Happy New Year!
Today’s ‘burning’ question is this: have you ever had a hot dog roast on a cold, snowy winter’s day? Perhaps my family has some odd traditions! Every year in mid-December, we head out into the British Columbia mountains to cut Christmas trees with our son and his family. Once we’ve selected just the right trees and loaded them into the back of the 4WD, we find a spot to build a fire and have a winter picnic. We bring thermal mugs of coffee and/or hot chocolate as well. This year it was so cold (-12ºC, which is about 10ºF) we decided we should bring a thermos of hot soup next year!
What’s the craziest picnic you’ve been on? Or… what’s one of your family traditions others might find odd?
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On Monday, Merrillee Whren welcomed us to make cut-out snowflakes day.
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Monday: Valerie M Bodden (More Than a Feeling)
Tuesday: Teresa Tysinger (New Year, New Releases)
Wednesday: Janet W Ferguson (Character Hometowns: Dauphin Island, Alabama #giveaway)
Thursday: Elizabeth Maddrey
Friday: Toni Shiloh (Most Anticipated Indie CCR Reads of 2022)
Saturday: Amy R Anguish (A Challenge to Read)
New Releases
January 2022
Postcards by Elizabeth Maddrey
Love on Ice (Original Six Hockey Romance 2) by Carolyn Miller
Waiting for Right Now (Finding Home Book 4) by K. Leah
December 2021
Romanced by the Hero (Heroes of Freedom Ridge 12) by Liwen Y. Ho
Their Unbreakable Bond (Rocky Mountain Family 4) (K9 Companions 1) by Deb Kastner
The Breakup Project (Original Six Hockey Romance 1) by Carolyn Miller
Reclaiming Hope (Independence Islands 18) by Carolyn Miller
Healing Skye (Coastal Hearts) by Janet W Ferguson
No Place Like Home by Amy R Anguish
The 9yo tried to douse Grampa by shaking snow off a tree, but only managed to get herself.
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Valerie Comer is a USA Today bestselling author and a two-time Word Award winner who writes where food meets faith and fiction. She injects experience laced with humor into her green clean romances. Her life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local foods movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily-ever-afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.
I’ve never been a fan of picnics in general.
With those temperatures hot chocolate sounds good.
Happy New Year Valerie, Inspy authors and readers. This Michigander prefers picnics during the warmer summer and fall months. A fall hayride with a bonfire to roast hot dogs and make s’mores is enjoyable. The granddaughters like summer picnics to celebrate birthdays at area parks. The local library had lunch story time in the library garden. Best wishes to all for 2022.
I haven’t been on a picnic in a few years!! The last one was with friends from church, and we all brought our own lunch and met at a park in town. It was fun! I need to suggest that we do it again!! It doesn’t get as cold in FL as it does in BC, though hot chocolate is good any time, in my opinion!!
Sounds fun but I hate the cold
Hot chocolate is perfect!
Our library has gone to outdoor story times in the past couple of years, too! Maybe a benefit of covid!
A bring-your-own-picnic is perfect with friends!
It does get cold here LOL
I never have been on a picnic in the snow but it sounds like fun.Its been pretty cold here we have had snow for the last week so apple cider and hot chocolate is good I’m not a fan of hot chocolate but my siblings like it.I haven’t been driving for the last week because of the snow.
Happy new year hoping it’s a better year for my family 2020 and 2021 for my family was a really wired 2 years my grandma passed away suddenly on March 24 2020, my brother had a major surgery in California,my sister in law had a baby,my mom had a baby,my sister got engaged and got married,my sister in law had a baby,my sister in law had her second baby, and my sister had a baby so hopefully this year we get to go to Hawaii for my brother’s make a wish.
Hi Valerie,
Funny that you should ask. We had one back in September. We were roaming around southern Colorado looking for a national monument. We couldn’t find it on these back roads, and the GPS was no help. We did find a place where we thought we would hike. We walked about half a mile, and discovered the trail led to a cliff. No way were we going to hike down the cliff and back up. We returned to our car. There was a picnic table, so we got the leftover pizza from our previous day’s lunch and ate it right there. An impromptu picnic.
Several years ago, we decided to visit Utah in September to beat the high temperatures of summer. We camped in Canyonlands National Park. But the daily temperatures were 95, and we would try to eat in the shade. Before we went back to Missouri, we stopped at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, and spent a few days. It snowed on us and I may have worn every piece of long clothing I had packed. Eating in heat and eating in snow, all within one week! That made for weird picnics.
Never been to a hot dog roast. Not sure its done much here. It sure does sound cold to me.
I have been to bonfires on a few camps and with youth group etc. For that matter never had a smore.
We use to have an annual picnic with the church. growing up we had a Summer one where we went to the beach. One year I went with a friends family as mum and dad couldn’t come. We left early and went fishing on the jetty. I had never fished before but they only had two rods (for Peter and Rachel) But there were some fishermen on the jetty and one let me use his rod, helped me to cast and guess who got the only fish. Me my one and only but it wasn’t one you could eat. We then went to the picnic which started around 11am.
I don’t remember too many as a family although we probably did before dad had his stroke when I was 8. Its been awhile since I went on one.
Wow, that does sound very busy! Hope the make-a-wish comes true.
Sometimes those are the most memorable! Glad you found your way back out.
Oh, wow, that’s interesting! I haven’t been to Utah. We were going to go through there on our way back from Vegas in 2019 but swung back via the Pacific coast instead. Some day!
Beginner’s luck on the fish! Good for you. Next time you come to Canada come see me and remind me we’re doing a hot dog roast with s’mores, no matter the time of year!
That sounds like such a fun tradition for your families! I don’t know that I would have been able to withstand the cold as well as you all did, lol.
I’ve had decades of practice!
Well Thank goodness I have had some pretty nice and not crazy picnics. I love going on picnics. It sure sounds like you all had some fun!
It takes all kinds of picnics to make the world go round!
I am not sure that I have a picnic story. We do not have many picnics since we are disabled. Congratulations to the weekly winner. Thank you so much for sharing. God bless you.
I’ve never had a crazy family picnic that I recall :-) But one of my favorite ones I remember was a whole hog roast where the hog was cooked underground for hours. It was part of the camping group my parents were members of and that’s what was on the menu that year. It was SOOOOO good!!! My mouth waters just thinking about it.
I’m not a fan of snow, but your pictures are fun Valerie! Funny that the granddaughter doused herself while trying to get grandpa :-D
Happy 2022 everyone!
I hope you enjoyed the virtual picnic at least :)
We’ve never done a whole hog! Some of our son’s friends get together and do that once in a while – they all chip in. I bet it would be really good!
Love the post and I love having hot dogs and also smores are so yummy! We use to go to my Brother-in-laws cabin and he would roast a hog on a smoker and everyone else would bring a covered dish he also fixed Pinto beans in a cast iron pot over the open fire those were the days Happy New Year To Everyone!
Mmm that sounds amazing!
Hopefully it will happen
I love picnics & campfires. I hate the cold though
Good morning,
Have I ever had a hot dog roast on a cold, snowy winter’s day? I can’t say I have! But I’d like to try one.
Shalom, shalom
Maybe someday!
I like it better than heat. It is so cleansing! And then I like coming inside to a cozy house LOL.
Let me know if/when it’s a possibility!
We love picnics but I’ve never experienced one in winter….interesting!
My family fully accepts that we ‘might’ not be normal!