Chronicle of the Winter Weekend - A Change in Plans

There's dialogue in the movie Marley and Me when John and Jen are reflecting upon his career.  John is, once again, wondering if he made the right decision by changing his career path.  Comically portrayed by Owen Wilson, he makes the remark, "None of this was part of the plan." But the always wise wife (played by lovely Jennifer Anniston) responds, "No, it wasn't part of the plan. But it's so much better."

This weekend didn't quite go according to plan. We had arranged a small gathering for some friends when Old Man Winter decided to quit pussy-footing around. Who can blame him? The kids haven't had a lick of snow days and it's December 12th already. Anyway, despite all my toiling in the kitchen, my dedicated practice of vacuuming seventeen times before a guest visits our house, and, of course, at least one teary-eyed child when told of the cancellation, we had a pretty darn good day.

Let me in please. I'm freezing.

The weekend started off with a foreboding on Friday: the 1950 garage-refrigerator took a dump and left us without a home for soda and beer. And guess what? We had meat from the 2003-era in the freezer. The good news? That smell we had noticed was not Percy-poop in some secluded corner of the garage - as we had suspected. The bad news? No place for extra beverages. And no time to shop for a new fridge. On the upside (we think), Percy found some new treasures that he assumed he could bury in the house somewhere. Sorry, Dude. You're not that cute.


Once the storm rolled in, we did what 80% of the the rest of the families did in Shelby County this weekend. We baked. Being the mother that I am, I rolled out the sugar dough (compliments of Betty Crocker), and started making stars, angels, trees, candy canes, and a few other unnameable patterns. Then I attempted to place my cut-outs on the cookie sheets. And I cursed. The sweet little scene fell apart from there. Yes, I know I needed more flour. But what do you do when you only have approximately 1 1/2 cups? You scrimp! And it never bodes well in the cooking or baking department. So, after one batch of making "cracker-cookie-cutouts," we just made circle-cookies. And the kids frosted them. They were just fine. Better than fine. Look closely - see a bit of frosting on around those cute little lips?

 Sometimes the best plans are those curves on the road. We just need to learn to lean into them.