One of the very cold mornings brought this nice sunrise ...

The weather is a little crazy at the moment. One morning I woke up to an almost freezing 35F (2C), a couple days later to 68F (19C), and it looks like this coming week it's going to repeat that!

I shouldn't complain though, since the whole north of the country, from coast to coast, is suffering freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall. Winter has arrived!

Time to get cozy and cuddle up inside, where 'it's starting to look a lot like Christmas'.

After 3 years of  wishing for one, I finally broke down and bought a larger Christmas Tree. (Breaking my rule of  'if it ain't broken, don't replace it' ...)

It's about twice the size of our previous one!

Our old tree didn't go to waist though, I put it outside in between our patio loungers. Doesn't it look cute?

James is starting to feel a lot better and, after 3 weeks, he even started to play some golf again this week. He's making short swings and keeps his legs together, so he can't over-turn or over-swing.

Works fine!

Putting is of course no problem ... unless you miss ...!

I love the holiday season for many reasons, but one of the best is for all the cooking and baking!

Yes, December is cookie-baking-month! Well, technically I started already in November at Thanksgiving with a Pumpkin Cheesecake, and last week I made a Pumpkin Spice Bread/Cake.

   

I added some walnuts too. Delicious!

And of course there have to be Gingerbread men. I found this year's recipe on a website, as usual, and it was even better than last year's! It called for almost double the spices, which gave them a delicious spicy 'punch'. Definitely a winner!

I even managed to get the frosting on without it melting away or dripping off!

Talking about food, I thought these cold days could do with some dutch comfort food, so after making Pea-soup at 'Sinterklaas' and 'Hutspot' in the week after, I made 'Stampot Boerenkool' this week!

It's basically mashed potatoes with Kale (or in case of the hutspot, carrots and onions), served with smoked sausage (rookworst). 

The closest to the dutch sausage I can get in the States, is Polish (smoked) Kielbasa. Almost just as good! 

And of course you have to have a 'kuiltje' (small hole) with gravy (in which I threw some bacon bits).

To keep somewhat in shape while eating all this deliciousness, I stick to my walking around the campground, and have even upped it from once to twice a day!

Not hard to do at all, when you can do your walking in such beautiful surroundings!

I'll end with a funny shot of one of the turtles that call this lake home, poking his head above the water. If you look closely at the lake, you see them just about everywhere. There must be hundreds of them in there! (Mmm, ... turtle-soup anyone?)