Update

I haven't written much lately, not much to write about really. We are back to work, Travis is back to school. The tree is down and decorations are put away for another year.

I was trying to think of something to put on the blog, and decided that the Weather Pixie is cute enough. You can see what the weather is doing here in St. Louis. For example, at the moment I am writing this she has an umbrella.

So, enjoy the weather pixie...I will think of something else to write later.

Out

We Survived Christmas

OK, well, it wasn't that tough on us, but sometimes you just wonder how you'll manage to survive all the events leading up to Christmas... Not only the shopping, but the baking, the tree decorations, the wrapping, the cards (which I just did not do this year)...etc.

My mom showed up on Saturday and then Steve's dad showed up on Monday and we went out for the most fabulous, yummy, superb dinner at Charlie Gittos that evening. What a great place!!! I can't say enough about the food, the service, the whole evening was a success. Travis keeps asking when we'll be back. Then we went to the downtown UU church for the candlelight service, which was nice..I don't think it was as good as last year, and pales in comparison to any service we had in Urbana.

After telling Travis to sleep in, he managed to 5:30....and got a quick go back to bed. He suffered until 6:30 and I finally got up and got ready... Had an award winning unwrapping extravaganza, followed by the best french toast ever...challah bread and my mom's fancy maple syrup from MI...wow!! Just a drop will do you!

We got lots of fun things, and played and read the rest of the afternoon...oh, and cooked dinner... Finished off the evening with pumpkin pie and Harry Potter 5.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been a touch of snow to make it pretty out, but not here...it was 50!

I hope everyone else had a great Christmas...and remember, another 363 days to go!

Mid December

Wow....it sure has been awhile since I last posted. I suppose there hasn't been a whole lot happening around here. The weather has pretty much taken a nose dive, and we have had rain, fog, freezing rain, and clouds for about a week now. Might as well be in mid-Michigan, although we'd probably have some snow by now.

So, we will probably get some cookies baked this weekend. Can't make them too far out, or there will be none left by Christmas. Our tree is happy, it has enough decorations to make it pretty but not overwhelmed. We've accumulated so many decorations over the years, I couldn't possibly put them all on. There are presents under the tree, which is a good thing also!!

Duke is doing well...snoozing a lot and frustrated that his walks aren't as long or as pleasant as they once were. Travis is doing well, trying his best to keep on track during this distracting time of the year. Piano is going well, and so are swim lessons.

That pretty much sums up today!

More Duke pictures

OK, it was a splendid day here today, 64 on December 2? Weird. We were outside raking and other things, and Duke just seemed to want his picture taken...ok, no problem.


One of these days I'll add some Travis shots, but I just couldn't refuse these 2 poses....what a good boy!

This is as exciting as it gets around here these days, there isn't anything thrilling to report on, the blog is a bit dull. We seem to be busy getting some home improvement items crossed off the list, decorating the tree, 3 ornaments at a time, and thinking about Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Well, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. What more can be said? Today I went in to work for a few hours, and the traffic was awesome. A lot of people took today off, and for that I am thankful..what a wonderful commute...if it could only be that nice every day!

Right now I am making a pumpkin pie. One less thing to do tomorrow in my opinion. I got the cranberry bread and cranberry relish done this last weekend. Always good to do those early so they can age gracefully for a few days before we devour them.

I am also thankful for the fact that we aren't going anywhere!! We also are not expecting anyone else to battle the airlines or highways just to eat turkey with us. It will be a quiet weekend at home doing projects, and that is fine. We will also have the standard traditional Thanksgiving fare that we can't live without..turkey, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes - no gravy thank you - sweet potatoes - just baked, nothing added- dill bread, cranberry bread and pumpkin pie. We don't need anything else. Sure, we'd love to spend time with family from all 4 corners of the country, but sometimes it just isn't practical, and well, we are the most practical people we know!

We'll go get our Christmas tree this weekend also, good to get that done early so we can enjoy it. That will surely be another post.

Winter is coming

Well, I've given up on uploading my video to the blog...still open to suggestions, but I've wasted enough time on it, and mailed out copies of the dvd to those who wanted it.

Today looks like another perfect fall day, sunny and temperate, low 60's. St. Louis is on the last few days of our peak colors - which were rather dull due to a dry summer. On another note, holy cow, Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away, which means we go get our Christmas tree soon. Our tradition is to go to a cut down place out in Washington, MO and kill us a tree. It sounds cruel, but it is a tradition, and I suppose there are worse traditions than that - like sitting in a tree waiting for a deer to walk by and then shoot it. (I'm fine with hunting, but I think bow hunting is much more sporting and I'm ok with that). Sitting in a tree with a shot gun just isn't my idea of a 'fair' fight.

We were surprised last year when we found this gem of a tree farm, hope we can find it again this year!! The trees were in great condition and we found a fir, not easy around here...most places just have scraggly white pine. We have been tempted to drive to MI to get a good tree, but then put it in perspective, 'um, duh it's a tree'.

So, in 2 weeks, we'll be thinking about Christmas, not that Target and everyone else hasn't already been pushing it down our throats for the last month....

Back to my thoughts that winter is coming, this link is to a fun website, ok, not that much fun, but it is a seasonal gem. The snowman cam up in Gaylord, MI. For all of us who get more ice and sleet than snow, it is refreshing to see how much Gaylord has...which is usually quite a bit!!

Live Web Cam From Wilderness Valley Gaylord Michigan

Enjoy!

Travis recital...

OK, my second attempt to upload this video, and I think I have it!! I decided that I might have been having a problem with Mozilla. So had to try it the old fashioned way, using Explorer, and seems as though that was the problem... Well, it still won't work. I can't do it on blogger and I can't do it on You Tube...I just don't understand. Very frustrating!!!

Anyone have any suggestions?

Piano Recital

Today was Travis' piano recital, and he did GREAT! I have been trying to upload the video of his recital to the blog for the last hour or so, but can't quite figure this out. It doesn't seem that difficult, but there is apparently some sort of problem that I don't see ....This is all very new to me. Anyway, he played Carillon and Jumpin' Pumpkins, not quite Beethoven, but he is working on it.

I hope to get this figured out soon so I can get this video out for you to see!!