first days of winter

Posted on December 23rd, 2015 by mountain girl  |  5 Comments »

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Yesterday we got an unexpected little snow to celebrate the beginning of winter.

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I gave chocolate chip cookies in the mountains another try–but the altitude obviously hasn’t changed lately. We affectionately dubbed them “waffle cookies” and scarfed them all.

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Zia is helping me make that messenger bag she wanted from Oliver + s.Ā  We made a girl-only trip out for lunch and to the fabric store, and she picked out a hot pink vinyl for the exterior, zebra fabric for the lining, and four fancy appliques to decorate it. She’s a conservative one, that girl.

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The kids and I made snowflakes–I finally looked up some tutorials and learned how it’s actually done. Our snowflakes no longer come out square, LOL.

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This is the first time Caleb is spending his winter break with us. I made him a stocking and hung it up with Zia’s and Cash’s, and when he saw it, he immediately took it took down and tried it on. šŸ™‚ It fits great.

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He actually has a slightly better pair of footwear, though…

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We wanted to buy him a pair of cowboy boots, and he picked out these sweet black ones with python skin inlays.

Cash wanted a soap Spider-Man, so I carved a face and we painted it.

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I ordered a skirt from Thailand and it was supposed to be here by the end of January. It came yesterday! Pics to come, later.

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It feels good to have passed the shortest day of the year, and I’m really looking forward to watching the days grow longer.

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Happy first days of winter!

5 Responses to “first days of winter”

  1. Jennifer Miller says on :

    Your snowflakes are so cool looking. Let me ask my mom for the ratio’s for baking at altitude. I don’t remember them. That was my chore growing up was to make cookies for the up coming weeks lunches.

  2. mountain girl says on :

    Thanks, Jennifer–if I could find a cookie recipe that works at this altitude (92000 ft) that would be great! I did some altitude substitutions for a while, but we kept getting “cakey” cookies–nice and tall, but not with that nice chewy-gooey texture. I haven’t given up hope yet, though. šŸ™‚

  3. Granny says on :

    Actually those cookies look pretty yummy. I love thos boots, Caleb. They are awesome. Looking forward to seeing pics of your new skirt Mia.

  4. Lauryn says on :

    Hi Mia! I know this is a post from a long time ago but every once in awhile it’s fun to go back through and look at all the picture and stuff. You might not even see this. But i wanted to let you know that when ever my sister and i bake we add a little milk to the recipe and turn up the temperature up about 20 degrees. It doesn’t always work but every once in awhile we get a perfect batch.:)

  5. mountain girl says on :

    Hi Lauryn!
    Thanks for the tip! Once in a while the substitutions do come out right–I just baked a (gluten-free) white cake and it came out really perfect (although we haven’t tasted it yet–it’s in the freezer for Zia’s school birthday celebration). I would be super happy to get a good batch of choc. chip cookies to come out right–I’ll remember the milk & temp adjustments. šŸ™‚