January is for Snuggles

We had a snuggle night tonight. Beef stew (in the crock pot-easy as pie) and biscuits. Yummy comfort food and easy clean-up. It gave us time to snuggle up together and talk under a blanket. My husband had two of the children out ice skating, so I had the other two at home. We talked a lot about books, our favorites and ones we want to read. We each shared some from the ones we're reading. My daughter is reading GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SOCK. My son is reading a series of pirate books, can't remember the exact name, and I'm reading this awesome mg book WILD RIDER by Susan Williams. It's so good; I highly recommend it. You'd think all this snuggling and talking would naturally evolve more but the truth is, it's not so natural anymore. We have to schedule 'snuggle time' just like I have to cut articles out of the paper for our family to discuss current events. People don't just instinctively do these things anymore. We're so conditioned to be entertained all the time that the minute we slow down, we either go right to sleep or don't know what to do. Anyway, we had a great snuggle night, and I want to encourage all my readers to schedule some snuggle time with their kids this week. And I challenge myself to schedule it with my other two kids this week.
We head for Minnesota to see family in a few days. We're all very excited but it promises to be quite cold. If there are any cold experts in the house, please feel free to offer tips and suggestions for packing.
Thank you for reading. I can't tell you what it means to me to get comments or other evidence of readership. Take care.

Snuggle Night Beef Stew: Buy about a pound and a half of stew beef, already cut up, at your grocery store. 1/2 cup peeled baby carrots, 1 rib of celery, finely chopped, 6 small potatoes, peeled and cut up, and a little packet of beefy onion soup mix or plain old onion soup mix. Oh, yeah, and a little garlic if you've got it. But just a tad. Throw those guys into your crock pot, mix 'em up, pepper it well, and cover with can of cream of celery soup. Then throw in a couple of beef bullion cubes and about two cups of water. Let it cook all day on low. Make biscuits to eat alongside (or serve it over biscuits, my favorite). Pillsbury in the freezer section, blue bag, are the best. Don't even taste like a shortcut.
Snuggle with your honeys and enjoy.