Let it Snow!

I finished our Christmas shopping today.  The lines were awful and it was taking waaaay longer than I ever expected, but as I walked out of the next-to-last store it started snowing.  I didn’t even know it was supposed to snow.  It’s sticking, enough so that I slid and almost missed one of my turns on the way home.  I was in the right turn lane and was slowing down to make the turn when I started sliding.  Luckily there was no one behind me and I was able to get myself stopped (and make the turn).  The rest of the trip home was uneventful, thank goodness.

All of the gifts for our family, friends and a few Angel Tree kids are under the tree unwrapped.  I’ve got a lot of stuff to wrap, so I decided to try throwing a wrapping party this year.  Friends, food, and more tape than you can shake a stick at.  We’ll see how that goes — hopefully some of my invitees can actually make it since I’ve scheduled it for a weeknight.

In other news, John bought me a Nesco Roaster as a “just because” gift.  I’ve been wanting one of these for a while.  I got the 18-quart version which is large enough to roast a 22 lb. turkey; not that I”m planning on doing that (since my Thanksgiving turkeys are typically closer to 26 – 30 lbs), but this size comes with the buffet warming set which is very cool and useful.  It arrived yesterday.  I did the “smoke out” this morning (you have to run it on high for an hour) and am now making my completely un-famous In-Law Chicken in it.

The roaster acts as a replacement for both my crock pots and my oven.  Why replace a perfectly good oven?  Because the oven uses more energy and really heats the kitchen up.  As I type this, I can smell the chicken.  Mmmmmmmmmm.  (Update:  For those of you who typed “NESCO” into Google and found this post, I cooked the chicken the exact same way in the Nesco as I would in a normal oven.  The only difference is that the skin didn’t get as crispy and browned.)

John had to go in to work today.  Once he gets home we’ll watch the latest Netflix movie to arrive, and he’s requested hot chocolate.  I’ll probably make up some fresh kettle corn too.

It doesn’t show signs of stopping,
And I’ve brought some corn for popping;
The lights are dimmed way down low,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Snow, hot chocolate, chicken, kettle corn and a tree bursting with presents for friends and family … it doesn’t get better than this.

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