Catching up

Well, we made it through Christmas nicely and had a wonderful New Year.  January has welcomed us with extra hours at work for Chris, as well as two college classes for me.  It's very nice to be back in school after all this time, but is taking a bit of adjusting on my part!

Here are a few pictures from the past month.

We took a day trip to Hachimontai to ski.  Brandon and I stuck to the bunny slope...

While Ryan (in the green jacket) kept up well with Chris on the bigger hills.

Sawyer and Brandon took a "used" snowman from another yard and transported it to our yard.  No theft, was involved, though - they had permission.

It amazes me what Ryan tries.  Here he is enjoying sushi.

This was the first night Chris had to use the snow blower.  Since the beginning of January, he's had to wake up at least an hour early in the morning to blow the snow several times. All the fun has worn off.  

Are icicles stalactites?  

I've never seen this before.  It has detached itself from the roof and rested on the patio roof.  

Pizza, Mario, & Billy the Exterminator - a typical Wednesday night at the Klement's house

Brandon's best friend, Hailey, is moving right after Christmas.  We invited her and her brother, Josh, over to make pizzas and watch several "Billy the Exterminator" episodes, which is their new favorite show.

No trip to our house would be complete without dressing up as some type of characters - this night, it was a Mario Brothers theme.  

Mario & Luigi

The kids always "act out" the characters during the opening credits to "Billy..."

Big Bill

Ricky

Mary

We sure will miss Miss Hailey and her family!  

More Baking

Here is Ryan adding flour to the cookie mixture.  

I think the boys ate more Hershey's Kisses than they put on top of the "Peanut Butter Blossoms."  

This is a special cookie for Santa made by Ryan.  It's Baby Jesus, and the kiss is his heart....

Christmas baking...and ghosts!

I finally started my Christmas baking.  I made a successful batch of fudge, a semi-successful batch of my mother-in-law's Butterhorns, and a doomed batch of peanut brittle.  I'm blaming the altitude for that one...

Here is Brandon stirring the chocolate chips for the fudge.

These are the monstrous Butterhorns...I'm going to try them again today because they should be a bit smaller (and a whole lot prettier!)

Oh, FFFFUUDDGGGEEE!

Where this year's peanut brittle ended up.....

The boys and I watched "Celebrity Ghost Stories" the other night...you can tell they enjoyed it by this picture!  

Christmas Fun

It  snowed a little bit recently, so the neighborhood kids got together to build a tiny snowman...They're hoping for more snow soon!

Meet "Norm," the snowman.

Later on, the boys worked on their gingerbread house they received from Grandma and Grandpa.  I think they ate more than they actually used to decorated with!

Ryan with the finished product.

Brandon's Christmas tree song

I watched Brandon make this "video" today and had to share it.  Below, are the lyrics to his song:

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!

You’re like a beautiful person.

You don’t have a shirt or anything, 

You don’t have a shirt or everything.         

O Christmas tree! O Christmas tree!

...my little love

You’re made out of a tree

So bright and green.

O Christmas tree!  O Christmas tree!

uhn uhn uhn uhn uhn uhn uhn uhn

Merry Christmas

Last Saturday, the club hosted "Breakfast with Santa."  The kids were very happy to see the big guy!

Nabeyaki Udon

For our cooking class this month, we made Nabeyaki Udon, which is a noodle dish.  Udon is a pretty thick type of noodle.  

Slicing the "kamaboko"which is a type of fish cake.  

I've seen the most unusual mushrooms here...

This is a tempura batter with carrots, onion, flour and egg.

The toppings - kamaboko and fried tofu on one plate, carrots and leeks on another.

Tomo-san frying the tempura

And here's the base for the broth.  We used the skins of the chicken, again for seasoning as well as the usual dashi powder.  

Close up of the tempura batter.  

Tomo-san is demonstrating how to put the dish together.  First, the udon noodles.  Then the toppings...

The white stuff in the tube is garlic paste - pretty cool!

After putting the toppings on, we put some broth in the bowl and put it on the stove .  Once it boils, crack and egg on top - turn the burner off and cover until the egg is cooked the way you like it.  

Here's pretty Michele posing with her Udon!