Hi, everyone!
For most of the winter so far, any snow melted within a day or two of falling. According to the weather reports, we haven’t had nearly as much snow this winter as in most winters here! There was no snow on the ground when I helped Grandma pack the Groundhog Day cookie boxes last week. Last year, there was so much snow that the Packer-sans couldn’t come help pack them! This year, because of the bad virus, Grandma and I just planned to pack them by ourselves. Grandma said thirty pounds of cookies was more than enough for four boxes, but not enough for five. I reminded Grandma that Great-aunt Betsy asked for some cookies, so we got a little box for her. My first job was folding and taping the bottoms of all the boxes so they would be strong enough to hold the cookies!
We packed the chocolate chip cookie bars first, in the bottom of each box. Then we added all the other varieties of Groundhog Day cookies. I helped Grandma lay out each variety in four equal rows, so each box got the same number of each kind of cookie. Grandma let me choose which ones to set aside for Great-aunt Betsy! The last cookies to go in were the brownies with no nuts. After we closed up the plastic bag liners, I made sure each box got a copy of the field guide for identifying the kinds of cookies.
I helped Grandma put plastic packing pillows on top to keep the cookies from tossing around, then we sealed up the boxes. Guess what? They all fit very nicely on one shelf of the freezer!
The day after we packed the cookie boxes, Grandma decided to try a new recipe for focaccia! The recipe made a very wet dough that had to rise for six hours! After the first rise, we scraped it into the baking pan and put it in the refrigerator overnight. There was a LOT of olive oil involved!
The next day, we put olives and cherry tomatoes and MORE olive oil on top before we baked it. It was yummy!
A couple of days later, we finally got some snow that stayed on the ground! Grandma said the temperature was just right for packing snow, so we made a snow beast! Doing that made it feel more like winter! We put my snow beast right in front of the big window where I sit during the day!
Then it got colder and we had some very light, fluffy snow! The snow gauge measured eight inches of it on the back deck! My snow beast even got a light covering of new snow!
Today it was supposed to start snowing in the morning and snow all day. Today was also the day to mail the Groundhog Day cookies to the Air Force Academy. Grandma said we should get the mailing done before the snowfall got too heavy! I helped tape the address labels onto the cookie boxes. When we got to the post office, I helped Grandma unload the trunk and put the cookie boxes on her folding cart. Then I helped hand them in to the postal clerk, one at a time. I made sure to remember which box got which postal tracking number!
It was starting to snow lightly when we went to the post office. The snow kept falling and we got about three more inches of heavier snow. Grandma said she was glad we didn’t have to go out again!
The snow stopped for a while, but we’re supposed to get more before tomorrow. My snow beast has lost its leaf antlers and is tilting over, but it’s still keeping me company in the front window!
Love,
Lion-san
Thank you, Lion San for helping send me some of the cookie bars. They were all delicious. Hope you will include me in the list of recipients next year, too. Great Aunt Betsy
You’ve been busy, baking cookies, packing cookies and making snow beasts. Helping grandma taking the packages to the post office as well making sure that the tracking labels went on the correct packages. And you still had time to make a great looking focaccia and tasty too. Your snow beast will come back again.