Ahhh, Christmas is over. It is such a relief for me every year. Although this year was less stressful than
last year, I still would like to simplify the holiday. I talked one of my family members into donating to a
charity for me as opposed to giving a present. I wish everyone would do that for me. My ma, will never do that. She loves to give gifts. She could not sleep the night before because she was so excited to give us our present. It was a Wii. We opened it, and Steve's jaw dropped, while I stared blankly, "what is it?" Oh, a Wii. "What's a Wii?" It is a lot of fun though. Steve woke up at 8:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, passed up his ritual coffee routine and went straight to hook up that Wii. We played all morning. I was sore the next day from boxing Steve's lights out. And then, of course, if
anyone is going to get hurt, it will be Floyd. Steve and I were playing Wii bowling, and all of the sudden, WACK! Floyd is running and crying. I run after him to check out the damage. He was ok, no blood, no missing teeth, but now he will not come in the living room if we are even thinking about playing the Wii. In fact he hides downstairs. And he knows where we keep the remote. If we go near that drawer, he puts his head down and runs out of the room. At least he thinks it was the remote's fault, and not his sick to her stomach mama. Poor doggy.
I did bake for Christmas, but forgot, in the rush of everything to take photos, I only got this one measly photo of the cooking cranberries.
I made Cranberry tarts, little star cakey, marshmallowy, icingy, carmelly, deliciousnesses, and some almond cookie bars, that really weren't almond, but vanilla instead because I thought I had almond extract, but did not. All of my delicacies turned out to be just a little off this year. No tart tins, no almond extract, and under cooked chocolate cake stars that turned out to be a little mushy. It's the effort that counts though, right? I did manage to put together a pretty nice plate for Steve's family, from the few desserts that were salvageable. Forgot to take a picture to prove it though. Whoops!
Steve on the eliptical, playing his guitar. That's his idea of working out. Funny guy. Notice hilarious Frankie posing at the bottom of the photo. I love that photo.
And now my favorite chair has turned into a dog chair. I'll see if I can get a photo of all of the dogs in it, not at once. Floyd has a lot of love in his belly and he tends to get stuck, and I think Big Bob just knows that he will not fit. I will see what I can do. Isn't Frankie deceivingly sweet looking. She is the most rotten little princess dog ever. She prances around like she owns the place. She scares all of the other dogs away from their food, even if she is done eating and in the other room. If she hears them she prances in the kitchen and lets out the bitchiest little growl. She's totally harmless though. I think. I don't really trust any dogs ever since my old dog Bailey barged the front screen door, when to his surprise, (and the poor man on the other side,) it opened. Next thing the guy knew, he was on the ground with an 80 lb. lab/english setter on top of him, biting his arm. Bailey had never bitten anyone before. I didn't think he had it in him. I was devastated, thought I was going to have to put him to sleep. The nice man did not do anything about it though. I wanted to pay for him to go to the doctor, but he refused. I just secured that screen door and was more careful with the old bailey monster for the last year of his life. So, yah, I don't trust any dog, really.
Oh! that's right! I got bit the other day. Bad Bob had figured out how to escape the back yard. He did it twice in one day. The second time I trekked down the street at high speed for about a half mile, until finally a nice girl stopped him. I did not have time to grab a leash this time, so I asked her if she had one I could borrow. I told her that Bad Bob was a foster and she said,"really, I have been looking for a dog. Do you think he would get along with my german shepherd mix." Not thinking, I said yes because Bad Bob gets along with all dogs. Not that Shepherd mix though. He attacked Bad Bob, and I got in the middle of it, like the dummy I am. No blood, and thankfully the nice girl did not notice that I had been bit. Bad Bob is fine too. Still bad. Steve replaced the fence the next day while I laid straw down to cover up the muddy disgustingness, that we dare call a backyard. The neighbor kiddos came over and helped. It was fun. Like a fall day in December. That's St. Louis for you. I am only showing this picture so you can see the progress come spring.
After reading about the Humane Society's recent investigations of Dairy cow treatment, I have decided to stop eating dairy and eggs. Until there is legislation that holds these companies accountable for their treatment of the cows, I will be holding the dairy. I always thought that a vegan diet was a boring diet. That is until Oprah got on the vegan train. She has some of the best chefs making sure that she still enjoys her diet, regardless of what that diet might be. Tonight I made the Artichoke and Oyster Mushroom Rockefeller. I did not have rock salt (I used margarita salt) or the spirts, but it was still absolutely delicious. I HIGHLY recommend this recipe. It even got Steve's stamp of approval.
