Christmas Day

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day ... I've put more on Facebook, because it's easier, so if you've been on Facebook, you'll have seen these, but it's a different crowd here. Most of you know the cast of characters and the pictures, for the most part, need no explanation, but there are a couple that I felt required it.

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Gryper prepared for the guests in his own special way .

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I would have liked this picture to be clearer, but I took it with a telephoto and no flash, so this is as good as it gets.

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Gavin was watching Cameron and as soon as Cam looked away, Gavin grabbed his beer and casually sat there with it till it was noticed.

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The following three pictures are photos of framed pictures we received. We were thrilled. I can only imagine the difficulty of taking pictures of four kids when the younger two both have autism. I think they did a great job.

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After a long exhasting day, Mya fell asleep under the dining room table.

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We had a wind storm here on Dec 28, during which we had about eight trees blow over, and the tops of quite a few balsam trees were blown off too.

This spruce fell right across the sailboat, and after removing it, Ken found that there was no apparent damage to the boat. We lost our electricity for 27 hours and our phones have been out now for 26 hours and they still are.

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There were other guests there, I just didn't get any pictures that wre good. I'll be watching the others' blogs for some.

The Dinner Party

We're hosting a dinner party for some of our friends. I've been planning the meal for ages and I'm really excited. Today I'll be doing most of the preparation. I know I'll get asked to post the menu, so here goes.


Appetizers


Brie with Cranberries & Thyme baked in Buttered Puff Pastry

Pumpernickel Bread with a Roasted Red Pepper Dip


Main Course


Salad of Mixed Greens, Cranberries & Almonds with Maple Balsamic Dressing

Potatoes Mashed with Sour Cream Green Onions and Thyme

Roasted Root Vegetables

Rutabaga, Carrots and Pears mashed with Butter and Ginger

Cornish Hens with a stuffing of Barley Cous Cous and Dried Fruits
roasted with a Port & Spice Glaze


Dessert

Warm Molten Chocolate Cakes

Shortbread Ice Cream

Handmade Chocolate Truffles

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The names all sound pretty jazzy (which I worked at), I'm salivating just thinking about it. I have only made the salad and the truffles before, all of the other recipes are new to me.

I've wanted to try making the molten chocolate cakes for a long time. They are individual cakes with a special batter that when baked just enough the warm centre of chocolate sort of oozes out. The ice cream I made on Thursday and I've renamed it because when I tasted it, it tasted exactly like shortbread cookies. Absolutely heavenly.

My fiddle

We had some company last night and I was asked how my violin is progressing. Then I was asked to bring it out. As I was putting stuff away just now, I was looking at it and thought, I should take a picture of this. It's not done, but jeez it's starting to look like a violin.

It's not glued or anything, cause there's some trimming that'll have to be done first. It does all fit together properly, it's just that I didn't have enough hands to hold it in place and take the picture.

Better get back to carving the insides.

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Clear and -26º Celsius (-15º Fahrenheit)

Last night on the news, they said that the moon was closest to earth than it had been in a long time because of the shape of her orbit around the earth. It was a little over 350,000km away as it passed over the northern hemisphere, about 30,000km closer than usual. I didn't stay up to watch how big it appeared in the night sky, but when I got up, before sunrise, it was still clear and bright (and a wee bit chilly). I got this picture through the trees.

It was really very beautiful, but I didn't stay out long in my "jammies" at that temperature.

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We're Getting Whacked This Year

I keep on about the snow, but jeez we're getting hit hard this year. Ken's lost track of how many times he's blown out the driveway already. Look at how deep the snow is on the path to the outhouse. On the bright side, we didn't lose our power or phone this time!

The deck was cleared off on Sunday, this all fell between Sunday evening and Tuesday evening. It's 14 inches.

Guess what Ken's doing right now ... yup ... clearing snow.

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