Carol here ~

I hope you all had a happy Christmas week.  We celebrated with the family on Saturday at Lucas and Vanessa's.  

Snacks, gifts, a late lunch of chicken on the grill, roasted potatoes and veggies, yeast bread, applesauce and too many cookies!

Here is the yearly photo of the grands.

L-R Evan, Kailey, Parker, Jakob

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday, the day after Christmas. I hope you all enjoyed the day as you wanted. 

We spent the day here at the house. I finished quilt #36 in the morning and added to the skating area I have cleared on the pond in the afternoon. The ice is so smooth just anywhere I want to shovel. I probably won’t clear any more though as I don’t use it after clearing it off. Maybe someone else will, the path goes over to another house on the pond where they often skate. Time will tell. 

It’s supposed to rain on Sunday and Monday and again later in the week so was probably just an exercise in getting exercise. Being someone who judges his day with what accomplishments I made, for now at least, I can look out the studio window and see what I did on Christmas Day. 

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday. It was a crisp and clear albeit windy day. Very windy. I went outside for a while but it was way too windy around the house as I was afraid my boney butt would blow away. If it were to have blown me onto the pond I would have gotten wet, as the edges of both ponds have open water. More on Mud pond than on Green. This morning I could watch the water rise and fall as the wind caused the ice to bounce up and down in time with the wind. The water has risen some but it is hard to determine how much. I would guess it has risen between one and two feet horizontally with the rain. With the ground frozen more of a rain event ends up in the pond. Hopefully, water level does not rise much more before winter really arrives. You got it time will tell, TWT.

Tonights sunset was pretty. 

Santa and Mrs Claus

Carol here ~ 

My sewing bud, Annie, was back again over the weekend.  She is continuing to sew 6" squares together practicing her 1/4" seam allowance.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday, it was a nice clear day compared to the last couple. Most of the snow is gone. Anyone else feel like a fool for spending the time clearing the snow when we got it? As I am unable to predict the future, in my opinion it was still worth it. At least the area is back to the tar now. We will see what we get next. Time will tell. I have no idea what is going on with the freezing of the pond. It froze, got snowed on, rained on and now refrozen. I guess I’ll check in a few days.

As many of you know I do the majority of the cooking here for Carol and I. I have been into cooking our favorite squash while it is available ~ Delicata squash.

A Recipe

Carol here ~ 

Daughter Erin and her friend Audrey often made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies during their school years. I did have the recipe at one time but thought Erin had taken it.  Every couple of years she asks me if I have the recipe and I tell her no, I thought you had it. 

She asked again a couple weeks ago as Audrey had asked her for the recipe.  Nope, I still don't have it.  Well, she must of hunted it down because I got a message from her with the recipe.  Yay!  

So, I have it now and will share with you here so I know where to find it when she asks me next time.

Dan's Ramblings

Dan here ~

Thursday evening. Today was a sloppy day. Pretty this evening though. 

It was snowing hard last evening and just starting to rain when I went to bed. By this morning most of the snow was gone and mostly slush remained. Carol and I had appointments to pick up new glasses this afternoon in Gray. I am still trying to see out of them. New progressive lenses seem to take awhile to find where the “sweet” spot is. Let’s just say, I haven’t found it yet. Time will tell.

Busy!

Carol here ~

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day at Lucas and Vanessa's, enjoying an early delicious dinner as Evan had to work and Parker was headed to New York City with his father.  

Erin, Kailey, Vanessa and I played a game of Yahtzee and a couple of games of Rummikub before we headed home.  At that point it was not yet snowing in Readfield but we quickly drove into snow.  Erin headed home to Rangeley the same time as we headed to Oxford, we received a text from her saying she had hoped to get to Farmington before she hit blizzard conditions but she drove into them shortly after leaving Vanessa's. We all arrived home safe and sound.

Since downsizing and moving here to the pond we have no space for a Christmas tree so we brought our box of ornaments, lights etc. to Thanksgiving for Vanessa and Erin to go through and take what they wanted. (thank you to my friend Martha for this idea)

All four of the grands asked if the doorknob Santa was in the box.  Yes, yes he was.