Happy Winter Solstice Y'all!

Although it's the first day of Winter today, it actually looks more like fall at the moment, than it did when it was Fall.

 See? Fall colors!

Oh well, it's the south, they're a little sloooow around here ...

       

We've had a whole lot of rain last week. It turned everything around here into thick red mud, which is especially nasty since we're basically living at a building site, where trucks and other heavy equipment turn the place into a big mud hole!
The temperatures are unseasonably high at the moment (where did I here that before), and together with the rain, it made these little flowers take a chance and pop up ...

The B&B passed it's fire inspection, besides a few minor issues that can easily be fixed, and tomorrow is the BIG building inspection, so everybody is crunching to get everything done.
Despite all the goings-on, we made time to go and see the Amite Christmas Parade, last Thursday.

Amite is a small town and we didn't expect much, which was a good thing, because it it was probably about the smallest parade we ever saw. Talking about small-town America!

They did their best-est though, with the High School marching band, several dance groups, a Queen and her court, several local businesses and the obligatory fire-truck.

Afterward we met a colleague of James, Mike, and his wife Catherine, at a local Sushi place.
They live in Amite and had wanted to get together for a while now, and we just never found the time, but now we finally made it work.
I wasn't too impressed with the Sushi, but the company was good, so we ended up having a good time after all.

Like I said in my previous post, I've started my holiday baking. After last week's Gingerbread men, I made my personal favorites, Hungarian Butter-horns ...

And the notorious Chocolate Crackle Cookies that have such horrible sticky dough, its 'enough-to-drive-you-stir-crazy' and than some ...

 

But Gawd ... they are so good!

Laura and Jeff, the owners of the B&B, called us over one morning when they were up at the house, and surprised us with a big bag of Laura's homemade Christmas cookies and candies, and a $100 gift certificate for a good steakhouse in Hammond! Sweet!

And James Boss Ronnie has invited us again, just like last year, to have Christmas lunch/dinner with his family at his house on Christmas Day, how nice is that?

So .. we're enjoying the season, and are making a cozy, sweet time of it .. life is good!

Look at that! The tree's up! And what's that white stuff outside? Yup! SNOW!
It's all gone by the time I'm writing this but we had about 7 inches! Can you believe it? In southern Louisiana!

It fell the whole time while I was decorating the tree, I had some Christmas music going and we had eggnog for happy hour. 
What a magical day! Let's just call this Christmas already, shall we?

  

James put the star in top and we gave Merl his very own tree outside.

And all the while it was snowing .. and snowing ... and ... you get the picture! Well, here ARE some pictures:

We had to lower the awning a little to get the snow to slide off, but other than that we were fine ..

The dish reception got a little scratchy though:

I took a little walk to snap some pictures of the trees all covered in snow. So pretty:

The B&B will probably not look like this for a long time to come ..

'Big J' looked very 'mountain-man'-ish!

Time to 'take a snow-day', work on a puzzle, have some eggnog, spiked of-course ..

And fortunately I'd had the foresight to plan a nice 'stick-to-the-ribs' dinner, good old-fashioned dutch 'hutspot' (mashed carrots/onion and potato) with a nice meatball ..

 

 (and look at that gravy mote!)

The next day it had stopped snowing and the sun was out. We went for an early walk to beat the snow all melting away ...

 

(Sorry, more snow-pictures, but it really was the 'happening' of the year for us)

In some areas the ground was covered with 'needle ice'.
These funny looking little pillars form when the air is below freezing and the soil is above freezing.

Due to a capillary action that occurs, the water is drawn out to form these frozen needles, columns, spires, or pillars.

More ice 'art':

And snow art ..

I didn't mention it yet, but this is how frosty it got overnight ... 24F!

Brrrrr!

OK, I think that will be it for today. Like I said in the beginning, it has all melted by now but I sure hope we'll get some more! 

With Christmas just around the corner I've started baking cookies, one of my favorite things to do (sometimes I wonder if I should have pursued a carrier as a pastry chef?)
I've started with a batch of Gingerbread Men, it makes the RV smell like .. like .. well, like Christmas!

It's a jolly bunch!

 

Last week ended muggy and warm and the high humidity caused widespread fog in the mornings. 
Always pretty!
 

On Friday evening we dressed up (yes, we do this about once a year) and drove to Hammond, our old stomping grounds, to see the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual 'Yuletide' holiday celebration at the Columbia Theater. 
Led by guest conductor Stuart Chafetz and joined by the Southeastern Louisiana University choir it was a wonderful performance!



We got to sing along with some of the Christmas songs, of which we know embarrassing little words, and totally got in the 'Christmas spirit'!
So much so that I just couldn't wait to start my seasonal decorating the next day ...

The wreath was hung, and so were the the garlands ...

 

I did restrict myself to these though, since I try to be true to my dutch roots and wait with the full-on decorating until the day after St. Nicolas Eve!

I've explained this holiday many times in my previous year's blogs, but here you have it in a nut-shell:

 

White beards, red outfits, reindeer, a horse, lists with the naughty-or-nice and lots of presents. Same difference to me!
No Sinterklaas without Speculaas so there you go ...

Yummy!

So, with Sinterklaas out of the way, the lights outside went up!

As you can see we still had Happy Hour outside, although we had to bundle up a little ...

And that is as far as I got, so far, but I think I'll put up the tree today! Yahoo!

The B&B is starting to look more and more like a .. well, a B&B, I guess ...

    

Fans and lights are, mostly, up and the garage doors are in (although not working yet).

The hardwood floors on the 3rd floor are done and they're working hard on the 2nd ...

Outside work is a little bit on hold, as in the painting and installing gutters, since it has been raining pretty heavily, and still is. 
And look what they're predicting for Friday morning ...

Snow showers!

Gasp! Snow in Louisiana! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, that would be sooo cool!

And look at those temperatures! It's going to freeze!

Fortunately we can handle a light freeze, and with all heaters on full we should be snug and warm. Gezellig!

Cold temperatures also make for beautiful sunsets. Here's last Monday's, which makes a fitting end to this blog:

And there was peace on earth ... ( if only ... )