Friday, November 30, 2007

I hope you like pictures.....

More of the parade....









Holiday Parade

It was cold, but could have been a lot colder. Lou and I had our Santa hats, while Pete wore his crazy multicolored stocking cap that I knitted for him back in '96 or so. We met up with April and the girls and watched our hometown parade. It was all there, from the Elks to the police to the Scouts....from the high school marching bands to engines from most of the area fire departments to ponies!









More Thanksgiving

Meanwhile, outside the barn.....




It was a great holiday. Lots of fun, family and friends. Good food, beer and wine. The happy noise of the kiddos playing and being kids. Sitting at the Grown-Up Table....which still does not seem right somehow.
Ah, Thanksgiving. So good.


Some belated Turkey Day-ness

Here's Pete, the night before Thanksgiving (which I have to say, seems like a lot longer ago than one week), making gravy. Good thing, too, since despite all our many culinary adventures, Beth and I can't make gravy worth a damn. We do try though, so we get points. Right? Right.

One thing I can do: make pies. In fact, I make pie like a samurai. Like a samurai who makes pies. Chocolate cream, before adding the whipped cream. Note that the crust is little snowmen. Martha Stewart, I'm coming for you.


The Lou


The Moo
Steve-O

The Kitchen Crew




Monday, November 26, 2007

Monday

Back at work again after a week off. No fun! We're all sleepy and overfed, hiding in our offices and cubes and hoping no one looks for us/finds us.

Today is a reporting day, so I can hide out as long as I get stuff done. Tomorrow I will be training two of the other Assistant Directors on some processing stuff. I don't love the training, but I hear I am good at it. Isn't that sort of a strange thing, to have an aptitude for something that you don't necessarily enjoy doing? It will probably benefit me as well, since it will help to reinforce the skills in my own mind. I guess.

We're getting into the holiday swing around here...Lou wants to hear the Christmas music all the time. I have lots of pics from Thanksgiving weekend, and will post about our fun Turkey Day and the Holiday Parade later on...for now, here's Lou on her first Christmas.

Have a good Monday! Stay warm and dry!



Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Domestic Goddess(es)

The baking is done. Lou went to school for the morning, while I made pie crust for the chocolate cream pie, an apple pie (first one ever) and herbed cheddar biscuits. Mostly, I made huge messes and cleaned them up, again and again, and ran my oven for hours and hours on end.

Fodder for the compost heap

Pretty!

When Lou came home we set to work baking gingerbread cookies from the dough we made yesterday.

We're ready! I'll take a picture of you, you take one of me.


Hey, this is pretty good...



Hurray for Turkey Day!

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Random Lou

Movie star
We love our waffles


The eye of the tiger.....

Happy day!

Today Aunt Sri and Uncle Phil will be back from SC....if they aren't here in NH already. Hooray!

Lots of family fun this week....I am so looking forward to it!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Taking a breath

I feel as though I finally have a moment to think for the first time in at least two weeks. Heading into the Birthday Week, I was sick. Sicker than I have been in a very long time. Sick enough to call in sick to work, sick enough to sleep all day, so sick I couldn't even sit in bed and knit while watching horrible daytime TV. Ugh.

Of course, I recovered. But having to take the two sick days made my last week before vacation very unpleasant. You know those days where, no matter what you do or how much you get done, no matter how many hours you work, your to-do list is still huge at the end of the day? That was
every day last week.

I still had a great birthday- cards and kisses and lovely flowers from Pete and the Lou:

Saturday was Pete's birthday and he really wanted just to hang out at home, so we made some food and had a few friends over. It was just a fun, easy, hang out in the kitchen and eat and drink homebrew deal. He made the best roasted pork and veggies- the pork was kind of a porchetta deal with garlic, fennel and parsley...mmmm.

What else? Well, there's been plenty of this:

Although no matter how much we play, we will not be able to defeat Beth.

I'm also finishing up a few projects, so I've been working on my felting mojo. It's like alchemy, turning this:

Into this:

Yesterday I finished some mittens to match my new winter coat, and will be felting them today. Fun fun! Lou and I also went to the library, but sadly the gerbils they keep in the Childrens' Room slept the whole time we were there. Lou had fun playing with the trains, and even let me know when she needed to use the potty! Yay Lou!

Don't you wish you had her fashion sense?

Oh, to be little.

Today I am taking care of a few odds and ends, perhaps starting the dreaded Christmas shopping. Now, usually I am in frank denial about the approach of Christmas. It is not that I dread Christmas, I just hate the types of crowds that one often has to fight in order to buy gifts for the loved ones. You know them- the nasty, impatient people who'd run over their grandmother with a cart for the last whatever-it-is they need, and also feel entitled to insult the staff just because they're there. For the last few years, I have made it my mission to avoid the malls if at all possible. I'll usually swing through downtown Dover, then downtown Exeter, and hit a few favorite stores in Portsmouth. We usually make a trip to the Kittery Trading Post, sometimes LL Bean. I'd rather support the local business folks if I can....and those of you who have not see Pete in a crowded mall, well, be glad you missed it.

More later......

We love new jammies


Wednesday, November 14, 2007

My Girl

A conversation-

Lou: I don't want to wear that! I want to wear shorts and a T-shirt!
Mama: It's too cold. You need to wear pants to keep your little legs warm.
Lou: I don't want my little yegs to be warm! I want them to be cold!
Mama: Well, I can't let you be cold. What kind of mama would I be if I let you go out in shorts and be cold?
Lou: What kind?
Mama: A bad mama.
Lou: I want you to be a bad mama.
Mama: Well, I don't want to be a bad mama. It's my job to be a good mama and to take good care of you.

A little while later...

Lou: You are a good mama. I don't want you to be a bad mama. I love you just the way you are.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Yuck.

Been fighting off what I thought was just a cold...which is now infected sinuses and ears. Yay! I will post updates soon. For now, I have a date with Thursday night TV, hot tea and cough medicine with codeine. (Love the lovely doctor.)