like a puppy

when the ground is white

It was an absolutely beautiful day

And I think we'll sleep well tonight!

Hashtag Christmas

When I saw this pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew, I immediately thought it would make a great scrappy Christmas quilt.

I made a different scrappy Christmas quilt in 2018 

And I thought it was time to make another and hopefully whittle down my Christmas fabrics a little.

I like that the pieces in this block are big enough to show the fabrics.

The white is a white on white print from my fabric pantry called Architextures.

I made the first block in January and finally pieced it all together and handed it off to Jackie and Sandy in August. The fun quilting design called Holly Ribbon is perfect and shows so nicely on the Minky I used on the back

The fabric I used for the binding is from my pantry too...it was $2.00 / yd at a quilt shop that was closing probably 10 years ago and I bought what was on the bolt...probably about 8 yards. 

I really like this pattern and I think I now need flannel, western, and fall versions. At 75" x 85", it'll be a great cuddle quilt. 

The kids can decide which one they want. As soon as I hung the quilt out on the deck, it began to snow

It was 44 out, too warm to stick

The flakes were itty-bitty

                                                     

           

And the sun was shining through the clouds

It makes me happy that the kids request and enjoy and use the quilts. One day they will be saturated, but they haven't reached that point yet! 😉