Snowflakes, dudes in tights leaping about onstage, czech sugar cookies.

These were the ingredients for my weekend.
On the way home from work on Friday, Dec 4th, it began to snow!

New record!

"HOUSTON - Normally hot and humid Houston is dealing with weather it rarely gets: snow. Snow began falling Friday morning in Houston and other parts of southeast Texas and as of late Friday afternoon had not stopped.

National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Roeseler says it's the earliest snow in Houston's history. The previous record for Houston was Dec. 10 in 2008 and 1944.
Snow is rare for the nation's fourth largest city. In the past15 years, it has snowed four times, including Friday.

The National Weather Service says there have been reports from counties southwest of Houston of accumulations of 3 to 4 inches.There have been reports of half an inch or less in Houston with suburbs south of the city reporting 1 to 2 inches."

It really was kind of pretty.

It didn't stick much @ all, and eventually fizzled into just rain, but it was a nice little surprise.

Friday night Mom and I saw the Nutcracker Ballet! It was such a great show, I really could get into seeing it every year. Saturday I stayed in, watched a movie, and made sugar cookies for Mikuláš, which is celebrated on Dec 5th, the eve of the feast day of St. Nicholas. I remember going to the grocery stores/ potravinys in Prague towards the end of November and being wierded out by the chocolate devils...what would you think when checking out and among the packs of gum and candy bars, you saw this?:
Would you maybe think "...where the hell am I...?"

But I learned that it goes like this: On the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas, i.e. Svatý Mikuláš, a man dressed as such goes around the town (kind of like our Santa) and visits children, but he's got a posse with him: an angel and a devil. If the child has been good, the angel gives him/her a treat, etc.. if the child has been bad, they get a lump of coal from the devil, and the threat of being taken back to hell... ( I know...brutal..).

So, in my always ongoing struggle to remember the good things about my little Czech stint, I made Czech cookies.

I turned this:
into this:


* They don't traditionally have powdered sugar on them, but I had some sugar.. and... why not..? They're really good with coffee or cocoa.

So, yeah! No more snow for now, as the high tomorrow is 70, but I'm looking forward to building a fire sometime soon...