Chayote and Fresh Chinese Yam Soup

Do you know what a Chayote is?

Chayote, also known as 合掌瓜.

Translated, it means "Two palms clasp together".

Don't you think they do look like one?

I have seen them at the Asian Grocery Store, but I never know how they are to be cooked, until I chanced upon the recipe for Chayote and Fresh Chinese Yam Soup from The Chinese Soup Lady.

According to her post on Chayote, this fruit is rich in Vitamins A and C, as well as amino acids. Since it is rich in Vitamin C, maybe that's one reason why it is used commonly in soups that relieve cough and cold.

That's how they look like on the inside. I prefer to remove the skin of the fruit, just so to remove any pesticides that may stay on after thorough cleaning.

Fresh Chinese Yam is used commonly in herbal soup. Be sure to wash your hands thoroughly after cutting it, as the inside of the Chinese Yam is very slimy.

Since the boys were having a slight cough, and I could get both Chayote and Fresh Chinese Yam (Huai Shan) from the Asian Grocery Store, I decided to give this soup a try, hoping that the soup would help in soothing their cough ... and it did!

1-1.5 pounds Pork Meat/Ribs/Bones

3 Chayotes

50cm length Fresh Chinese Yam

1.2-1.5 litres Water

Salt to taste, if necessary.

• Wash and clean the pork meat/ribs/bones.
• Season with salt and leave overnight to marinade. The salt helps to remove the pork smell when cooking the soup!
• On the day that you are going to cook the soup, take the pork out from the fridge, and blanch the pork pieces in boiling water.
• Remove and rinse in cold water.
• Fill a soup pot with 1.2 - 1.5 litres of water.
• Wash the chayotes and fresh chinese yam.
• Remove skin from chayotes and fresh chinese yam.
• Cut the chayotes into cubes, and slice the fresh chinese yam into thick slices.
• Add the pork, chayotes and fresh chinese yam into the soup pot.
• Bring the water to a boil.
• Lower heat and simmer for two hours.
• Add salt to taste and serve the soup warm.

I like that this soup uses only three simple ingredients. The first time I cooked this soup, I didn not season the pork with salt prior to cooking. Hence, while I enjoyed drinking the soup, I did not enjoy the smell of the pork when the soup was simmering on the kitchen stove. As the chayotes are not really sweet, the soup is not as sweet as when I use herbs (like red dates). I added some salt to the soup. I filtered the soup using a sieve, since the boys liked their soup "clear". It was a good move, as Darling son KW liked the soup so much, he asked for a second bowl.

Subsequently, I seasoned the pork with a reasonable amount of salt and left it to marinade overnight. To my surprise, the smell of the pork was reduced tremendously while the soup was simmering on the stove! There was no need for me to add more salt to the soup when it was done cooking.

When fresh HuaiShan was not available at home, I cooked this soup using 25 slices of dried HuaiShan. The soup tasted just as when fresh Chinese Yam was used. So when you don't have the time to go to the Asian Grocery Store, dried HuaiShan works just as fine!

Merry Christmas!

Frosty and friend are happy this Winter.

So are we! This is our third White Christmas in the woods!

We were dumped with loads of snow for our first Christmas. Old Man Winter arrived way before December. For half a year, from October to April, we were in "Deep Freeze". Temperatures were at a low of 30 plus degree Celsius below zero! We had a "Temperature Shock", coming from a sunny island with an average temperature of 30 degree Celsius all year. The wind was blowing wildly even before the arrival of Old Man Winter. I remembered having to wrap a scarf around my face in the morning while walking my boys to school. And that was Autumn. The colours of Fall were visible for two weeks. The freezing rain came and the colourful leaves fell from the trees. For this winter, school was closed for three times due to blizzards.

For our second Winter, we enjoyed a "warmer" Winter. The rest of the Nation got it bad. School was closed only once.

This year ... we had a lovely Autumn, and snow started falling only in December! It was not as cold ... temperature lowest at 20 degree Celsius below zero, and there were not many days of such low temperatures. So far, school has not been closed because of any blizzard. Phew!

We are starting to enjoy our White Christmas.

To my dear friends back home, here's wishing you a Blessed Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

Steamed Fish

This was the first time, since entering the woods 2.5 years ago, that we steamed a whole fish at home! How we missed eating steamed fish!

Most of the fish we see at the supermarket are fish fillets. There are a few supermarkets that sell the fish as a whole, with the head and tail attached. However, they are either not so fresh, or very expensive.

A couple of days more to Christmas, and I thought we had better stock up on our pantry supplies. So we took a trip down to Costco. It was not a wasted trip! We saw a counter selling fresh red snapper, cooked crab claws, and lobsters! The red snapper was selling at $5.99 per pound, vs $9.99 per pound at the supermarket near our apartment. It was a steal! We got one that weighed a little below a pound.

Hubby dear loves eating fish. He was very excited and was looking forward to dinner. I really disliked removing the scales from the fish, and so he volunteered to do it =) Phew! We had to line the walls of the sink with either aluminium foil, or papers from magazines. The scales flew all over the sink!

While hubby dear was removing the scales, I soaked the chinese mushrooms in warm water, and sliced the ginger. Finally, he removed the scales from the fish. After cleaning and pat drying it, we were ready to marinate the fish!

3 tbsp Shaoxing Wine

2 tbsp Soy Sauce (Kikomman low sodium)

2 tbsp Sesame Oil

1 tbsp Mirin (Optional)

1 tbsp Water

2 inch Knob Old Ginger (sliced)

4 pcs Chinese Dried Mushrooms (reconstitute in warm water and sliced)

• Bring a pan of water to boil.
• Place the steaming stand and plate of fish in the pan of boiling water.
• Steam for 8 minutes. Yes, set the timer in case you forget the time and fish gets overcooked.

That was the most satisfying dinner we had for the year! The fish was very fresh, sweet and soft. We will be back for more!

当归鸡汤

Time for soup, to warm the body, on a cold winter day!

I bought some Dang Gui slices during my visit back home. These packaged Dang Gui were afforable, and they were already sliced. Without the proper machine, I would probably have a tough time slicing them, and my finger! So I happily bought two packets to bring back to the woods.

DangGui, also known as Chinese Angelican Root.

Here's the explanation of the herb by The Chinese Soup Lady.

The soup recipe was adapted from Blessed Homemaker, and I made some changes to the quantity of ingredients used. I love the smell of DangGui, but I do not know if my kids will like the taste and smell of it.

The kitchen was filled with the smell of DangGui while the soup was simmering on the stove. The kids didn't complain about the smell. However, they did not like the taste of the soup, even though it was mildly sweet. Hubby dear, however, liked the soup.

2 pcs Chicken Thighs

15 pcs Yuzhu (玉竹）

15 pcs Red Dates （红枣）

8 pcs Dried Longan （龙眼甘）

3 pcs Dang Gui （当归）

1.2 litres Water

• Wash the herbs and set aside.
• Blanch the chicken thighs in boiling water.
• Rinse the blanched chicken thighs in cold water.
• Fill a stock pot with water.
• Add the herbs and chicken thighs.
• Bring the pot of water to a boil.
• Reduce heat and let it simmer for another 2 hours.
• Add salt to taste if need.

I do not know how suitable this soup is for kids, since DangGui is being used. But I will definitely be cooking it for myself, on those days when I feel very, very cold.

Brownie-Oreo Reindeer Cups

When I saw these cute reindeer cups at Happy Little Bento, I knew I had to make them!

Pretzels were used to make the antlers.

Mini M&Ms for the eyes and nose.

And such a simple recipe!

Only two ingredients needed.

A packet of Oreos, and a packet of Brownie Mix.

What is there not to love?

The kids will be happy to sink their teeth into these little fellows =)

Can you see the Oreo inside the Brownie?

I couldn't find the Winter Oreos (with the red filling) at my local supermarket, so I opted for the "Double Stuf, Heads or Tails". I stole one Oreo from the box while preparing the Brownie batter, only to find at the end, I had one Oreo short! The Brownie Mix yielded just the right amount of batter for this box of Oreos.

Line muffin trays with paper liners.

Prepare the Brownie batter according to the package instructions.

Drop a piece of Oreo into the Brownie batter.

Using a pair of chopsticks, dip the Oreo into the batter.

Remove the brownie coated Oreo from the batter and put it into the paper-lined muffin trays.

Bake at 350F in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

While waiting for the brownies to bake, prepare the pretzel antlers.

Break apart the pretzels.

Sort the mini M&Ms according to colours.

I like red for the nose =)

When baked, remove trays from oven.

Place trays on a cooling rack.

Quickly place the antlers, eyes and noses onto soft surface of the brownies.

Remove the cups from the tray and let cool on the rack.

These are easy-to-make snacks.

They made good gifts as well as party food.

If you are a huge Oreo and Brownie fan, then this is the snack for you!

Christmas Gifts

Made these Nutella-Marshmallows Puff Pastry Pillows again!

Packed some into a gift box, and sent them, together with some Brownie-Oreo Reindeer Cups to a good friend =)

I gave my friend the small pillows.

They fit better into the small tin.

One sheet of puff pastry yields 16 mini pillows.

The usual step of filling the centre with Nutella.

You can use one or two mini marshmallow.

Fold over, seal the edges, and bake.

Sprinkle with icing sugar, and done!

As promised, hubby dear had one big one, and a little one to bring to school as snacks =)

Nutella-Marshmallow filled Puff Pastry Pillows

What a long title for this post!

But I had to include the culprits for these highly addictive puff pillows!

The combination of Nutella, marshmallows and puff pastry is just "FATAL"! Thank you, Pinky Palate, for sharing with us this wonderful recipe and creation of yours!

Just three simple ingredients ... Nutella, Marshmallows, and Puff Pastry.

Put them together and you get a delish snack after 30 minutes!

Simple, easy and fast!

Take out one sheet of puff pastry and let it thaw, about 30 to 40 minutes.

Once soften, open it up and place it on a floured surface. For the cracks on the pastry sheet, put a little water on the cracked area, and pressed the area down to seal/smoothen the cracks.

Floured your work surface, as you do not want the softened puff pastry pillow to stick onto the work surface, creating a hole and leaking Nutella.

Cut the sheet of puff pastry into four squares.

Spread Nutella on the centre of the square sheet.

Leave a border of about 1/2 inch.

Top the nutella with some mini marshmallows.

Fold over, into a triangle.

Using a fork, crimp the edges.

If the edges don't seal, use your fingers to pressed them down, to seal them.

Place the triangular puff pillows on a lined tray.

Baked in a preheated oven at 350F for about 20 minutes.

Let cool and sprinkle some icing sugar over.

The pillows puffed up and looked huge after baking! I was wondering if I could finish it ... I was so wrong! I wanted more after eating one!

Can you spot my mistake?

Well, I thought it would be fun to have colourful marshmallows in the puffs, instead of the boring white mallows. Another mistake! Look, the green mallow melted, and started oozing out from the puff. Looked like I wrapped a witchetty grub inside, yah? As I sank my teeth into this greenish puff, images of the contestants in the Amazing Race Asia eating the grubs flashed in my mind!

The other three puff pillows looked pretty, without the green gooey stuff.

It is definitely better to use the plain white mallows.

Maybe I try making smaller pillows. Instead of four squares, I can have 16 small squares, and omit the marshmallows. Just Nutella. Not sure if I can fold such small triangles. Will have to try. If I succeed, they will make a good mini snack for parties =)

Hubby dear had only half a triangle after dinner.

"That's all I have? No more?" he said.

Ok, I will make more tomorrow!

No, not the mini ones, but the BIG ones =)

Fun in School!

School has never been so fun!

The loaf of bread was made by Darling son KW ... in school!

His teacher brought in the ingredients, and they kneaded the bread dough in class. The kids left the dough to proof in the classroom, and some parent volunteers brought the dough home after school to bake. The next day, he came home with a loaf of baked bread, wrapped nicely in a transparent bag, with his name written nicely on a tag stuck on the bag.

We went "WOO" and "WOW" when we saw the loaf of bread. He was very pleased with his work, and wanted to try the bread after dinner. We all had a slice of bread. Don't expect the soft, fluffy kind of bread. It was after all, made by little hands. There was this hole in the centre of the loaf, and the top of the bread was very hard, making it difficult to slice. But we all ate our bread, and his little brother gave his support by having not one, but two slices! The bread tasted good ... yes, the extra ingredient in the loaf brought out the sweetness ... the effort put in by the boy in kneading the dough and completing his task in school.

Of course, the little boy YW needed his praise for his work in school too. He made a gingerbread house in school, and wanted to eat the parts after he brought it home.

"Since it is such a lovely house, why not let it sit on the window sill for a few days?" I suggested.

Reluctantly, he agreed.

And reluctantly, I agreed to buy some candies for him.

I don't remember school being so fun back home. It's work, and more work. Here in the woods, the boys have the luxury of time to do what they like. They read, draw, use their imagination to construct vehicles with LEGO, and of course, go on play dates with their friends. They still have to finish their school work when they return home from school, and they have their extra assignments from me during their long school holidays. They don't spend the whole day studying and doing assignments. And these extra work do not take away the joy of learning from them.

And I am happy for them that school is fun!

Chestnut Soup

I love soups. Soup was a regular item on the dinning table when I was young. And I miss drinking soups. Hence, whenever it starts to get cold, especially on snowy days, I will want to have a bowl of soup for dinner.

Red dates, a very common herb used in soups.

But today, the star of this evening's soup is not red dates, but dried Chestnuts (栗子). My mom had sent me a bag of dried chestnuts, and it had been sitting in the fridge for the longest time.

Today is a good day for soups. The sun is hiding behind clouds, and it is going to snow later in the evening. I don't want to do the usual soups. A goggle search brought me to Culinarytonicsoup. I was so excited when I saw this blog! It has a collection of the recipes from the old Fenying's blog! It was difficult to read, as the recipes were not classified. I was lucky to spot the recipe for the Chestnut soup halfway down the page =D

Dried Chestnuts, 栗子 1.5 cups

Dried Lotus Seeds, 莲子 1 packet (about 120g)

Red dates, 红枣 30 pcs

Spareribs/pork 1 pound

Water 2 litres

• Fill a pot with 2 litres of water.
• Wash the chestnuts and lotus seeds thoroughly.
• Note that the chestnuts already have their skins removed.
• Add the chestnuts and lotus seeds to the pot of water.
• Bring the water to a boil.
• Lower heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes.
• Turn off heat and let the ingredients soak in the warm water for about an hour or longer. The idea is to soften the chestnuts and lotus seeds so that they cook faster and release their sweetness when cooking with the meat later.
• Blanch the spareribs in boiling water.
• Rinse with cold water.
• Wash the red dates thoroughly. My red dates are really small, so use less if your red dates are bigger.
• Add the spareribs and red dates into the pot with chestnuts and lotus seeds.
• Bring the water to a boil.
• Lower heat and let it simmer for a hour and a half.
• Add salt to taste if need, and serve the soup warm.

The lotus seeds were all broken up into very small pieces when the soup was cooked. The boys don't like ingredients in their soup. I would usually strain the soup. If the soup is too oily because of the fatty pork, then leave the soup in the fridge after straining it. The oil will solidfy, making it easier to remove when you take the soup out from the fridge much later.

I used 2 litres of water instead of the usual 1.2 litres. Actually, I started with 1.2 litres of water. But as the dried chestnuts and lotus seeds boiled in the water, I realised they absorbed quite a bit of water in order to soften. After adding the spareribs, and cooking for a while, I decided to take the risk of adding more water. When you are cooking soups, it is not advisable to add water midway while cooking as it dilutes the soup. I was glad I took the risk. The extra water added covered the spareribs, and the soup still turned out very sweet when cooked! I didn't need to add any salt to the soup. However, after straining the soup, I felt that it was a waste to throw away the chestnuts and lotus seeds. They tasted sweet! The strained soup was sitting in one small pot with the meat, while the chestnuts, lotus seeds and red dates lonely sat in the large empty soup pot. Hence, I added water to the chestnuts, lotus seeds and red dates left in the pot. Brought the pot of extra water to a boil and let it simmer for another half an hour.

The second pot is now cooking over the stove, and if it is sweet after an hour of simmering, I will probably add it to the small pot of strained soup.

Lesson learnt when dealing with chestnuts ... add more water! Can't really say how much water to add, as it really depends on how many chestnuts you have in the pot. I had both chestnuts and lotus seeds, so I would need more water when cooking this soup.

The next time I cook this, I will probably use just 1 cup of chestnuts. Will skip the lotus seeds if I don't have any. And, use 2 litres of water.

This soup is not the clear type of soup. It's a little milky. If you dislike milky soup, then this is not your kind of soup. My boys don't really fancy milky-looking soup. Let's hope they will still drink it since it's sweet =)

Mini Sweet Peppers

I was at the supermarket today, when I started gravitating towards the section where the leafy vegetables were kept. Amongst the bed of greens, sat a few rows of yellow, red and orange. I would normally give this colourful section a miss, but today, the boxes of mini peppers seemed to be calling out to me =)

Nowadays, I don't really fancy eating meat. My little boy will sometimes run into the kitchen when I am cooking or baking the meat, and ask me what I'm cooking. "Smells good!", he will say. But I felt otherwise. When I was pregnant with my second boy, I couldn't tolerate the smell and taste of pork. This intolerance continued even after the birth of the boy. Coincidentally, my little boy doesn't like eating pork. He will try very hard to stomach a small amount of the meat, and rather have his rice and vegetables whenever pork is served. Even when the pork is cooked and masked by the rich flavor of char siew sauce, I still find the distinct pork taste lingering after swallowing the Char Siew. And I am not referring to Americanized Char Siew. Char Siew back home, served at the hawker centres. Bad huh? Maybe that was the main reason I went ahead and bought the packet of mini sweet peppers today =)

A simple stir-fry vegetable dish for lunch today.

• Minced a few cloves of garlic and thinly sliced one medium shallot.
• Heat up pan and add some olive oil.
• When oil is hot, add the minced garlic and sliced shallot.
• Fry till fragrant, but not browned.
• Add the sliced peppers and mix well with the garlic and shallot.
• Add the baby spinach. Mix well.
• Add some chicken stock.
• Cook till the spinach soften.
• Turn off heat, and add salt to taste.
• Do not overcook if you want the peppers to have a little crunch when you bite into them.

Since the vegetables had quite a good amount of liquid in it, I thought it would be nice to add some pasta to my share of the vegetables. Tomato and spinach shells, it will be.

While waiting for the pasta to cook in the pan of boiling water, I chopped some grape tomatoes and added them to my bowl of vegetables.

Hubby dear had his standard lunch of rice, vegetables and baked fish, while I enjoyed my bowl of pasta with lots of vegetables! Satisfying lunch for me =)

Quinzee

After the snowstorm last night, we woke up to see big piles of snow by the walkway. The snow plow had come to clear the snow on the road early in the morning. What shall we do with so much snow? For the last two winters, we had built snowmen, created snow angels on the ground, and had snowball fights. This year, we are going to build a quinzee!

What is a quinzee?

It's a "snow cave" made from piles of settled snow. Somewhat like an igloo, just that igloo is made from piles of hard snow. The man and the boys spent quite some time gathering and compressing the snow into a pile. Finally, they tried digging a hole. I had to constantly remind the boys not to lie on the ground, or to put their head into the hole while digging. I was afraid that the pile of snow might collapse and suffocate them, should they get trapped under. So they went on their knees while digging. Phew.

For the time being, the quinzee is a nice size for the squirrels to hide. We will wait for more snow, and then try to pile more snow to expand the entrance and the inside of the quinzee. Meanwhile, the boys continued to have fun brushing the sides of the quinzee, digging deeper, and piling more snow. I am fine as long as they don't try to get into the little "cave".

Power Outage

I was reading "Harry Potter : The Deathly Hallows" when the bedroom lamp flickered. Then, it was gone. The whole house was in complete darkness.

I walked to the window, and looked out.

It felt like Dumbledore had used his Deluminator to darken the neighbourhood, just like he did for Privet Drive. There was no electricity, and no internet. The wind was blowing fiercely outside. The huge oak tree outside our apartment was waving its branches wildly. Occasionally, one or two smaller branches would break, fall and hit the roof with a loud "THUD". Snow was blown and drifted everywhere. The heat from the heater became weaker and weaker, and was soon gone. The temperature outside the house, factoring in the wind chill, had a real feel of at least 25 degree Celsius below zero. There was nothing to do, except to look out of the window. Just like the deep-in-thought squirrel in the photo.

It was tough adjusting my eyes from the brightly lit bedroom, to the sudden complete darkness in the room. It was more comfortable looking out of the window, with the neigbhourhood lit by moonlight reflected by the snow.

I realised, with this power outrage, how we had taken electricity for granted. It is always there, just a click away. And how our life revolve around the Internet. Without power supply, and with the snowstorm passing outside, I fully empathized with people who had to live in the bitterly cold, without power supply for a couple of days last year, because of a snowstorm.

I am thankful that the power outage lasted only two hours. And I am grateful to workers who helped restored the supply so quickly despite it being a weekend and late at night, as well as workers who worked through the night in the bitterly cold to clear the roads of snow.

Life in the woods is slow moving. I guess the slower pace of life has helped me to slow down, and looked at things differently. It has definitely helped me learnt to appreciate what I have, and not to take them for granted. And I am thankful.

Penne in Creamy Sauce

Wholegrain Penne, broccoli, grape tomatoes, and carrots.

Sounds heathy? Loads of vegetable goodness =)

The load of vegetable goodness is neutralized by the addition of a creamy sauce and bacon bits. I don't serve this dish regularly, so I guess it is ok for the bacon to make its guest appearance on the dinning table once in a long while =)

2 cups Wholegrain Penne

1 head Broccoli

3 stalks Carrots

12 Grape Tomatoes

1 packet Bacon

• Cook penne according to the package instructions.
• Drain and set aside.
• Cut the broccoli into small florets.
• Microwave or blanch in hot water.
• Set aside.
• Remove skin from carrots.
• Cut into strips or cubes, whatever you prefer.
• Set aside if you like it raw.
• Microwave if you like them soft.
• Wash and pat dry the grape tomatoes.
• Thinly sliced them.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix penne, broccoli, carrots, and grape tomatoes together.
• Set aside till ready to eat.
• Bake the bacon in the oven, according to package instructions, till crispy.
• Remove baked bacon and leave them on a paper towel to cool.
• Once cooled, break the crispy bacon into smaller pieces and set aside.

Sauce Ingredients

2 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp All Purpose Flour

2-4 tbsp Grated Parmesan Cheese

1.5 cups Milk

Preparing the Sauce:

• Put the butter in a saucepan.
• Place the saucepan over low heat and warm till the butter is melted.
• Add the flour to the melter butter.
• Using the whisk or a spoon, stir the flour and butter until the mixture is smooth and bubbling, but not browned.
• Raise the heat and stirring constantly, slowly pour the milk into the saucepan.
• Stir continuously, and cook until the sauce mixture is smooth and thickened.
• It should be about as thick as melted ice cream.
• Remove saucepan from the heat.
• Add salt and stir well.
• Add Parmesan cheese.
• Stir until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth.
• Pour the sauce over the mixing bowl of prepared penne and vegetables.
• Mix well.
• Add the bacon bits and mix well.
• Pour the bowl of penne, vegetables and bacon into a large serving bowl.

I was too lazy to wash another big mixing bowl, so I poured the sauce directly into the serving bowl which had the penne and vegetables, before mixing in the bacon bits. The sides of the serving bowl had the sauce and it didn't look very nice.

You can also add some shredded cheddar cheese to the sauce, if you like a very cheesy and thick sauce. The sauce can be prepared 15 minutes prior to serving the meal. The ingredients can be prepared ahead of the meal. While preparing the sauce, I popped some vegetable spring rolls into the oven to bake =)

This dish also makes a good pot-luck dish. It can be served warm or cold. It tasted just as good the next day as leftover, warmed up in the microwave. I didn't add much salt to the sauce, as I felt that the bacon bits did their job well in providing the saltiness, and that extra crunch. Personally, I feel that the bacon bits are the "soul" of this dish. Without them, the dish is kind of bland.

If you really dislike the idea of having bacon in your diet, then feel free to replace the bacon with some other cooked meat =) The next time I cook this, I may replace the bacon with some raisins and toasted nuts ... no meat!

Old Man Winter

Old Man Winter has finally arrived!

It snowed through the night.

This morning, I woke up to a beautifully snow-coated neighbourhood =)

There was even snow on the window mesh.

Snow on the weeds, looking like little white flowers that bloomed overnight. The wind blew and the fallen oak leaves were buried under the snow. How much snow?

Not much, probably about 3 inches.

But good enough for a morning workout!

First, shovel the snow that had accumulated on the doorstep outside the house. Let's do the common path too.

Next, remove the snow from the car!

See the little supervisor telling his GorGor what to do?

Work done!

Time for some snowball fights!

Enough of snowballs? Time to take out the sled!

The big brother pulling the little brother while waiting for us.

All ready for sledding!

1, 2, 3 .... GO!

It was tough climbing up the slope ... very slippery!

The boys had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of snow. They were very excited to see so much snow this morning, even though this was our third winter in the woods. So were the kids in our neighbourhood! We had a good workout shoveling the snow, and sledding. It was a fun snowy morning!