Category: snow

Maple Taffy

So it’s been snowing ALL DAY and the kids came straight home from school today and I’ve not seen them inside yet….

I was trying to think up a fun snack for them and I wondered if it would be easy to make maple taffy and really….it couldn’t be easier.

You need real maple syrup and snow.

Okay, you need to boil the maple syrup first, but really that’s not difficult. Most of the articles that I read mentioned a need for a candy thermometer but I just winged it and VOILA…….

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You boil the maple syrup for a while. It needs to get over 260 degrees Fahrenheit and it needs to thicken up a little, so I probably boiled it for about 10 mins.

Then I took my pot outside and found some clean snow and using a spoon, drizzled some onto the snow. Then I called Jeremy over and asked him to eat some of my yellow snow – which he emphatically declined….until I mentioned that it was maple candy.

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Here it is in the snow….

And after a few seconds….it comes out more solid, like this…..

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And after you’ve taken a big, chewy bite, it looks more like this…

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It’s chewy like toffee but tastes like maple syrup. So Delicious and so easy.

Have you made this before? Am I just really behind the times?

(part 2 of “Getting away from it all” coming soon)

Sandal Weather

So today is our LOOOOONGEST day of the week.

Typically we leave the house at 7:30am and then get home around 9:30pm. Today being Daylight Saving’s Time – it coulda been horrific, BUT….my in-laws decided to re-arrange the service schedule and only have one service at 11am today and that meant that we didn’t have to even wake up until 8am and then we left at 9:30am…..so SO nice.

On these LOOOOOOOONG days, we usually go over to Jon’s parents house and put the kids down (and ourselves) for an afternoon nap. I LOVE SUNDAY AFTERNOON NAPS…..when you eat a delicious lunch and then crawl into a cold bed and it gets all warm and snuggly and you feel so delicious…..Mmmmmm!

Any way, we all went down to their basement and crawled in our beds. it wasn’t a super nice day today, but it wasn’t a horridly dreary rainy wet day either. It was bright and dry and just a little chilly.

There are no windows in this basement and so it’s nice and dark. We went to sleep and when we woke up – BOY! Were we in for a huge shock.

There was almost 2 inches of snow on the ground. It was absolutely dumping big fat heavy clumpy drops of snow. It had started after we went to sleep. It was so bizarre to have woken up that morning, slipped some sandals on and thrown a sweater over your shoulders and headed off for the day and then to be needing snow boots, or at the very least, just a pair of shoes……

We drove home tonight wondering what the weather would be like out here, because we are further inland and……NOTHING. Not even a skiff of snow…..but one report said that the low tomorrow could be down at -14. And here we are just 2 weeks from Spring. Too funny!

What was the weather like today, where you’re from?

Un-Official Snow Day

I went to work yesterday in sandals and didn’t wear or even take a jacket. Now, I was wearing this scarf (in a dark red), but……as lovely as it is, it’s not quite the same as a coat.

So, as I was saying….I left the house dressed for spring. It was a raining just a little, but reallly not too bad. I didn’t even put a coat on Siah as I figured that we wouldn’t be outside (underground parking) and so, if I didn’t have to drag more stuff around……BONUS!

During the afternoon, it started snowing. By the time I was ready to leave work, it was FREEZING COLD! To walk across the breezeway was BRUTAL! It was SO COLD!

I headed home and it took me over an hour and half. One car had made it into the ditch, but mostly the delay was due to all the people TERRIFIED by the skiff of snow on the ground. Now, I will admit that by the time I made it out to Abbotsford, even I was slipping a little – but I did make it home safetly.

This morning, the kids were desperatly hoping for a snow day, and I was desperatly hopinig that there wouldn’t be one, and when the first child pulled up the district website and read the news….there was cheering from the mom and dad’s bedroom the disappointment was so think you could almost taste it.

The kids did manage to pull themselves together and get themselves ready for school, and at the last minute, Jon turns to me and whispers if we shouldn’t just keep them home today. I just about sucker punched him then and there because what it sounded like he was saying was,

“How about if I tell the kids they can stay home all day and get into everything that you are trying to do with your day at home? They will create more mess than a bunch of stay cats, and I will go down into my hole of an office and leave you to deal with all the hassle of everything, but I will look like the good guy and they will love me because I suggested that they get the day off? What do you think?”

I gave him the “one raised eyebrow look” that says more than words could say and he said that he would in fact help out with the kids and not just leave it all on me.

And so……..the kids got a snow day today!

They are so excited and it’s some exta special time that we are getting to spend with them which I think is awesome because we’ve been SOOOOO busy with my working and all the travel and with our Sunday’s being a work day instead of a family day and so……today is a nice bonus in the middle of everything. Not something planned, but something appreciated and treasured and just grabbed a hold of and enjoyed.

We even took some pictures, as it was Siah’s official first time out playing in the snow.

Just click on the picture to go through to Flickr to see the whole set.

Starting the Year Off Right

ILast night I was SO EXCITED because today was the first day back at school for the kids.

BUT………even though it’s the first Day of School for the New Year……..it’s a freakin’ snow day!

Can you believe it?

Because I sure can’t. I mean, I was thrilled that I got a little bit of a sleep in, BUT….when I woke up at 7:45am and FREAKED OUT because we were going to be late – that was not so nice. But, after being told that it was in fact a snow day and after my heart moved back out of my throat…

Well, then I didn’t know what to think. On one hand there was no running around trying to get everyone off to school, BUT…..on the other hand – everyone is home for the day!

I was SOOOOOOO looking forward to the day without all the kids and to be able to clean up the house and to get a TON of stuff accomplished – Yah NOT!

So, I will be wrangling the kids into helping out today and that might just encourage them enough to head outside and play for a good long time.

The snow this year has been AMAZING. And I love it that my kids are getting the opportunity to have some “real snow time”. So often, we get just a skiff of snow and it’s hardly even enough to make a snowball, and then it washes away within the day.

I remember getting a big dump of snow similar to this one when I was about 12 years old living in North Vancouver and we all thought it was the best things ever. In fact, I think that the private school that I went to even cancelled for one day, and that was a miracle because it was NEVER cancelled – not for any reason.

So, like I was saying, I love that my kids are able to get out and really enjoy the snow. It is sure making for a fun winter and some great memories.

Do you have snow this winter? Have you got any good memories of snowy times in your past? Have you been able to make any great memories this year?