Happy New Year!

How to Make a Paper Snowflake

After watching Elf over Christmas my son wanted to decorate our house with homemade paper snowflakes too.  I thought it was pretty straightforward from what I could recall from my childhood.  But as it turns out, I was wrong and hit the internet to find out the proper way of doing it, so thought I would share.  If you want a fun craft to do with your kids over winter, this is one---and makes for fantastic decoration.

First get a square piece of paper.  The only paper I had in the house was 8.5x11 all-purpose bond paper.  Fold it to form a proper square.

Cut the excess off the top.

Fold the paper in half to make a smaller triangle.

Make another fold 1/3 of the paper.

Fold the opposite side to lap over the first fold so it looks like the image below.

Next you cut off the bottom ends.

If you want a six pointed snowflake, cut on an upward angle as in the image below.

Toss aside the bottom portion you cut off.  It is the top piece that becomes your snowflake.

Cut various shapes all along the four sides.

And that is it.  Unfold...

And hang.

Kids love them.

Christmas Snow

It snowed Christmas Eve and left a wonderful layer of snow on the ground for Christmas Day.  I enjoy winter if I don't have to drive in it and if it isn't accompanied by high winds.  If you bundle up enough, surround yourself with those you love and have fun, you don't even notice the cold.

Merry Christmas

From all the elves at Chasing Freedom Farm!

Julia Child`s Gingerbread Cookies

I`ve had Julia Child`s cookbook in my collection for years.  Don`t recall when or where I purchased it, but from the looks of the cover I`m guessing a used book shop.

I was looking for a new gingerbread cookie recipe and decided to see how easy hers was.  The recipe she provides can be used for houses, cookies, and gingerbread men.  Even for a novice like myself, her recipe was straightforward to follow and is one of the best tasting gingerbread recipes I've ever tried.  Here's the recipe straight out of her book.

I was actually lucky enough to have all the ingredients except the cardamom.

But I'll be honest with you and tell you I have no idea what that is.  Anyway, bake them at 350 degrees for 12-18 minutes depending on how thick you make your cutouts.  Mine were probably too thick but still finished around the 18-20 minute mark.

We didn't bother to decorate them (with the exception of dipping a couple in melted chocolate, yummy!).  The dough was perfectly cooked and they tasted just as good finished as they did when stealing bits of the raw cookie dough.

My Neighbourhood

Living the Dream

As a child, I asked for a horse every single Christmas.  We were dirt poor so that was never going to happen.  Nevertheless, my mother encouraged me to put it on my wish list every year.  She was either very cruel or very brilliant.  I never stopped wishing for that horse and never gave up hope that one day I would own a horse of my own.  Forty-something years later, I now own four horses.  I`m not the world`s best rider, heck I`m not even on the radar, yet I can hold my own and know enough to jump on the back of a horse and head out confidently on my own.  I compare it to riding a bike or even driving a car.  If you can control either one of those, you can ride a horse.

But if my car is acting screwy or my bike has a loose bolt, I`ll jump off and refuse to ride.  I`m too old to take risks and play russian roulette.  I'd rather take the car into the garage and have it tuned up before getting behind the wheel again.  That goes for horses as well.  I adore Aussie but he needs a tune-up.  Actually, I'm pretty certain he is overdue.  But, as I mentioned, not being the world's best rider also means I'm not the best mechanic.  I'm not qualified to tune him up.  Farm Girl tries to find time in her busy schedule to do it, but it will take more than the occasional ride in the saddle.  He needs continual and consistent work.

But meanwhile, I have a very well oiled bike grazing in the pasture that is only too happy to hit the trails with me.  She gives me what I always loved and enjoyed about riding.  She forgives me for not being the world's best rider and for my novice mistakes.  She reads my faulty cues and translates them  correctly.  She builds my confidence while providing an hour of enjoyment.  And all she asks for at the end of a ride is a carrot or two.  And perhaps a rub along with a show of gratitude.

Though I am very happy that my childhood dream came true, it is by no means all a bed of roses. Owning horses isn't exactly what the fairy tale image depicts.  There is frustration, bruised butts, bruised egos, long hours, short sleeps, dirty stalls, pastures to maintain, fences to mend, hooves to trim, thrush to avoid, diseases to battle, thousand pound resisting animals to nurse, manure beneath your boots to scrub (not to mention fingernails), long hours in the heat, long hours in the cold, hauling water, breaking frozen water, chasing down hay suppliers, worrying daily you have enough hay for winter, worrying daily that you are cut out for this lifestyle.

And yet, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

My ride today on Chloe.  Though her shadow looks like an elephant in the picture above, lol.  Am accompanied by Farm Girl and pooches as per usual.  Also, forgive my dorky appearance. It's December.  It's cold.  I live in the country.  Enough said.