snow day!

St. Paul was visited with an early December snow storm, the likes of which

we haven't seen this early in the season in quite a few years.  I am sure all

of the meteorologists out there could regale you with the statistics.  Mike

drove home in it on Tuesday evening from Milwaukee.  While I encouraged

him to stay another night, in true man fashion he jumped in the pickup and

braved the conditions.  Definitely a man thing.  I would have been back at

that hotel so fast, with my feet up and watching a movie on HBO, and

relishing a bed all to myself.


Tuesday night Charlie kept peeking out the window, wishing school would

be canceled.  He thought perhaps the chances were good (even though he

has never had a snow day his entire school career-St. Paul schools just

don't do that, no matter the weather).  He questioned doing his homework,

I told him it would be a good idea, and if he didn't have school he would

have a WHOLE DAY OF FUN.


I awoke to the sound of snowplows outside my window early Wednesday

morning, and after a snuggle for Claude I went to KARE 11 for the school

closing list, and there it was.  Twin Cities Academy.  Closed.  I rejoiced,

turned off the alarm, and went back to my cozy bed.


A couple of hours later, Charlie bounded up the stairs to my bedroom,

dancing and smiling and singing "school's closed!  school's closed!"  The

pure joy on his face brought me back to my own childhood snow days.

In Bemidji, we had a lot of them.


He promptly spent the entire morning playing xbox.  I didn't even time him.

To celebrate the snow, and having no school, and the safe arrival of my

husband the evening before, I whipped up these little numbers:


Apple Dumplings

1 apple, peeled, cut into eighths (I used Honeycrisp, Granny Smith would

work too)

1  8 oz.can crescent rolls

1 stick butter

1/2 c. brown sugar (original recipe, 3/4 cup)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c. Mountain Dew (original recipe, 3/4 cup)

Roll each apple wedge in one piece of dough, starting at the long end, place

in an 8 x 8 pan. Melt butter, stir in sugar and cinnamon, slowly stir in

Mountain Dew.  Pour over dumplings. Cover with foil, bake 15 minutes at

350, uncover and bake 15 minutes more.


There are many variations of this recipe out there, PW has a much larger

one on her website, the one I used is based on Rachael Ray's.  My sis

made it for us with pears instead of apples (mmmmmmm).  I reduced

the amount of sugar and Mountain Dew, as the original version was a little

too sweet for me, and too liquidy.  But the whole pan was gone in about

half an hour, so I guess the guys thought they were just right!


The snow day fun continued, Charlie was in his pajamas until noon, enjoyed

an afternoon of war games and snow football with his friends down the

block, and helped his dad shovel us out.  And today, it's back to reality.


Everyone could use a snow day, now and then.

CARD CRAFTING NEWSFLASH:  Donna Downey is doing a fun give-

away today on her blog at http://donnadowney.typepad.com/ .