Hello, Winter

I love winter produce (grapefruit is my absolute favorite fruit) and winter cooking. Around here we eat foods that warm us up on the chilly, snowy days. Here are some things I’m going to make this week:

Pumpkin Leek Soup (though I’m using butternut squash instead of pumpkin)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Squares (obviously I’m still on a pumpkin kick)

Butternut Squash Soup (my friend Krista posted about this recipe a while ago and I absolutely love it)

Mamma Mia’s Minestrone Soup (I’ll leave out the white beans and cabbage, but this recipe sounds extra delish because it starts with bacon… yum!)

Yesterday we woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground. Eli was SO SO excited and wanted to gear up and play outside. We waited until Charlie was napping and then I loaded on his snow pants, coat, boots, hat, mittens… PHEW it’s a lot of stuff. Then we ventured out, where the snow was already starting to fade on the back patio.

He was still so enamored with the white stuff everywhere.

He termed this toy his “snow car” and pushed it around, exposing bits of grass here and there.

Then this morning, we woke up once again to more snow. Here’s Charlie at 6 a.m., checking out the falling snow.

His cheeks were crusty from his early-morning snack of graham crackers:

And once again, as soon as Charlie was down for his morning nap, Eli was determined to get us outside and playing in the snow. This time I pulled out the sled, which Eli barely fits in (we have a bigger sled that we picked up in the alley/that was put out by the trash, but it needs a rope).

Eli had fun with the snowballer tool and made a ton of snowballs, which he stacked and turned them into mini snowmen all over our yard (but being a little boy, he had fun almost immediately stomping and destroying those snowmen)

I could not convince this kid to put his mittens back on, since it was hard for him to make snowballs while wearing mittens. But his exposed hands were pretty cold by the time we went back inside.

The joy of the Midwest is that often when it snows, the days after are absolutely freezing and everything turns into ice. When we lived in Utah, the sun would shine and melt a lot of the snow. I wish that was the case here! But no, tomorrow it’s supposed to be windy, snowy, and the low is 4 degrees. Thursday’s high is 13 and low is 10. The good news is Friday is supposed to be 23 and sunny.

Good thing I have plenty of comfort food to keep me warm as we hibernate over the next few days…