Imagine Childhood : Magic & Memories That Last a Lifetime

... giveaway forum: polar wonders

Winter seems to be in full swing around here so we thought it would be the perfect time for a polar giveaway! Today we are giving away a lovely Lifelike Plush Polar Bear and a hardcover of Ollie's Ski Trip by Elsa Beskow to one lucky winner!

To enter for a chance to win this great prize simply respond to the forum topic in the comments for this post.

Forum topic: What is your favorite winter activity?


More ways to enter the giveaway:

Want to improve your chances?  You can leave a second comment by blogging about imaginechildhood.com (please leave a link to your post), and you can even leave a third comment by tweeting about imaginechildhood.com on twitter (simply leave a comment with a link to your tweet)!


The giveaway will close next Monday December 14th at 12pm MST and the winner (picked by a random number generator) will be announced later that day!

Good Luck!

AND THE WINNER IS:

Annie who wrote: I don’t think we know what our favorite winter activity is just yet. We just moved to Vermont after living in California for years and years and are experiencing an all together different kind of winter!

... barn stories: a cold winter's morning

We've had a week of single digit temperatures.  It's been hard on all the animals, lots of breaking of ice, lots of feeding, constantly keeping food going through their systems. This morning has been the worst,  -10 degrees.  The draft horses Dolly and Charlie were down in the arroyo and not in their shed this morning. Maybe there was something green still growing there?

Snow crusts up on their backs, it actually provides some insulation. You can see their coats are thick and puffed up to provide additional warmth.

I can only work out in this temperature for blocks of 30 minutes at a time.

It will be 45 degrees they say by Sunday...

... I can't wait!


*Last time in Barn Stories: The Charlie Brown Tree

... while wandering in the woods

Winter is creeping in day by day... and with it wonderful new textures, crisp air and signs of animals finding shelter and nourishment in new places.

What a wonderful season...


*Last time in Nature: Wood Lichen

... nature walk: audubon wildlife sanctuary, northeastern usa

This week's lovely nature walk comes to us from a beautiful Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary.  There Michelle and her family enjoyed the quiet of the woods, giant leaves, soft moss and the rugged textures of tree bark.  Thank you so much Michelle for sharing this great adventure!

If you would like to contribute to our weekly Nature Walk series, you can learn more about submitting photos here, or you can also visit our new Nature Walk Group Pool on Flickr to add your adventures to the collection.

Thanks again Michelle for sharing!


*Last time in Nature Walk: Banff, Alberta Canada

... holiday snowballs

Every year as the weather begins to change and winter makes its way in to stay, we make these wonderful cookies.  Sweet simple and classic they are nothing new by far, but that doesn't take away from the fun in making them and the pure delight in eating them.

Although most recipes for these tasty treats call for the use of mixer, we love to make them in a bowl, crumbling the butter with our hands until it forms a pea consistency (lots of fun for kids to do too!), adding the chopped walnuts at the end.

Then we form them into balls and bake them for 30+ minutes in a 300 degree oven until the bottoms are just the lightest golden brown.

We also love to use unbleached white whole wheat flour because it adds a wonderful nutty flavor that compliments the walnuts and the powdered sugar "snow" oh so well.

The only problem is that they disappear almost as quickly as they can be piled on a plate!

Great Great Grandma's Snow Ball Cookies:

1 cup cold butter (cut into cubes)

2 cups four (we like to use unbleached white whole wheat)

6 TBS Powdered Sugar

1 TSP vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts

Powdered sugar for rolling or dusting baked cookies

Combine butter, flour, vanilla and sugar in a bowl and mix with fingers until it is a course pea texture.  Add walnuts and toss lightly.

Form into balls and bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 30+ minutes in a 300 degree oven or until the bottoms are just golden.

Roll in powdered sugar (they might need a second roll if the sugar melts too much) straight out of the oven and allow to cool.

P.S.  Don't forget to enter our wonderful holiday giveaway for a convertible handcrafted sled!  Ends 12/11/12 at 4pm!

*Last time in Recipes: Marzipan Mushrooms