A moose is loose.

It's still sorta surreal to see a moose walking down the middle of your street, but hey, it is north Idaho.

Walking home from work on a moonlit night in 1F temperature. Beautiful.

The Winter Wonderland that won't go away

We haven't seen anything but white for well over a month now, and even back home in mild Oregon they have been having unusually heavy snowfall. Here, however, we do not get any days off of school like they do. We've had maybe two warmer days of slushy rain in the past month, but it wasn't enough to make much of a dent in the snow pack.
It is currently 13 degrees outside, and Jerome and Karsten discovered they could make a slide on the porch steps. It is supposed to reach a rainy 40 degrees next week; let's just hope it doesn't cause too much flooding! Some of the roof ice dams and icicles seen around town are impressive, but also potentially dangerous and damaging.
And another negative: the snow is deep enough that Lucy can jump the fence.

La Rosca de Reyes - January 6th

Today is the 12th day of Christmas, or Epiphany, and since this is a big holiday in Catholic Spain I have baked this special bread the past several years for my class and kids. I ran out of frosting ingredients, so the one pictured for home is a little sparse - the colored candies on top represent the jewels on the king's crown, which is what the wise men are called in Spanish - The Kings. Inside the bread is a hidden coin that everyone wants to find in their piece.

I am also posting pics my mom sent me. We had a great Christmas except for some sickness, but we missed seeing any of the grandparents. The weather has really been cold and slippery, and combined with a shorter break after Christmas we opted to stay in Idaho. My parents were ill and stuck in Oregon because of the weather, and sadly spend the holiday alone.

But even with no company to entertain my mom has inspired me to every year try to add more festive Christmas decor to the house. We got to enjoy some of this at Thanksgiving when my kids helped her decorate, but I wanted to post more here for posterity - who knows how long they will still be in this house after first moving in 39 years ago!

Twice a week... Karsten in the office.

Twice a week, when Abby is teaching Spanish and Karsten has no pre-school class, I get to have Slowby McSlowster in my office while I work. (aka Smelly McSmellster)

20F and only supposed to get colder.

Karsten learning to snowboard.