Merry Christmas!

I had this Christmas eve off... my first in how many years I can't remember. Before Joe blew snow outside, we had an oven-baked pancake breakfast. 

We had no agenda, but to put finishing touches on gifts and such. Our main event was the dinner. Then Joe's brother Mark came to stay with us for the night. We had a relaxing evening, watching a non-Christmas movie.

We woke up to a beautiful clear morning today, after some funky fog and rain last night. Hope Santa had Rudolph's red nose guide his sleigh. Merry Christmas everyone!

Almost Christmas... But Not Quite

The last stretch of work days before Christmas... I think I'm ready. Today, though, we didn't receive any UPS shipment at work, so I took afternoon off, anticipating to work extra few hours to complete all holiday orders hopefully on Thursday not Friday. 

With my time I got to bake Kahlua cheesecake this afternoon. The house smelled wonderful, and Joe gave me his approval by licking the spatula clean. Now we have a special dessert for Christmas to look forward to. Maybe sharing a few slices with some friends.... 

10 Days Till Christmas!?

Honestly, I've had much more hectic holiday seasons mostly due to my retail work environment. It's been busy enough, but I have good helpers and the workplace is managing to stay in good spirit... mostly. Still, time seems to fly by even faster this time of the year. I finally printed our holiday cards last week. Now they are dry and ready to be mailed out!

So, our cards were printed, presents picked... and, of course, our first official snow storm of season happened last weekend.

With plenty of goofing off in-between (oh, we are out Christmas shopping in town, let's stop and grab something yummy to eat!), we are slowly checking off our list. 

P.S. Joe hunted till the last day of rifle deer season as much as he could. He saw deer every day he was out... but toward the end his bucks became very illusive. Joe decided not to hunt any further. Good thing he had a chance to pull out all his gear before the snowstorm. There's always next year!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Weekend

Joe is still hunting.... It's almost 6pm and dark out, and I haven't heard from him. That means a buck bigger than 4 points hasn't walked in. Deer season continues. 

My Thanksgiving day hunting was a success. I got to watch a couple of does in addition to squirrels and birds and took a nap. A doe wouldn't leave when we wanted to leave for lunch, even though we made noise. 

Thanks to Joe's family we got to have a warm turkey meal after a whole day being outdoors. The only things I made the day before were date bars and cranberry bars to share with Joe's family and my workplace. And yes, I survived another Black Friday weekend at work!

Still Hunting...

This is the week 2 of deer season. Joe's been commuting to his deer blind most days, dawn till dusk, except for a couple of work days mid-week. Yesterday we both came home from work at 5 and felt like going out... a rare treat for someone normally working retail hours till 7pm. 

This big buck still shows regularly, though only at night, which is why Joe keeps going out to his deer blind even in wintery weather. Tomorrow, Thanksgiving day, I'll be going along, mostly hoping to catch some snooze. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

The weekend before the deer season opening day was snowy... which is perfectly normal. Still, when you wake up to a snow-covered Saturday morning, having fresh croissants and coffee at a cozy French bakery is the way to start a day! 

Snow also makes it feel more like deer season, though Joe and many other hunters wouldn't want too much of it. Hopefully it won't snow much more over night.  

Joe is all ready for tomorrow morning. He's really hoping to take a shot at one of the two bucks he missed last season. Good luck! 

What's New in November?!

November is almost halfway through... counting down the last few days till deer season. Totally unrelated, but our beloved red microwave of 10+ years started acting up last month. It still worked, but a few days at a time, when you opened the door, it turned on with its dish turning backwards. We decided it was now possessed and time to be replaced. I still miss our old one... but this new one is red and cute. I can live with it.

And last night we drove 50 miles to have ramen at a place we'd never been. A rather fancy establishment that just added Asian/Japanese street/bar food inspired items. Maybe not quite like flying to Japan... but it was definitely a fun adventure that we'll repeat.