A surprise visit...

from a special friend for my 40th birthday!

A Snowglobe Cake

Tomorrow is the "Retiro de Damas" for the Pomasqui church and my MIL and I are in charge of refreshments. I offered to do cupcakes and a cake. The rose frosting is always fun to do and turns out pretty too.

 But this cake was WAY fun to make! Dan spotted the little tree at the store the other day and it's just perfect. The snowman is a pepper shaker -- his friend, the salt-shaker, is still in the package!

And this is what the rest of my family worked on today:

I don't know how many buckets they helped fill, but I'm sure there will be some thankful ladies later this month!

Days 17-20

I'm not very good at blogging every day. Could it be that my to-do-list is already kinda full?!

Day 17 The bathroom didn't need 15 minutes of cleaning. The "new" little blue tote system from Day 9 is working great and keeping our things in place. I only needed to swipe the sink and wipe the dust off the shelves.
I cleaned out the "fire place pantry" instead of a kitchen cupboard for two reasons: one, it needed it, and two, the Christmas dishes need a temporary home! It's nice to have the Christmas dishes nearby and easy to get at since we have fun using them this time of year.

Day 18 I didn't vacuum since that job is taken care of for me on most Mondays. I cleaned out my shoe area of our closet and passed along four pairs that I haven't worn in ages. I didn't work in the kids' closets since that's a weekend-type project!

Day 19 We don't have trim around our windows nor do we have baseboards, so I skipped today. There are ledges under our windows, but they weren't dusty. (That's a miracle!)
Today was a holiday here -- Quito Day! Some of us wore red and blue in celebration, though the two nationals I greeted with a "Feliz Dia de Quito" looked a bit confused. Maybe it's a custom thing.
Today was December 6, which means there were goodies in the stockings this morning! We cut out some cool paper snowflakes after school.

Today was Day 20 -- the last day! -- of the Organized Home challenge. I skipped cleaning out the medicines since I did that back on Day 9 when I majorly cleaned my bathroom. This morning Dan and the kids helped put together buckets for the Quito Prison Ministry. They were gone until after lunch, which worked great since I had cupcakes and a cake to make. Pictures coming soon!
I also cleaned the other 3 bathroom vents so that's done now too. I guess the challenge now is to keep things neat through the holidays!