Beginning of Christmas Season

The Christmas season has begun here.  It's cold and there is snow everywhere outside.  It's funny.  Joslyn has watched the movie Frozen a thousand times, but I don't think she ever knew what all the white stuff was.  Now that she's seen all the snow around here, I think she finally understands.

The community we live in already had a little Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun.  Joslyn got to sit on Santa's lap and take a picture for the first time.  She was very good.  They also had a real horse drawn carriage pulling people around the neighborhood.  It was pretty cold sitting in it, but we still enjoyed it.  Joslyn kept saying "weeeee!"

We stopped by the Como zoo and conservatory again this week.  It was the first time we've all gone together, even though all of us have been there separately already.  It was also the first time any of us went through the conservatory part of it. They keep it at 80 degrees, so it was a nice break from walking around outside.  There must have been a million poinsettas, as well as cocoa plants, sugar cane, star fruit plant, avacado, and more.  Joslyn really liked the pond full of koi fish.

Joslyn loved the polar bear exhibit too!

These monkeys have really funny mustaches, I just had to put up a picture.

On our way to the zoo, we got stuck behind a reindeer-drawn sleigh! It moved out of our way, but it was kind of crazy seeing it in the road!

This week's food is probably our favorite so far.  It's a delicious sweet and sour chicken.

So you start out with boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces (we've done it with chicken thighs before, but it really didn't turn out as good). Then you coat the chicken with corn starch (or flour works pretty well, too), dip that in some egg, and fry it in vegetable oil until it just turns golden brown (just a minute or two). Then put it in a 9x13 baking pan, and pour this mixed sauce over the chicken:
1 c sugar
6 Tbsp ketchup
3/4 c vinegar
1-1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1-1/2 tsp garlic powder
Bake at 350 for 1 hour, stirring the chicken every 15 minutes.
Serve with a side of rice and maybe some steamed broccoli!

It's usually not swimming in sauce like this.  We didn't have very much chicken this time.