Cold . . .

This month has been so cold.  Apparently there are huge polar air masses that keep finding their way south, it drops our temperatures well below zero with the wind chill.  The first one was a couple weeks ago and last night another one came our way. 

We left the heat up that night and opened all the cupboard doors.  We forgot to leave the spigots dripping and our kitchen pipes froze.  I was a little panicked but thankfully nothing burst.  We were patient and at about 3 pm the next day they started to drip and were soon completely thawed. 

The wind chill was around -40 so Hannah had the day off school and since I pretty much knew it would happen, I was ready.  We invited a friend to come over and she was willing to brave the cold.  In the Friend--a magazine for children published by our church--this month they invited children to print out a "passport" and get to know a little bit about children all over the world.  They include stories, recipes, and crafts.  This month was about Mexico, so we made cascarones.  They are essentially died egg shells filled with confetti.  You are suppose to crack them on someones head to give them good luck.  Let me say though, those egg shells are pretty hard. 

I spent a good hour, carefully breaking a little hole in the end of the shells and emptying the inside out. (We had scrambled eggs for breakfast)  We let them dry and I made homemade egg dye.  The kids enjoyed coloring their eggs though it took those a long time to dry out.  

Later, we filled them with colored paper I put through our shredder.  We sealed them up with a piece of tissue paper and later I found confetti all over the basement.  I'm still finding it : ) 

Along with that the kids and I made a fort.  This was a cherished memory from when I was a kid.  Every year for Spring break my siblings and I would make a two room fort and we'd sleep in it for a few nights and my mom would let us leave it up for days.  Well the kids tried sleeping in it but the noises were a little too much for them and around 9 pm they came trudging up the stairs. 

We had fun.  Unfortunately this time we only got a two hour delay in school but no frozen pipes so we celebrate and move on.  I hope this is the end of the frigid weather.  We're almost through January, ahh the joys of living in the northeast.