It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

James and I are really getting into the Christmas Spirit this year. He went out and got a real tree for me and even tried to get it as "Charlie Brown" as possible. For some reason you can't find a good sparse tree in this area, but he did his best (Oh and we won't mention that it has more tops than a Hanukkah Festival and that there's no way it will ever stand up straight because at least he tried). We've been making candies and banana bread for the neighbors and playing so many Christmas songs it should be illegal. We've also been having a ton of fun buying and hiding presents from each other. Okay, he's not so good at hiding them (ahem, the unwrapped ones may or may not be in the coat closet but I won't peek), but I don't think he's found my stash yet (heh heh heh).

I am absolutely loving this Christmas Season. It's great to spend time with my husband and bring the spirit of Christmas into our home. Who knew the holiday season could be so wonderful?

Aftermath of a Blizzard

Last night we had a blizzard. I've survived two of them now and this time, I was smart enough not to go outside or try to drive ANYWHERE. When we woke up this morning, here's what we found.

Luckily, today is James's day off and he tried to dig me out so that I could get to work. Unfortunately (or fortunately) there was too much snow and we couldn't get the Mini out of our parking space. So here I am, working or blogging or whatever from home today.

The last chapter to our morning is what a pansy this little guy is



General would only go outside long enough to do his business and in the course of that the silly dog kept running up to the door and whining to be let in. I thought he'd had a grand old time being outside and running through the snow (yesterday, he played in the eight inches we got), but today, he would have none of it. I do have a pansy little house dog. Here is the one picture I could get of him outside while James shoveled our walk and the neighbor's walk.

Miracle??

Only something short of a miracle could help me take this:



And turn it into this:

I don't know what came over me, but I decided that I needed to make a dress for my brother's wedding. Now this wouldn't be weird for some people, but my sewing machine and I aren't really friends. In fact, I haven't sewn a dress since the fourth grade. But I decided I needed to try my hand at it again. I picked up a pattern that I thought looked pretty easy and some fabric and got started.

It took a lot of frustration, a couple of nights after work, and a few calls to people who really know how to sew (Thanks to my mother, mother in law, and Aunt Marion) to complete the dress, but I actually did it.

I'm really happy that I was able to complete the dress and may even do it again, but it may wait awhile.

The cutest boy around

Who can argue that there is a cuter baby around??

Who carved my pumpkins?

They say homegrown is always better. I suppose that's what squirrels think too. Or at least that's what the evidence points to. BOTH my pumpkins (Or at least that seems to be the general consensus) got eaten by squirrels. It happens in the daytime, so it can't be raccoons or skunks, but I've come home and one by one my pumpkins are torn apart. The first one got the whole top tore off and now this one has those two small holes and a whole lot of mess.

The really amusing thing about my pumpkins is that they weren't carved, so it was harder for the little furry to eat the good stuff AND not one of my neighbor's pumpkins have been eaten. Neighbors on both sides have pumpkins in tact as do the neighbors across the street. The little furry bugger seems to prefer my homegrown pumpkin over the big store bought ones. Go figure.

The demise of a stuffed animal

Step One.
Buy a cute stuffed animal.

Step two.

Present said stuffed animal to your dog.

Step three.

Chewing and tearing ensues.

Step four.

Pitty the poor stuffed animal and question why you paid $5.00 for it in the first place when it only takes 30 minutes to eat.

Mystery veggies

When James pulled up our garden, he found these two orby things. They look like pumpkins, they may even act like pumpkins. The problem is . . . we didn't plant pumpkins. We planted crook neck squash and zucchini. These don't look like any crook neck or zucchini that I've ever seen. We have a theory that some pumpkin seeds got mixed into our zucchini seeds, but if that can happen, then you'd better watch out. You may end up with cabbage in your lettuce patch or peas in your green beans. Of course, this is just a theory and we're open to suggestions on to exactly what these are and where they may have come from. Oh, one more tidbit. Our garden is brand new this year, nothing but grass has been planted there. Any answers to our mystery?