Life with the Three Crazy Dogs

Hello peeps, hope you all had a good Christmas with your love ones and friends.  I know I had a good one, a very memorable one.  Hubby didn’t come back which I have already expected.  So I wasn’t disappointed at all that he was not here.  I was prepared.

I spent my Christmas eve morning digging myself out of the house in the morning.  We had about 7.5 inches of snow.  Shoveled the driveway with the help of the neighbor’s kid doing the end of the driveway with his dad’s kick ass snow blower.  Boy, was I tired after that.  Took about an hour plus nap after that!  By the way, the big boss gave me Christmas eve off coz he said the weather was going to be crappy.  Sweet big boss, always liked him as my boss.  (He was my boss when I first started in with the company.)

That evening I was at my RCIA sponsor’s home for eve dinner with her family.  It was just beautiful.  My first eve dinner with somebody who is not family.   We opened presents and the best one saw was sponsor’s son received a Symbol LS2208 barcode scanner for his side business he operates at home. That was really sweet to see his face light up! So precious!

My driveway taken on Christmas eve

Neighbor across Christmas eve party

Christmas day I got up early to take care of the boys and my sister’s FB CafeWorld :( and also took some winter backyard scene before going back to bed.

Our backyard

Neighbor’s backyard

Front door

Was sleeping through all the text messages sent to me but was waken up by the doorbell at 11:15 a.m.!  Was sleeping for 4+ hours.  The neighbor wife across and her daughter handed me a bag of goodies (cookies galore) and I saw her hubby, her son and the other neighbor doing my driveway.  The Christmas spirit!!!  I was surprise to see them on my driveway.  There was shit load of snow, probably another half a foot or more with drifts, too.

In the afternoon I drove over to another church member’s home for dinner with other members there too.  I didn’t want to go initially, mainly being lazy.  The weather was actually very nice.  The temp was 36 degrees Fahrenheit.  Snow was melting, roads were wet, slushy.  Whatever snow that’s on the driveway are heart attack type of snow – they are wet and damn heavy.

Christmas dinner was with great company.  Wonderful food and chat.

2009 Christmas gifts

1. Cat bag from the neighbor: Cookies and more cookies
2. Red furry snow flake bag from church member. I took the gifts out: Nativity scene candy container and mixed nut bread.
3. White and red snuggy socks from RCIA sponsor
4. Card and Honey Bake Ham gift certificate of $50 from big boss

Christmas is just three days away.  How time flies. 

This year will just be me, myself, I and the three dogs. 

DB is staying in TX.  I asked if his mom and family are all prepped for Christmas.  He said the only thing they did for preparation was setting the tree up but no decorations nor presents bought.  Apparently, they are bogged down with the business, the sports bar.  Looks like things at the bar is doing better now.  Customers, staff and especially the mother praise DB for a job well done in managing it.  It just kills me to know why someone wants to take over a business when he/she has no idea nor the experience to run it.  All the stories I hear from DB on how they were running the business before DB had to change the style of management was super ridiculous!  DB said some of them are dumb as a post!  Honestly I think they were stupid too. 

Christmas eve a snow storm predition….yeah!  Fresh snow for Christmas!  On the eve I will be going for dinner at my sponsor’s home.  I really have to see how bad the condition is.  Hopefully it’s not too bad.   I might also go for midnight mass, but that too depends on whether I’m still awake!

Christmas day another church member invited me to their house.  It’s just them couple and they wanted me to be there to hang out.   I will give them a buzz though if I’m going. 

I’m off till Dec 30th.  I wanted to take the 31st off too but everyone in my department is off.  I have to be there.  My initial thought was to carry my remaining 37 hours over to next year but…..I really need to take the days off if not I will cry!!!  Get the drift?

Will spend the days doing some cleaning and catching up on movies.  Heaven!

Thanksgiving came and gone. I had a very good Thanksgiving dinner with a church member, B, and his family. We ate and ate, non stop since I arrived at their home. His daughter, hubby and 7 kids live with him and his wife, so the house is just bustling with kids, music, piano banging away and the drums, too! All the foods were cooked by B’s 2 daughters and older grandkids. Good food I have to say although B’s wife is on a appetite suppressant, the Mrs is trying to lose the weight she gained after her hip replacement surgery.   She still had a good amount of servings on her plate.  It’s not easy for me to forego the stuffings and corn casserole.  I only had one plate but the servings were huge!  Thanks to B and the Mrs, they fed me well!

The long weekend (3 days off) came and gone.  Labor day was on Monday, Sept 7, it was also the last day of Minnesota State Fair.  I didn’t go this year.  Aafter Labor day, it sure seems like falls creeps right in right away.  Leaves on the trees and shrubs are already turning colors.  Beautiful sight tho.  The day after Labor day is the unofficial day of the end of summer.  Temps usually dip down to the lower 70’s F.

Didn’t do much this weekend except planting my ever widening butt on the chair, “farming” a few “farms”, church and eating.   We smoked some ribs for our dinner on Sunday.  Mhmm, yummy!  We don’t buy ribs all the time.  At least once a year, smoked or grilled ribs should be on our summer menu.  This smoker has been sitting by its lonesome for 2 years and we finally got her smoking good on Sunday.

Smoking the ribs while Chase getting some good vitamin D

I also made bacon-wrapped jalapenos.  Thanks Pioneer Woman!

Wow, they were good. There is a good bite to the cream cheese filled jalapenos and the bacon gives a good umph to them hot babies.   My SIL calls them pickled jalapeno.  Huh?  Pickled?  What has she been smoking??? 

Didn’t take pics of the ribs and oven baked sweet potato fried, all gone, we were too hungry waiting for the food to be cooked.   As usual, the boys get some of the rib meat, no bones tho.  I’m anal about the bones getting stuck or perforate their intestines.

Here’s wishing everyone who drops over here to my humble blog a very Happy New Year! May 2009 brings each and everyone bountiful of whatever they are wishing/hoping for.

glitter-graphics.com

I still cannot believe 2009 is already here.  The days in 2008 absolutely went by very quickly for me.  The saying, “The older you get, the faster the day goes” is so true.   Overall it is not too bad of a year for me or my other half and the four legged boys.  I’m really counting my blessings every day.  I still have my family and friends (old and new) near and far, good health, a job, our house, the boys, and a job for DB amongst all the people who were laid off trying their hardest to get a paycheck.

I’m not going to wish for too much, but just good health for all my love ones and just be happy with what I have.