And on the 8th day, God made cannoli.

"Cannoli filled fresh while you wait."

I admit that K- was the one that spotted them. Deliciously crisp shells with chocolate dipped ends wrapped around the most delightful filling and dipped in chocolate chips.

Angels sang Hallelujah!

God smiled. His work was good.

I admit that the only knowledge that K- and I about cannoli was that Curious George would do just about anything for Chef Piscetti's cannoli. In fact, there was an episode where Chef Piscetti was so upset about his damaged restaurant booths that he just couldn't bring himself to make cannoli. Curious George solved the mystery and the Chef rewarded him with cannoli.

Getting back to the real cannoli, my mother grew up in an Italian neighborhood and she said that the cannoli I bought from the West Side Market in Cleveland were the absolute best cannoli she had ever had.

Yum.

And yes, the cannoli were that good that they deserved an entire post.

Smiles in my weekend:
- Taking my parents to A Christmas Story House, the West Side Market, The Avenue at Tower City Center, The Hard Rock Cafe (Cleveland), Public Square, a driving tour of the lake shore, past the Rock Hall, Cleveland Browns Stadium, Rockefeller Park, University Circle and the Cleveland Museum of Art. My parents are kind of bumpkins that don't travel north, so all these places were new to them. We took them to celebrate my father's upcoming leap year (no, it isn't a leap year) birthday. My dad is a mechanic, so I have a hard time thinking of gifts to give to him.
- Going with K- to play with a few of her siblings today. She had so much fun!
- Hubs dismantled Christmas today. While K- and I went to church, Hubs stayed home and freed the house from our Christmas lights in the 7 degree heat. While we were gone visiting with K-'s family, Hubs took the Christmas tree down, as well as all of the miscellaneous bits of Christmas we had everywhere. I love Christmas, but I admit that this year we were all ready to see it get stowed away.
- Hubs, K- and me working together on New Year's Day to organize Barbie paraphernalia into containers and so forth. We all worked together to reorganize the play area. Hubs was even able to run a refurb on the Barbie party bus (or whatever the thing is called) so now it doesn't just fall apart when you open it. (My advice, never buy it. Mattel cut major corners and it is just not a quality item.) He screwed the shower head in, velcro'd tables up, glued side mirrors on and put batteries in so that the party bus plays the Barbie party music.
- Ironing all of the clean uniform parts that I had for K-. All of the ironing is done for the week.
- Over break, K- and I reached the 300 mark on the 100 book challenge list and we are on our way to 350. I would like to reach 400 before the end of the grading period, which is January 15. Yes, I realize that I have a week and a half, but I have a goal of 200 book lines (15 minutes per line) per grading period. Though the school only requires 100 book lines per grading period, we love reading together and K- likes to earn the prizes offered. Not a bad kid goal to have!

I must shove off. 6:45 AM comes early and we've been slackers at getting up early. We've been sleeping in and I'm certain that the morning will be a bit of a tussle to get up and going.

Have a great week!