Winter Storm Electra and Gingerbread Houses

First, the sad news. One of our chickens, the super-sweet Nugget, has gone missing. All four chickens were there yesterday afternoon when Gus went out to cover the coop in anticipation of the impending snowstorm. They don't particularly like walking on the snow, so they tend to stay close to the coop. But when it was time to lock them in for the night, just a few hours later, Nugget was nowhere to be found. It had just started snowing pretty steadily, so we couldn't even see any tracks. We had hoped that she might have hunkered down for the night somewhere, but we searched all over the place both last night and this morning, and there has been no sign of her. It was 7 degrees outside last night, and we got about 8 inches of snow. And really, she always stays with the flock. So we are thinking that some hungry fox or coyote must have nabbed her. Though I still hold onto a shred of hope that she just wandered off and might come back to us... it's a very small shred, though. :( And it is really sad, because she was the nicest of all the chickens!! She will be sorely missed. This is her, in the middle:

But, in other news... We did get that 8 inches of snow I mentioned. And we did need to comb the yard for Nugget again this morning. So we all got bundled up in our snow gear and went out back. The kids were so happy to play in the snow again-- they sledded and shoveled and made snow angels and basically had so much fun that I had to drag them back inside so we wouldn't be late for our afternoon playdate! The snow wasn't sticky enough for building anything, so that will have to wait (bummer! that's my favorite part!). But the depth was really great-- not too hard to walk in, but still enough to have fun with. And it seems like this might be the magical year where both kids are old enough to trudge through the snow on their own without needing my help. Yes!! At any rate... pictures!

After we came inside and wolfed down some lunch, we headed over to Caryn's house for our annual gingerbread-house-making gathering. If you will remember, this was our very first playdate back when we first moved here-- and that was her first year of doing it. So it's become a tradition. It is always a lot of fun, especially for the moms! I had a fabulous time!

Now we enter the last week before winter break. Niko has his holiday concert and his last swim class this Wednesday, and his karate class holiday party on Thursday. Maya will be missing her dance holiday party so she can go to Niko's concert. It is going to be a busy week for everyone! Christmas is almost here!!