The coolest ornament came in the mail today! It's a little wooden frame with a 3D paper cut-out winter scene. I love it! Isn't it cute?Last week at Williams-Sonoma, Emma and I received free samples of their peppermint bark. I don't really like white chocolate and I'm not a huge fan of candy canes, but this stuff was so astoundingly delicious that I have been thinking about it ever since. I found a recipe online that is supposed to be just like theirs, and planned to make it today so I could finally eat some more of it and then move on. I ran into trouble at Target because their white chocolate was on sale and, consequently, sold out. They had plenty of "vanilla flavored baking morsels" but who wants those? Not me. I planned to run into a different store on the way home, but once I realized both kids had fallen asleep, I decided to push back the making of the peppermint bark and just go to the store tomorrow. After a couple hours of being home and cozy and in our pajamas, I remembered the impending ice storm. Since I am not someone who loves digging her car out from under thick sheets of ice in the bitter cold, I decided to bundle everyone up and go to the store before the storm hit. Due to a combination of it being rush hour and everyone feeling freaked about the weather and who knows what else, it took us forever to get to the store that is normally about five minutes away. The place was packed, but we made our way through all the last-minute, pre-storm crowds only to discover that they didn't have any white chocolate! After all this I wasn't going to go home empty-handed, so we went to another store and finally, finally found some. About bloody time! Now we are all set for a day of hiding out inside, baking, and eating lots of peppermint bark. It better be good.

Emma is ALWAYS trying to hold Noah's hand and sometimes it drives me crazy because I think maybe the poor guy just wants to be left alone for once. There are other times, like today when I opened the car door to find them holding hands while they slept, that I don't find it annoying at all. "Heartwarming" is a much better word.