The Most Wonderful Time

Allie thinks it's the most wonderful time of the year... when the humidifier comes back out!

Humidity tastes great!

Porch

Our porch is officially ready for Christmas now.  It's complete with the boxwood tree I made, a wreath from our local nursery, and icicle lights hung by J.

... But the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be

On your own front door.
 

A Griswold Christmas

Clark Griswold would be proud of our neighbors.

Sadly, there hasn't been a Cousin Eddie sighting.

Snow Day

It's a snow day for our entire family.  Hooray!

The snow is still falling as I write this post.  Not to worry, though - J brought home an emergency supply of Reese's peanut butter cups in case we're snowed in.

Update:  The snow has ended and the sun is out!  We even got to go for a long walk!

Santa Gator

Allie got to open her Christmas present early so she can enjoy it throughout the holiday season.

It's a Santa Gator!

For size perspective, here's the non-Santa Gator that was Allie's first toy when we brought her home.

Chomp chomp!

Boxwood Tree

Our church offered a boxwood workshop to make holiday decorations.  I chose to make a Christmas tree (the other options were wreaths and centerpieces).

One of the women has a large property with boxwoods, so she trims them once a year before the holidays and brings in the trimmings for the sanctuary wreaths and the boxwood workshop.

I started with a square, plastic dish with a block of moist floral foam.  After two hours of picking through boxwood, trimming pieces, and arranging them in the foam I ended up with a tree!

I chose the Santa pick from a box of decorations supplied and one of the ladies helped me make a big bow for the top.  I'm proud of my creation!

It's the perfect Christmas addition to our kitchen table.

Double Birthday

Happy birthday to J's mom:

and A's dad:

We hope you both have wonderful birthdays!

How Lovely are Thy Branches

Allie is very detail-oriented and particular about things around the house.  If anything is out of place or something new is added to any room, she feels the need to investigate.

Sometimes it's a good thing - as in the case of our missing smoke detector.  We got the lovely 'low battery chirp' in the middle of the night a few months ago.  J got up and removed the batteries until the morning (this is one of three smoke detectors in our house, so we weren't in danger of burning alive).  The next day, Allie started barking at something in the hallway - it was the missing smoke detector that had been removed from the ceiling.  Once J replaced the battery and hung it back up, everything was back to how it should be in Allie's mind.

Sometimes it's not a good thing - as in the case of J's wedding boutonniere.  We had let the boutonniere J wore for our wedding dry and had kept it on the shelf next to our unity candle.  One day as I was dusting I moved the boutonniere to a lower shelf while I was working on the high shelf where we usually kept it.  A split second later, Allie had grabbed it in her mouth and the poor dried flowers were crunched and fell apart.

After these stories, it's not a surprise that Allie is very, very interested in Christmas trees.  Lights, ornaments, branches... they are almost too much to resist.  In an effort to strike a balance between Allie's curiosity and our desire for a Christmas tree, we've decorated our three foot tree once again this year.  I never thought when I bought this tree for $9.99 at Target the first Christmas we were married that it would get so much use.

Despite its small size, it ends up being a cute little tree once it's decorated.

And the best part is that we can stand the baby gate in front of it in case a certain member of our household likes it a little too much.

Dog Teasing

Video evidence of the teasing Allie endures:

Ham Day

Our Thanksgiving wasn't Turkey Day, it was Ham Day since that's what we had for dinner!  We had ham, sweet potatoes with pecans, roasted carrots, cranberry sauce, fruit compote, and rolls.  Here's the spread:

Not pictured is Allie who completely wore herself out during the holiday.  She spent yesterday recovering from all the excitement:

Being a guard dog is exhausting work!