Is It Naptime Yet

So Vegas got snow last night. It’s funny because we’ve had an unusually warm winter thus far and then it got cold and it snowed!! Jon took pictures of our car at 7:30 am before he left for work and he got a picture of Frenchman’s mountain that is right behind the temple.

It’s funny because we were talking about snow on Sunday and saying how Frenchman’s never gets snow unless the valley also gets snow. My sister who lives in Henderson right off of Black mountain got 7 1/2 inches and it stayed until around noon. So her kids were able to build snowmen and what not.

We put our Christmas tree up the weekend before finals. Why the weekend before finals? I’m not sure, especially when I told Jon as he was in the shed doing things we should wait until after finals. He was taking the shades down for the garden and since the shed was open he decided to get the tree out and check it for spiders. At least when I saw him with the tree out in the backyard he raised it and said “Look no spiders!” I sighed and said “What on earth are you doing with that? We’re supposed to wait until finals are over.”
Lilah has been so excited for Christmas since our concert on the 25 of November. The couple who babysat them had their Christmas tree up and she couldn’t wait until Christmas. Her excitement along with Jon being in the shed fueled the setting up of the tree. ( I also think me stating that we should wait made him want to do it also. ) So while Jon finished checking for spiders I got things in a little more in order for the tree. Another reason I wanted to wait. Our house was a little more chaotic because of the neglect during the finals pre-week. He came in and helped me get the leaf out of the table so we could have more room by the front door…the only place to put a tree in our small living room. Well I swept and wiped the floor down and we set it up on Saturday. (The 8th I believe.) Since we had no plans on Sunday we decorated it. The girls had a blast. Lilah was so excited for Christmas to be coming.
So here is adventure of our tree decorating.

Eden loved the plastic hooks.
They were attached to a circle and looked like a flower. At one point Lilah put them on the tree.

Lilah loved the stockings
What else do you do with a stockings besides put them on your foot?…..

…apparently you also put them on your arms.

Here’s them decorating or looking at ornaments.

Eden putting our angle on.

(It’s an ornament from the year we become engaged. My mom gave it to me and we’ve use it as our tree topper since we’ve been married. I don’t know what we’ll do when we start using the bottom layer of the tree and make it seven feet tall instead of just five. )

The finished product.

The last thing I want to mention is why Jon was checking for spiders. We had a fake Christmas tree for many years growing up. The second or third Christmas while at the Edison house we got the tree out and began bringing it into the house. (It was stored in a wooden box on the back patio.) Well one of us noticed small black things on the branches and we realized it had been infested with a black widows nest and they were now running around on our couches! it was terrible. Scott, one of my older brothers, would have been the only boy because we were doing this without my father. I’m pretty sure we were all screeching a little bit as we tossed them onto the front patio…the closet door. So now since we store our tree in the outside shed…I’m a little worried of spiders getting in it. It seems pretty empty of crazy bugs and what not for now.

Yesterday I was a great wife and made chocolate treats for Jon to take to his coworkers. I was a bad mom because I was so immersed in the projects that PBS was on all day and Eden often came over wanting to be held but having to be turned down by her chocolate fingered momma. Even on days I had tons of studying to do I would have time for them. Yesterday I just had to get things done so the house could hopefully get back to order ASAP. Lilah was mostly okay. She just tried to “help” by licking any spoon with chocolate that she could get her hands on. Only when I told her no she could not have any more chocolate did she get upset. Lilah would just come and see what I was doing and them go on her merry way of watching whatever was on. By the time Jon got home Eden was a mess, even after a nap, because she needed some love and attention. Also I had put her in Lilah’s chair at one point and she wanted to stay in it, but if I was out of the room I took her down because she couldn’t be trusted to sit still and I was afraid she’d fall off of the chair, so whenever I took her out of the chair she got upset. It was a crazy.

These are the chocolates I made.

I made different truffles and then chocolate covered popcorn. The recipes came from my friend Amber. I cut off the extra chocolate that you see on so many of the truffles. I figured I did okay considering this was the first time I’d done anything besides the chocolate molds you can buy. Wilton has special dipping spoons that might help avoid the huge amount of chocolate around the base of the truffles, so I may try those next time. So here are things I learned about chocolate.
In the truffle recipe it says to refrigerate the center for the truffle until firm. (Please refer to the recipe so you know what I’m talking about.)
Well I thought to save time on Monday morning I’d make the center the night before. I didn’t save any time because the center had completely harden by being in the refrigerator overnight! (So tip: it only takes about an hour in the fridge for the center to be firm enough to shape it. Or you can do it the night before but plan on letting it thaw the next morning.)
The second thing I needed to improve on was the outer coating. On some of my truffles the outer layer of chocolate cracked. What I think happened is the center was too cold…it had been in the freezer more like an hour, plus it was still fairly cold and hard from being in the fridge the night before…and the chocolate that I melted to coat it was a little too warm. So when I let the truffle centers sit for just a little while after being in the freezer and the melted chocolate for the outer layer to sit, then they were less likely to crack if they cracked at all.
I made a lot of popcorn and I think I made around 130 truffles. I still have truffles to give away even after Jon took some for his coworkers today. I packaged everything in cute bags, but I was too lazy to take a picture last night when all was said and done.
I think I’m good on making chocolate for a little while. I made these with the Wilton wafers, so I didn’t have to worry about tempering the chocolate. I hope as I become more experienced that I can use the real thing.