hmm, things are good here this morning – i have finished my cookie-baking marathon, having made more kinds of cookies than ever before, plus a delicious rum-soaked fruitcake. i’ve included (relatively) healthy pumpkin bars made with splenda for kevin, wedding cakes at dad’s request, plus many many more. i think i used about 15 pounds of butter.
the presents are wrapped, and there’s really almost nothing left to do. somehow it just doesn’t feel like christmas eve morning. maybe it’s because it’s 40 degrees and raining, which it did all day yesterday and is expected to continue all day today.
mollie is gently snoring, with no idea of the lovely treats she’s getting. well, i got her lovely treats – some homemade kind of treats i got at a craft fair. kevin, on the other hand got her…well, how to put it delicately…well, it’s really impossible to put it delicately…he got her a BULL PENIS.
i mean, my question is, why? many layers of why – why are they selling them, why did he choose this, and what about the poor bull?
in years past her’s gotten her GIANT rawhide knots, sometimes in the shape of candy canes, which she has loved.
i bet she’ll love the bull penis a lot, too.
i guess, really is that any worse than rawhide, which is the skin of cows?
she would also be very happy with a big sack of cat poop, but she’s not getting any! except that which she manages to sneak out of the litter box when we’re not looking.
maybe my new year’s resolution, if i was to have one, should be to really become a vegetarian. amy and jim are now kind of quasi-vegetarians, so maybe i should step up and take their place.
even though they’re not vegetarians so much now (amy reminded me that they had chili the other night at steak-n-shake), i made them a vegetable pot pie. we were discussing xmas eve dinner and kevin said he wanted pot pie, so i made him a chicken pot pie. i felt that i should also make one out of vegetables, because even though sometimes they’re not vegetarians, sometimes they are.
i made both pies yesterday and it was a RIDICULOUS amount of work. the vegetable one actually looks more interesting, filled with all kinds of things like turnips and parsnips…but it also called for a butternut squash. i happened to have an acorn squash, so i used that, instead. have you ever tried to peel a squash? it’s VERY HARD.
i feel there is probably a better and easier way to do it, but i don’t know what that would be. i used the vegetable peeler, i used a variety of very sharp knives, but there was no way to do it easily or quickly.
it’s a lot of work, making vegetarian dishes. i’m cheating, though, and will slap a couple of puff pastry sheets on the top of both pies instead of rolling out crusts. that’s my christmas present to myself, not rolling out any dough.
here’s a fabulous christmas present to myself – kevin and i went to gander mountain the other evening because he wanted to buy something and i started wandering around the shoe section and they have a HUGE AND FABULOUS selection. i had no idea. i got this incredible pair of shoes for running outside in cold weather through the fields. not only are they an awesome color, but they also keep my feet dry and are super-supportive. they were originally very expensive – $135 – but they were on sale for THIRTY BUCKS! i don’t know how that’s even possible.
this isn’t a very good photo because it’s just too bright, but i think you can get the idea.
and here are a few more random photos from my phone. first, winnie, trying desperately to relax.
this is wayne’s bar, a part of the huge basement project that kevin has been helping him with. neither of them had laid tile before, but it looks really good.
sweet shadow, who we miss. yesterday i saw a little dog in a car next to me, and the old couple inside were petting it, and it made me cry, thinking about shadow.
we’ll go on the boat again, after we fix it again.
i took this picture and never did anything with it.
the other day randy and i went to his mom’s house to put up this big pig. it seemed warm in town, but out in the country…cold and windy. but WHAT a cute xmas pig!
mom and i went walking on sunday and there were millions of geese in the field. it was snowing, kind of a crazy day to take a walk, but mollie was very happy about it.
i took this on november 8th, a crazy warm beautiful morning.
the other day numie was snuggled up so cute on our couch…now that we’ve started letting numie and noodle stay in the main part of thehouse, amy isn’t working anymore so probably won’t need any doggie daycare! but you never know.
ok then, i hope your day is a good one,
christmas eve day grace.