HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

WISHING YOU AND YOURS A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY, SUCCESSFUL 2009!

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?!?!