Yes, snow! This is my little girl playing in the snow the day before WinterFest.
We decorated the walls with twinkle lights and snowflakes we made.
Why not combine storage and decor? I kept bows in a big bowl on the book shelf. 🙂
My little one love to help stir while I am cooking, she’s my little helper!
For dinner on WinterFest-Eve, I made Curried Butternut Squash Soup and little poppyseed ham and swiss sandwiches. Soup and sandwiches make great winter meals!
My husband, Tim, makes breakfast on WinterFest … this year he made blini, a thin Russian pancake
(you can see his recipe is taped up on the microwave)…
… and they were sooooooooo delicious!
 Apparently, they are eaten both savory (with sour cream and fish) or sweet (with fruit spreads).
My favorite was with a little sour cream and blackberry jam … ahh, it was SO good.
Our daughter loved the blini too. 🙂
Then, after breakfast, I got to work on cooking the Russian dinner.
In the meantime, my little one was hunting down the clues we had hidden for her to find throughout the day.
Finally it was time for dinner! First there was a spread of Russian zakuski (kind of like appetizers you eat throughout the whole meal).
It turns out various pickles are an essential part of a big Russian meal – my daughter put them into pretty little bowls, and enjoyed them very much. 🙂
First we had Pomegranate Broth Soup, from a Russian cookbook. It was … interesting…
… maybe a little tart for my daughter. 🙂 She was a good sport though!
The main course was roast pork paprikash with garlic smashed potatoes, and a delicious sauce made from the vegetables cooked with the meat. We loved it! Not very photogenic, though.
Dessert was a cheese and blueberry pie. I totally cheated and used the wrong kind of crust as opposed to authentic Russian crust, but it tasted good, so just don’t tell anyone. 😉
After supper, she found the last of a set of five clues about Russian nesting dolls I had hidden for her;
she was very excited because now she could put them all together…
She had to put the nesting doll clues in order of size;
each one had a letter inside, and once they were in order….
… she could read the word they made: SNOW!
Yep, she knew where she needed to go to find the last clue – out in the snow!
Time to get bundled up! She and Daddy went outside;
I lagged inside a minute behind to get everything set up while they went out to hunt for the last clue!
Found it!
… it said to go inside for a WinterFest surprise …
Presents! In ice blue and cranberry red, of course. 🙂
We exchanged gifts – one of the biggest hits was the box of legos … I think my husband was almost as excited about them as she was!
On the left are all the WinterFest clues from throughout day!
We also really liked the Russian dolls my Mom let us use, and the cards my younger siblings made.
It was definitely a day of special memories that we enjoyed spending together. Happy WinterFest!
