Dot Lays an Egg

This morning Emma and Jon went over to our neighbor Johnne's farm to haul wood and feed vegetable scraps to Pumpkin and Dot (Emma's "birthday" chickens).

They are young birds, not full-grown, but Dot delighted Emma by leaving her a tiny egg to find.

An older chicken had laid a very large egg, which Emma is holding in her hands next to Dot's egg (at right). The size difference was fun to see; the larger egg looked like it could have been from an ostritch when laid next to little Dot's.

Emma couldn't wait to have me boil them and make her deviled eggs. I obliged her later that morning, and the result was interesting. Dot's egg had no yolk, and the large egg was revealed to have twin yolks. For scale, the boiled egg in the middle (below) is a "normal" sized egg.

This morning was our coldest winter day yet (about 0 degrees). Jon had Michael bundle up and come outdoors to help him stack firewood. He had Michael learn a little bit about operating the Bobcat-- something I've never done myself. Michael was proud of himself.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Cornell and visited with Bud and Jane. Grandma Jane has just started her Christmas decorating, and had the lights hung on her Christmas tree-- but no ornaments, yet.

We had supper, with rosettes for dessert. Rosettes are traditional Norwegian cookies that resemble snowflakes. They're fried in oil and lightly dusted with powdered or granulated sugar. Very pretty.

We tried to get a good photograph of Leila interacting with one of Grandma Jane's big baby dolls-- this little guy's very smiley and realistic. But Leila was flopping her arms around quite a bit and the photos turned out pretty blurry. She was excited.

Laurie posted some nice pics from our Thanksgiving visit to Rhinelander, so I thought I'd borrow some of them to post here, too (for those of you who don't see her blog).

I particularly like this one of Leila and Dad:

Uncle Bill didn't fare as well with Leila (at least that's how it appears in the photo below, right):

I don't know why Leila wasn't protesting in the photo below, when Daddy decided to hold her on his lap upside down. Yikes.

Emma and Jon just walked through the door. Emma went to our neighbor girl Makayla's birthday party this afternoon-- a pool party at a nearby motel. So on the coldest day of the year (so far), Emma was swimming. Kind of strange, but fun for her.

This blog will be short... lots to do. Happy holidays!