Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   My adorable niece and I baked some Christmas cookies just before Christmas (in between me being violently ill with the swine flu and Christmas, that is), but once again I haven't gotten around to posting any pictures until just now. Seeing as I've basically been confined to the house all afternoon thanks to a massive landfill of snow that's being dumped on our lovely city right now, it seemed like a good time to catch up here a little bit.
 Oh, and as an aside, may I mention that it's NOT wise to take I 80/94 or even I 80/90 when http://www.weather.com/ states that there will be 'mild snow flurries' for the Region. Do you know what 'mild snow flurries' translates to in the Region?  TONS AND TONS OF NASTY BLOWING SNOW OBSCURING THE HIGHWAYS AND MAKING ALL THE CRAZY DRIVERS EVEN MORE DANGEROUS, THAT'S WHAT!
I apologize for the yelling, but after having left the house at 3:30 this morning and managing to the drive to O'Hare and back in order to get Yuki to his 7 a.m flight on time, I'm even less of a fan of snow than I was before. At least, in another example of the weird weather patterns in this area, Chicago and beyond was completely snow-free! Of course, the first 2 accidents we saw were on the Dan Ryan, in completely snow/ice/moisture free areas. Of course.
  Back to happy thoughts though: Zelie and I made my Nana's famous butter cookies, since they're quick, easy, and known to be amazing. I was hoping to bake a few more varities, but so far time just hasn't been on our side. Maybe tomorrow afternoon we'll bake some Jamaican rum cookies....if we can break out of the house and wade through snow piles to get some rum, that is....

                                              She had so much fun decorating!

 


                            Finally, a masterpiece......