Post-Christmas Activities

Here's a cute picture of mom and dad--taken when the whole gang came over for a pasty dinner on Saturday. 

Last night Aaron and Katie used Jamie Oliver's (The Naked Chef) recipe to make chicken korma, which was delicious.

Yesterday Bob and I hit the sales and picked up some super cheap ornaments.  The selections were pretty picked over, but we found a few things we liked. 

And I found these adorable stamps at Michael's, which I can't wait to use.

And now it's time for a cat update.  All three kitties have enjoyed the many little toys that Santa brought them and seem to be worn out.  Here's a shot of Dexter--isn't he sweet!?!?

Ian has been doing some serious cuddling--first with Dexter.....

and then with Gabby.

Merry Christmas!

By the time I complete this post it will no longer by Christmas, as it's approaching midnight.  I've had a very nice but busy couple days, spent celebrating the holiday with my family.  Here are some photos of the gang: 

Mom & Holly

Kay & Kathy showing their twin pride in matching holiday sweaters.

Bob & I

Dad tending the fire--which is officially his job.

Aaron, who appears to be making one of his witty remarks.

Between the festivities at my parents' house, Bob and I went home to see our kitties.  Of course we couldn't let a holiday pass without dressing the cats in their new Christmas costumes.  Here's Dexter in his reindeer antlers.  As you can see, he's not thrilled, but he was still cute.

And here's Ian in his Christmas bow tie.  It's hard to get great pictures of the cats dressed up, because they spend most of their time moving around trying to figure out how to get the costumes off.  Fortunately we only tormented them long enough to snap these photos.  We attempted to put the reindeer antlers on Gabby, but she put up such a fight that we quickly gave up.

Holly got the award for the most creative wrapping job with this frog (notice the bow hanging from the tounge and the green lilly pad it's sitting on).

In the left corner there's a patchwork wrapping job I did on a package--it was more funky than pretty.

More Glimpses of Holiday Decor

Indoor Camping

Bob and I have spent our past few weekends "camping" in his rental house as we fix it up.  There's no furniture in the house, so we're using our old sleeping bags and hanging out on the floor.  You'll notice Bob's laptop is propped up on an empty box, so that we can watch DVDs at night.    

We've painted two of the bedrooms, the long hallway, and the foyer.  This weekend we're working on the painting master bedroom and removing wallpaper from the kitchen (my least favorite job).

Goodbye dated wallpaper! 

By the end of this weekend we will have gone through eight gallons of paint.  We've been using Conco Pure, which is wonderful.  The quality is good and it's environmentally friendly, with no VOCs and practically no odor.  I highly recommend this stuff.

Culinary Success

I had a better experience in the kitchen on Tuesday, when I made cream of wild mushroom soup using the Barefoot Contessa's recipe. It had leeks in it, which added a nice flavor. I also made some biscuits topped with grated parmesan cheese and pepper. While this food came out better, it was a major endeavor. I spent about three hours in the kitchen and we didn't eat until 10pm. When the prep time for a recipe says 30 minutes, it tends to take double that for me (hmmm, maybe because I never cook).  :)

It turns out that Ian approved of my soup as well, leeks and all.

Handmade Holidays

Here are some of the gifts that I crafted this year.  I made cat toys out of felted wool (with bells inside for added fun) for all of the cats in the extended family.  Dexter is going through a phase, where he loves to carry things in his mouth.  He has a number of little stuffed dolls and I wanted to make him some more.   I can't show the gifts that I've made for people yet, as they are capable of reading this blog and I don't want to ruin any surprises.

I also made a couple felted wool ornaments.  All of the wool is from old sweaters and the Amy Butler  fabric is left over from another project.

Christmas Correspondance

I ordered photo holiday cards from Walgreen's that included pictures of our little family.  I'm not photogenic, but the cats' pictures are pretty cute.  I also wrote an annual holiday letter to send out to friends and family.  I'm proud that I completed this task this year, as I have a habit of buying pretty cards and paper and never filling and sending them out.  I'd like to get into the routine of doing a custom card and letter each year, because they will be fun to look back on someday.

Baking Disaster

Yesterday I was feeling motivated and attempted to do some baking. I found what looked like a delicious recipe for cookie dough truffles on the Food Network's website and decided to make a double batch. The first step of making the cookie dough and then chilling it went well. But disaster struck when I moved on to step two and attempted to melt chocolate almond bark to dip the dough in. As you can see from the picture, things did not go as planned. It took forever for me to get the chocolate to melt and then when I finally got it hot enough, it burned--argh!  Now our house reeks of burned chocolate, which is becoming a bit nauseating.

Bob and I went shopping for Angel Tree gifts yesterday morning, which gave us an excuse to go to a toy store.  I can't wait until we have our own kids to buy toys for--there's some cool stuff out there.  This little panda was so cute we snagged one for ourselves.  The brand is AnimalZ, which has apparently won some Australian design awards.

Winter Wonderland

We're getting our first major snow of the season.  There's been a blizzard warning--the forecast was calling for 12-14 inches and tons of things were cancelled tonight (including the community college where Bob's teaches, which allowed us to spend a cozy evening together).  I shoveled when I got home hours ago and it doesn't look like much more has accumulated.  We seem to get a lot of false alarms when it comes to winter weather, which leads to unnecessary panic and frantic trips to the grocery store.

When I came in from shoveling Bob gave me a nice mug of hot apple cider (yumm!) and I put on my jammies.

Bob and I have spent the past couple weekends busily painting his rental house, so our tree decorating got delayed.  Fortunately we both had time last night to put up the lights and ornaments.  My parents gave me a number of ornaments that the family collected over the years.  Many of my favorite ornaments are ones that my aunt Kay made.  Throughout my childhood, Kay made a different type of ornament each year and gave one to each member of the family.  As a result, my brother and I now have a great collection of beautiful ornaments with a lot of sentimental value.  Here are some pictures of Kay's handiwork--she's quite talented.

Sled made out of popsicle sticks.

Cat made out of dough, which has held up amazingly well over the years.

Dough goat from the same batch.

Based on the calico print, this teddy bear must be from the 80s.

Santa painted on driftwood from Lake Superior.

Now that I have three mischievous little cats, decorating the Christmas tree requires some strategy.  We didn't put up any glass ornaments this year, as that would be asking for trouble.  The more delicate ornaments are on the upper half of the tree and the sturdier wood and metal ones are on the bottom.  The cats have been relatively well behaved thus far, but now that Ian is built like a tank (he's almost 20 lbs.), the tree leans quite a bit when he props his front legs up on the branches.