Snow day; perfect with a pot of soup!

Well, we had a great Christmas; a wonderful time with family and friends.  The time leading up to Christmas and this past week I have really felt the peace and hope that Jesus brings; the true meaning of this season.  It's been a very special time.

  

As we do every Christmas; we moved over to my parents house for 3 days.  It was a great time; the hustle and bustle of 9 adults and 2 kids under one roof was a wonderul kind of hectic.  However; once it was time for us to go home we were happy to settle back into the calm of our "norm". 

One thing Aubrey had been so patient for was her doll house from Grandma and Grandpa.  She had stared and even played with the big unopen box in grandma's lobby for the 3 days. The promise was when we got home it would be the first thing I'd tackle.  We had come home right before bedtime.  Jeff was at the Jet's game, I put Aubrey to bed and with the instruction booklet (yes booklet) in hand I turned on a Christmas movie and three hours later; Voila!

                                    When Aubrey woke up the next morning she was thrilled! 

 That morning we woke up to a mini-blizzard.  Looking out of the window it looked like we were in a flour-bowl.  Jeff got told not to come into work and that was fine with us.
Realizing we would all be home all day I quickly sprang into action.  Having just got home from being away I didn't have any real meal ideas in mind...so I thought SOUP; perfect! 

I grabbed my large dutch oven and started chopping.  I chopped up 2 farmer sausages from the freezer, 1 large onion, about 6 ribs of celery and 4 peeled carrots.  I sauteed this with olive oil.  Onions, carrots and celery are three of my staples; I usually have these in my crisper drawer for this very reason.  When you have nothing; you have something...soup or stirfry can be another few ingredients away.

As I was putting this together Jeff looked a little skeptical; I was moving quite fast and I do look a little crazy in the kitchen...note; no pictures!

To this I added a 1 Litre box of chicken stock (another staple), 1 packet of onion soup mix and about 1 Litre of water.    I threw in some frozen corn (another staple in my freezer) and a drained/rinsed canned of white beans.  I seasoned this with just salt and pepper and let it slowly simmer with the lid on.

We grabbed a plate of mid-morning snacks and went downstairs to watch Aubrey's newest beloved veggietales movie.

We had the most enjoyable time together; laughing, singing and even a little dancing!

 After a few hours the house started to smell wonderful.  We each enjoyed a big bowl of it for lunch; accompanied by a piece of homemade bread courtesy of my MIL.  I have to say, Jeff was very impressed!  It tasted so good....very Grandma Martin-esque.  I feel that the addition of onion soup mix is a great way to round out and bulk up the flavour profile in a short amount of time.  I will definitly be remembering this flavour trick!

Still recovering from a busy week at grandmas and a touch of the flu Aubrey needed "quiet time".  This is how I found her in her room; wrapped in her potty time book.  This is taking "hugging the toilet seat" to another level! 

Today I am back a work and am so thankful for a wonderful refreshing week off.

Yesterday I capped the whole week off with a movie night-out with my sisters.
I feel very blessed.