cold without, busywarmth within

Actually, it's been pretty cold inside too. (The frost on the window in the picture is inside our house.) Our poor overworked furnace isn't doing so well keeping our house warm. Considering that it's currently -15 degrees with a windchill of -31 degrees, we are not surprised. Still, we moved our mattress out to the living room where the gas fireplace keeps the chilly air slightly more at bay.

Yesterday we got somewhere between 6 and 12 inches of snow--it's hard to tell how much it actually was because the wind blew it all into drifts, so in some places it is much shallower, and in others it is significantly deeper. It is so beautiful! I am excited to have white Christmas...

Little Man loved watching the snow fall (he also loves crackers with peanut butter, can you tell?). I wish I could have taken him out to play in the snow, but I didn't think it would be wise to take him out in the bitter cold.

Yesterday was just the day for sitting curled up reading (or blogging), but I resisted the urge and instead finished a couple of projects whose looming deadline (today) prompted my self-denial. ; ) Not that they weren't fun too...

The first project that I finished was a custom Christmas card for a lady in our church who wanted to give it to a coworker for a Secret Santa deal. (I blotted out their names in the picture, because some people are nervous about the Internet, and I didn't have the chance to ask permission.)

She gave me the wording she wanted in it, and as you can see, I turned it into a festive calligraphy card. I decided to mount the words on a fairly simple background and am so pleased with the classy way it turned out.


I also finished a baby quilt as a gift at a baby shower I attended today. It is bright. I think I am going to call it "cherry rose pinwheels". "Cherry" because that's what the bright pink and green remind me of, rose because of the tiny rosebud print that pulls it all together.

We finished off the evening by going over to our friends' house (the ones I took family pictures of) where we made home made ravioli. Mmmmm...my husband is an amazing cook!

We were excited to use the new pasta roller they got us for Christmas. We have been wanting a pasta roller for years now, and when they brought it out to give to us, I was almost speechless! It works so quickly and efficiently rolls out sheets of pasta that what would normally take a lot of time and effort.

Tonight our church had its annual Sunday School Christmas program. My husband and mom teamed up to write and direct it, and it went so well! I was so proud of them. Little Man was a cute little sheep, but sadly, I forgot my camera, so I have no photos. :(

I am looking ahead to another full week as I am hoping to finish my Christmas baking and make deliveries of plates of cookies. In addition, we are playing at the nursing home of Tuesday. We also have a small Christmas concert at a local coffee shop on Friday evening! I'm so excited!

I should close this long post and move on to my menu planning!