So this morning we were treated to a strange white precipitation also known as snow. Yes, I know, I'm from Iowa and have seen plenty of this for the last 26 years of my life. But when it snows in New Orleans, which it almost never does, it's a huge deal! People at Starbucks were gawking out the window and taking photos with their cell phones.

I made sure to take plenty of photos, although I quickly remembered why I don't like taking photos in the snow. Nevermind the fact that it gets your camera all wet, but it's freezing to boot and I can only take that for so long.

I am now sitting happily at my desk with a venti extra hot peppermint mocha, which I decided it was finally acceptable to order, being as that there is snow on the ground. It is my winter drink and two days ago it ws 75 degrees here, and not much like winter.

So we'll enjoy this little bit of Christmas miracle for now and pray that it warms up again in the next day or two. But next Thursday I'm off to Iowa for Christmas vacation where I know plenty of nasty winter weather is sure to be waiting.

PHOTOS COMING SOON!

I just realized how long it's been since I posted anything! A lot has happened since then. We have successfully sent out about 8,000 end of year letters to all our supporters, which was quite a task. I had originally thought it would be more like 12,000, but once we worked on taking out duplicates and bad addresses we whittled the number down.

It took our entire staff and several church and team volunteers a week and a half for print, stuff and seal the letters. Then it took two days at the post office to get it all mailed. It has been a relief to have them all out the door on time. Overall the process worked well and we figured out a system for future similar mailings.

My brother Andrew was here for a week for Thanksgiving and got a little taste of mailing as he spent several hours with me at the post office on his first few days here.

It was so good to have him here this year as I was looking at being away from family for the second Thanksgiving in a row. While we didn't do anything spectacular, we had a great time just hanging out and doing everyday stuff.

Thanksgiving day was beautiful. It got up to about 70 degrees and was sunny. We took on the challenge of dog sitting so we took her out to Audubon Park for a walk after having homemade cranberry orange scones and Starbucks. Golden Girl (the dog) loves the park and Andrew ran with her and let her chase the squirrels, which she absolutely loved.

Then we headed home to start making Thanksgiving dinner. I decided it would be fun to just have the two of us this year, and if it becomes a tradition, we may branch out next year. So I bought the turkey and all of the necessary staples and we worked together to make it happen. Preparing the turkey is my least favorite activity. I made Andrew help me wash it off and we spent a lot of time laughing and being grossed out. But it made it in the oven and we moved on to other things.

I'm still working on timing for large meals, and managed to have the turkey done before my rolls or green bean casserole, but it all worked out and we had a good meal.

The annual Turkey Bowl takes place Thanksgiving evening so we went and I watched while Andrew played. I suppose football isn't really his sport, and it's much more competitive than he'd like, but he gave it a shot anyway.

Then we headed home and enjoyed pumpkin pie out on my balcony, which was nice because I really don't sit out there as much as I'd like to. It was also nice that the weather was nice enough to do so without freezing to death.

We did venture out the day after Thanksgiving but not early and not looking for anything in particular. We spent almost 20 minutes circling at the mall while looking for a parking spot and completely by accident managed to score a spot close to the door and in the parking ramp. Of course, the mall was nuts. I had a coupon for New York and Company that I wanted to use, but I didn't find much that was worth spending that kind of money for. We also ventured into our new Macy's just to look briefly but left there empty-handed as well.

Our last stop was Williams Sonoma, which is one of my favorite stores. It smelled so good and it always inspires me to be a better cook. We looked at things that I don't even know what they're used for, but may very well be needed. The smell of apple cider was so strong we were both inspired and I had to get in touch with my friend Kevin to get his recipe for later.

Saturday it rained all day, but we took a trip to Dunkin' Doughnuts because Andrew wanted to try them. Then, of course, we took our doughnuts to my favorite Starbucks where we were able to sit outside under the canopy to enjoy and watch the rain. We did not, however, stay very long because of three women who were smoking, being loud and obnoxious. The rest of the day we just hung out and watched movies and made red beans and rice for dinner.

Sunday was, thankfully, another beautiful day. We went to church in the morning and then headed to VooDoo BBQ for lunch. Andrew wanted to go there because he liked it so much when he was here last March. Somehow, I managed to squirt a vinegar bbq sauce all over my face and most of my clothes no more than two minutes into our meal. That provided an unexpected good laugh and more laughs when we got into the car and could only smell vinegar.

In the afternoon we took Golden Girl out to City Park. In the 14 months that I've been here I hadn't ever been there, so that was a lot of fun. Andrew again gave into G.G.'s need to run everywhere and chase squirrels and be a nut and we tried our best to tire her out for the afternoon. We also went to the old golf course part of the park that is now overgrown and untended. We had a lot of fun poking red ant hills and running away.

Sunday night we spent time making a gingerbread house out of frosting and graham crackers. We had managed to eat our first can of frosting and several graham crackers so we had to get more supplies before we could start. We had a lot of fun with it and finally got around to making our apple cider as well.

It was hard to have him leave early Monday morning because we'd had such a good time and it seemed like time went by so fast. The upside of that is that I will be back for Christmas in 16 days, which I am very much looking forward to. I'll be able to spend some time in my mom's classroom and will be able to go to the wedding of some friends in Des Moines as well as see friends and family that I haven't seen in a while.