It snowed about 3 inches on Sunday. We were so excited. We’ve had some flakes today but it’s too warm and so the melt has begun.
Snowyday
Our cat bites plants and thinks anything in the house is all hers. One Christmas she hopped on the table and ate some of the festive greenery. Turns out some of that was poisonous. She vomited and, thankfully, did not suffer any consequences other than the vomiting.
We have a few plants that are mostly outdoor plants except when we enter winter. I have traditionally put those plants in our guest bedroom closet because it has a window. The house and that room face south. The placement of the house is the reason we can have solar panels. It is not an especially good environment for plants who would prefer dappled light. So every winter I hope for the best.
This year we made plans for the plants and with the arrival of the poinsettia, we ramped up the plans. It isn’t fancy and was built with scraps (except for the wire and some brackets):
The plants seem to be less shocked and I hope they begin to recover from the several months they were in direct sunlight (the philodendron always sits there):
I do not think Lucy cares what’s in the cage and I haven’t seen her on the counter yet, but that doesn’t mean we need to be complacent.
First he grabbed ‘em by the pussy, then he put children in cages, then unrolls long list of terrible things, and then fomented a coup. What does it actually take to impeach and/or imprison this guy?
Because it is rainy, misty, drizzly today, we’re leaving up our outdoor lights until things dry out a bit. Everything else is put away and the metric ton of needles has been swept and vacuumed. Like last year, we put white lights over our backdoor/windows and will leave those up until February. Or whenever we start having more daylight. It helps make things cheery.
Tomorrow we’re back to a regular schedule. I will miss the naps.
Of course it was a small Christmas this year. My parents came over for breakfast and we exchanged gifts (The Macallan for her and a large format Guinness and an oil can Fosters for him). My mom brought over a poinsettia. We haven’t had one in years and I’ll worry about keeping Lucy away from it after we take it off the mantle. It is very pretty though amongst the Christmas cards.
We had a family Zoom mid-morning and then my parents went home. We watched Wonder Woman 1984. We were less than impressed and a little disappointed. The first movie was so good. This one got lost midway through. Kind of like 2020.
We were at my parents for Christmas dinner and it was a very pleasant evening. We did some reminiscing and talked about current events. Even though my dad is in some stage of dementia, he held his own during the conversation. I have to tell you that as awful as 2020 has been, it has been nice to hang out with my parents all year. Whatever insanity my father had been carrying around for over decade is gone and now he is happy to spend time with us.
I took off a couple of days before Christmas and all of this week. It’s nice to not have to sit in our guest bedroom all day staring at a computer screen. This may be my last post of the year since I’ve been so bad about updating the site. In a complete departure from the rest of the end-of-year posts, I don’t have a list of concerts/shows or even a favorite. There was one show this year and our neighborhood hosted a Porchella in October. If you don’t click the link, it was a live music walk. The weather was amazing that day, the music was wonderful and the joy was real.
Merry Christmas and happy 2021. It’s going to be better.
The better-half and I hosted my parents for Thanksgiving yesterday. My mom brought over a very delicious turkey breast she made in her crock pot, corn pudding and apple pie (bonus jars of apple sauce too). We provided roasted brussels sprouts, sage sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce and a lemon meringue pie. We had never made a lemon meringue pie, but it tasted pretty good. We need to work on our whipped meringue…practice makes perfect.
The weather was beautiful and we ended up opening several windows and ran our Blue air purifier. Safety protocols were on our minds and we are uncertain what Christmas will hold. We were able to Zoom with my sisters and their families.
So the holiday was different, but it was also OK. The better-half and I found a new stuffing recipe and learned how to make a lemon meringue pie. My father got to feel useful by disposing of some concrete we busted up as part of our deck redo and my mother got to relax on a major holiday.
I have been taking pictures of what we’ve been cooking during the pandemic and have been quite lazy in posting here. We attempt to make something new every once in a while so we’re not stuck in a dinner rut and in the rut of being stuck in one place.
I’ll continue to update this post as I clean up the photos on my phone. I’m not food stylist so keep that in mind.
Apple cider muffin/donut
Mayonaise Chocolate Cake
Lasagna with our own spinach
Breakfast Ramen with cheese and egg
Tofu with chili crisp and roasted green beans
So many pizzas
Dutch Baby with smoked salmon
Yellow squash risotto
Inside-Out Lamb Persillade
Ribollita
Kielbasa, lentils and rice
I have driven my car 729 miles since January. The last time I bought gas was in mid-May and with all my discounts, it cost $.45/gallon.
We have attended one show in 2020. This time last year we had enjoyed 9 shows. In 2018, we were at 16 shows.
