Happy Day After Christmas!!

Snowy Christmas Morning

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family -- or maybe just some quiet alone time! We had a SUPER time with Gent, Elaine and kids, Big T and Robert, Jenna, Jim and Little Bug, and mom and dad! This year we repeated a country -- we had Russian food again! We had one of my best ever creations of borscht, chebureki, my first ever attempt at pelmeni, salads and French silk pie! So we took a side-trip into France for that one! (or not?!) Mom and I had lots of fun making the pelmeni the night before and I had made the borscht over the course of two days, starting on Monday! Elaine and Big T had fun helping to make the chebureki and poor Jenna and Little Bug just had to watch it all! They can't have the wheat (or the beef) that are in either of our main entrees. They did get to sample the borscht and the salads, though, and they were content to share some of their "approved" dishes with us! Thanks so much for that!
After lunch, the kids painted some little monogram kits that we had purchased for each one and then played some games. Before lunch, the bigger kids also tried out Tiana's new basketball hoop, but they found it rather cold to stay out too long, and basketballs don't bounce so well in the snow!! Bummer that we don't have our usual weather for that gift this year!! The snow was beautiful, but so early in the afternoon it started to freeze! We had probably an additional 4 inches or so making it rather tricky to get back out of our street! Thankfully, everyone made it safely home -- if with a few more grey hairs out of the ordeal!! After most people left, Big T and Robert stayed and the two T's built a gingerbread house with sporadic advise from Robert who was working away at his "fiendish" Sudoku game! It was such an enjoyable day and we were very thankful for each one who made it here!

Enjoy these pictures of our day!

Winter Wonderland

This is the winter wonderland that we woke up to after the "Big Storm" of 2008!


All of this snow is fresh since Tiana cleared this table yesterday!

Notice how the wind blew the snow up on the porch?!

Kent's truck is under the carport and still got covered!

The white blob behind the truck is my van that hasn't been driven since Wednesday of last week!

Coda pranced through the snow that was up to his knees! It's crusty from the wind and maybe some mixed freezing rain, so he really wasn't sure of what to do in it!

This is the "official" measurement of the fresh, wind-blown crusty snow on the back picnic table.
Wanna join us around the fire today?

A story...

'Twas a cold winter's night...

so to keep warm and get in the spirit of things, cookies were baked, but OOPS!!! What is that?

Must've been some fun in THAT oven!!

Guess these will be the craving for the next week or so!!

Wish you could be here -- maybe warm in this mitten

Just like in Jan Brett's "The Mitten"

BRRRRR!!!!!!

INSIDE

OUTSIDE
This morning I woke up to make some coffee and there was NO water!! Talk about freaking me out!! Turns out there was a bit of a freeze and then whatever broke loose came and blocked the filter. Kent has it all better now, but it was a bit scary to think of facing this weekend/week without water and/or my kitchen!! My hubby is my hero!

Another Snow Day!

The weatherman said I had to wear a sweater today if I was going to be outside, so Mom shared with me. Dad thought I looked fine and shook my paw!
I'm pretty playful in my sweater. Well, actually, I HATE it and I want it off -- NOW!!!

Maybe if I get ahold of the elbow right here...


...and pull really hard...

SNOW DAY!!!

This is what a happy me looks like!!!

We got just enough snow last night and it's cold enough that my tennis ball turns into a snowball! I LOVE it!!! I'd rather run around outside than lay around inside! Well, except when Dad has the fire goin', which of course he does! Choices, choices! What's a dog to do?!?!

Ahh

Just sitting here, sipping a late afternoon coffee, enjoying the view of BRIGHT sunshine (even thought it is still very cool), thinking of what needs to be done in my craft corner, looking forward to dinner. Today I'm just very thankful for health, thanks to an almost 12 hour night, my family, and looking very forward to feeding them a very healthy meal tonight. I was on the hunt for a roast chicken dinner and I found it here. I'll post pictures and reviews after dinner! I also have potatoes baking -- sweet for me, russet for them, and I'll roast fresh asparagus and make a fresh green salad! Today I mailed my Christmas package to my host-family in Germany, delivered Tiana's food drive cans to the school, did a bit of grocery shopping, created a card and that's about all. I really ought to clean up the dining table from my gift packing and empty the dishwasher and get to work on my holiday cards! I hope your day is going well!

I wish I could say this was as good as the reviews said it would be. The skin was super crisp and the chicken moist, but, well, it tasted like chicken!
This is my favorite way (the ONLY way!) to eat asparagus! I just drizzle with a bit of olive oil, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper and a bit of garlic or granulated garlic, roast at 400º for 8-10 minutes and YUM!!

Now the family is asking for dessert. Should I make brownies? Maybe. I might not have enough cocoa powder, though. We'll see.

Happy After-Thanksgiving!

I'm a little late, but even so, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We had an awesome time with awesome weather and extreme fellowship and fun with Kent's family in central Oregon. We got up bright and early -- ok, skip the bright part! -- on Thanksgiving morning and drove to Oregon to make it in time for a noon-ish dinner. We had no traffic leaving that early so we made good time. After a delicious dinner, a few of us took a walk around the field and came back to have a rip-roaring good time playing group games! Not sure I've laughed so hard in a long time! It was good, clean fun that was inclusive of all -- young and old. Speaking of old, we also celebrated Kent's mom's birthday and then when Cale got there, we sang to him, too! 60 years separates the two of them! Friday we all went out to the Hot Springs and spent the day in the pool and the hotel rooms that Larry and Sue so generously rented for us. The kids found a movie that kept their attention between swim times and the adults were quite fixated on the CNN coverage of the terror attacks on Mumbai (Bombay). I took a run around the complex before the day got started. It is high desert there and looking up at the hills I was wishing I could climb them, but not alone. On Saturday, I got my wish! Todd, Stan, Clay, Cale, Lane, Eric, Brent, Drew, Brandon, Bryson, Laura, Meghan, Mel, Larry, Kent and I -- and Molly the dog -- all took a hike down into and out of the canyon at the edge of their property! I had a bit of a hard time keeping up with the long legs of some of those in our party!! The solid rocks at the top of the canyon -- well, let's just say, I very much appreciated Stan's hand in helping me up! And Todd taking the barbed wire gate down since there was NO way that I could straddle it with my short legs the way they had! I was very thankful for a couple of half-marathons behind me for the stamina and strength I had to find to make the climb! Later we all ended up at a hotel conference area with a big screen TV so that our Oregon family could watch the Civil War (Oregon State U Beavers vs. U of Oregon Ducks). They're all Beaver fans, so the girls, Tiana and Kaelynn, who had gone shopping instead of hiking decided to play a fast one and show up in Duck attire! They were almost booed out of the room!! :) Very cute. Sorry to say, the upset was huge and the Beavers lost. Had the Beavers won, they would have been headed to the Rose Bowl. Sunday we enjoyed sweet fellowship around the emblems at Larry and Sue's and then we headed out of town for a not-so-fast trip home. All in all, it is music to our ears to hear Tiana exclaim about how much fun she had and even having watched her keep up with her cousins and not complain! It is definitely something to be thankful for! Wishing you all a stress-free next few weeks!

Oh, and to see more from the weekend -- Pictures!