This is the way my world ends…

not with a bang but a whimper.   I got a surprising amount of my list done, considering that a honesty bomb was dropped on me on Saturday night and my marriage has now officially ended.  The next few weeks are going to be especially hard with Sacha’s birthday party, Christmas and related activities, packing up the house, dividing assets and moving, listing the house and hoping for a sale.  Huge life adjustments for all of us.  Because I am too tired right now to think and make any kind of profound statements about my new situation, I am going to just update my to do list and post the few pics I did take this weekend.

1. Update blog
2. Bake Pretzel cookie treats for preschool party
3. Make Christmas present for family member
4. Help make Andrew’s christmas present for family member
5. Do laundry
6. Rake Leaves
7. Make Dough Ornaments for Sacha to decorate
8. Therapy Appointment
9. Take Sacha to pick out presents for 3 people
10. Drop off dough ornaments and pretzel treats at preschool
11. Attend preschool party
12. Pack up house
13. Vacuum stairs
14. Clean bathrooms
15. Take Recycling to depot
16. Groceries

Pretzel treats were really good.  Just melt a Hershey’s kiss on a mini pretzel and then smush an M&M on top.  So easy and very tasty.

I made two batches and the first one was perfect but the second batch I left in the oven for too long and the kiss went weirdly crumbly and not perfectly melty and smooth.  This did not affect the taste too badly.

I know my family member who’s name I picked does not read this blog so I feel confident in showing what I made for them.  Andrew actually did most of it anyway, but it was my idea and my present to give so I am claiming it.

  Andrew took the kids down to the beach on Friday afternoon and got 6 litres of sea water.  On Saturday afternoon we strained the water through two layers of cotton cloth (I didn’t have cheese cloth, but cotton has a finer weave anyway).  It took about 4 hours to boil down and evaporate to nothing and we were left with about 1/2 cup of sea salt.  We left it to dry even more over night.  I had two empty spice jars that I had been saving for an unknown project since the summer and those are both full of salt now and there was still some left in the pot after I took what I needed.

I tried a little bit of it and it is extremely salty.  Way saltier than table salt or even the big crystal sea salt.  I am really happy with how it turned out and also happy that I am done my Christmas present.

Finally, we had told Sacha that Santa was coming to his preschool today and even though Andrew and I didn’t get much more than 3 hours sleep on Saturday night, we went to the preschool party all together.

Sacha didn’t sit on Santa’s knee at all last year, we waved to him in the Sechelt parade.  His first meeting with Santa did not go so well and he was nervous again this year until he saw his buddies go first and then we put Alice on Santa’s lap.  Sacha finally joined in and asked Santa for a “wood chopper”.   He wants an axe to chop up firewood to make a fire.   Cute or creepy?  Not sure.  Andrew has been heating the house with wood fires, so I am assuming that’s what brought this wish on.  We told him already that Santa only brings toys.