Christmas Photos

I dressed the puppies up tonight in their Christmas photo outfits. Lucas is growing so fast that his barely fit, and won't be wearable by next week. Mid photo shoot, we took a dinner break before trying session two of photos. Elleigh's button velcro closure wouldn't close anymore from her kibble bulge after she ate. Michael was the assistant puppy positioner. It was worth it though! Out of the one or two hundred photos snapped, we have the one photo we needed for our Christmas card. Thought I might share a photo of the kids at about the time they were saying they'd had enough. What troopers!

Lucas

Lucas is a handsome little guy and he is growing so fast. If he really puts his mind to it, he can now jump onto the couch himself. However, he is not even attempting the stairs to go up to the second floor, so we carry him to bed like a baby. He's sleeping through the night, mostly because he is exhausting himself by running around and playing so hard with Elleigh May all evening. He's been a trooper with the start of the cold weather and still going outside to do his potty. He wasn't too impressed when the light rain we got at home tonight, just after the sun wentdown, that froze suddenly to the deck. So he ran out to pee and slid across the deck and off the stairs. Poor little guy! He and Elleigh are fun to watch when they are snuggling and having quiet time. Elleigh is very patient with him and sometimes it even seems like they are whispering things back and forth to one another.

fleece stuffed mitten in progress

I am participating in my fellow knitter Gina's Month of Mittens event. There is a link on my side bar this month to her blog's webpage with the details on it. And of course, I always have the Sleepy Eyes Knits link on my page. The goal was to make as many mittens in the month of November as possible, but I have only started one mitten project so far. I may not have it finished by the end of the month either. But wanted to post a photo to show off how much of the fleece stuffed mitten I have done so far. They are intended for myself so I can wear them walking from the parking garage all the way into my office at work. They will be thick and warm. I think most people use a contrasting yarn and fleece color so there are flecks in the stockinette stitching from the insertd fleece, but I chose to use the same color for each. You can read more about the details on this project on its project page on ravelry.com.

sock needle basket

I went to Robin's today, and sat beside Nancy, and weaved another basket. It's a small one that I think it going to be a new sock needle basket for me. I used a solid wood bottom so that there are no small holes for the needles to slip through. I had a good time catching up with Nancy and Robin, and I always enjoy how relatively quickly a basket project finishes up in a few hours. On some warmer afternoon, I will go outside and stain the basket. I put a tea light next to the basket for scale.

Lemon Grass

Michael and I took a break from wedding planning today for lunch at the Lemon Grass Restaurant in Moultonboro, New Hampshire. It's Asian cuisine complete with a sake bar and sushi, and we are very glad we stumbled upon it. There was a brochure for Mike Love's Lemon Grass Restaurant and Sake Bar at the bakery where we were picking out our wedding cake today, Love Bites. They make most of the desserts for the restaurant. Michael and I shared Crispy Lemon Grass Calamari for an appetizer with Saigon Slaw. We seem to be fried calamari connoisseurs since we try it most places where we go out to dinner. This calamari was served with three sauces: sweet & sour, wasabi mayo, and a citrus soy sauce. I had the Phat Thai for my entree, which was the best I have ever had and full of peanut flavor. And Michael had the Sesame Crusted Rare Ahi Tuna. He got some interesting pickled veggies with his tuna: beets, cucumbers and cabbage. Very enjoyable and a nice atmosphere. I particularly liked the assortment of small bowls, plates and cups they had for all of the different entrees. And the kitchen is open to view from all of the tables so there's something to watch. It seems like the restaurant is newly set-up or renovated. I can't wait to try it again. Maybe when we head back to the area for our wedding weekend in March, we can plan to stop in again. Check out the restaurant's website.

Love Bites!!

Michael and I went to Love Bites, a bakery in Moultonboro, New Hampshire this morning. It was a beautiful ride up route 109. Love Bites was once owned by Donna Love, who is a well known pastry chef in the area, but she sold the bakery to Darcy Remillard. Darcy now continues the Love Bites business out of the commercial bakery in the basement of her home. They had just finished up on the Thanksgiving pie rush. I had sent Darcy a few photos and an e-mail description of my vision of the perfect wedding cake to which she responded that it was very doable. After tasting fondant and a hazelnut cookie, we decided this was the place to order our wedding cake from. And most impressive, Michael made a key decision on cake filling and was very concerned over depth of flavor and whether one filling would be strong enough to stand up to the others. Darcy was impressed also with his level of participation. And Darcy and Mike discussed songs by Def Leppard and Judas Priest that have Love Bites in the lyrics. We left a deposit and took away a tasty cranberry square, a bacon flavored dog bone for the kids, hazelnut cookies, and a sample of the cake we ordered. I won't give too many details here, as many of my blog readers will end up at the wedding and I don't want to spoil the surprise. But I will divulge that it is not a Diabetic-friendly cake and it will be very decadent.

3 months and 2 weeks left to get everything else in order for the wedding...

Happy Thanksgiving

The past several years, Michael and I spent the actual Thanksgiving Day with his family. But this year, we packed up Lucas and Elleigh and drove to Vermont. Vermont trips are always whirlwind trips because I try to do so much in the little time that I have. I don't get back home often enough it seems.

Lucas and Elleigh slept entwined with each other on both the ride over and back. This was the first time Lucas got to meet his Grandparents on the Doaner side, and his cousins: Brandi and Angus.

I took a tour of Grandma's house, and the work my brother and an electrician have done on getting the house in shape to be rented. My brother is hoping to be able to move in before Christmas with his family.

Brandi's birthday is in early December, so I usually bring up her birthday gifts around Thanksgiving time. This year, she got a new assortment of books and a little cash.

Angus was in high energy mode on Thursday, so it was hard to get him to sit still long enough to photograph his new missing front teeth.

We had turkey and all the fixings: potato, gravy, coleslaw, deviled eggs, stuffing, squash, and rolls. This year's forgotten item was the yams. There's always something that never makes the table in every house.

Brandi, Angus, Mom and I sat down with the felted ball kit I got on my Grand View Knitting Retreat weekend. We wrapped yarn and used roving to make fluffy balls, and then stuffed them inside old nylons and put them in the washer for one cycle. It was quick and fun, and now we have four felted Christmas ball ornaments. I think next time, I would use more traditional Christmas colors. The fancy ornament hangers came from Target.

Michael helped my Dad open their new computer up and get it hitched up to the printer. Mom and Dad were working on my old hand-me-down Gateway that must be 10 years old at the very least. They were getting to the point where they could run errands between mouse clicks because the computer was so slow. They are now running on Windows Vista and Dad can't believe how fast his fantasy football website loads up.

Mom and I had little pieces of mince meat pie and maple pecan pie before it was time to pack up the dogs and drive back to New Hampshire in the pouring rain.

Lucas and Elleigh shared a small can of Thanksgiving Dinner dog food made by Merrick when we got them back home. Mmmm!

Our First Snow

It began snowing this morning right around the time we were leaving for work. This took me totally by surprise. I don't remember hearing that it was going to snow in southern NH on the news. I was in good company because none of my coworkers seemed to be expecting snow either. I haven't even put my winter car kit in my car yet and I left for work today without a hat and gloves. Looks like we ended up with 2 inches of settled wet snow.

As shocked as I was about the snow, the puppies were not pleased to go out and go potty in the snow this evening. It was Lucas' first snow. He was a trooper and did his business, but it was clear his feet were cold and he didn't want to linger too long.

Exhausted Puppies

It has been a long weekend for the furry babies. Elleigh has been a good big sister and played with her new baby brother. She isn't interested in sharing her food, and I don't blame her. So we strongly encourage each baby to eat out of their own bowls. But Elleigh is sharing her toys and seems to like playing tug with Lucas. She also has been trying to sneak the tiny puppy toys of Lucas and we have to stop her from chewing through them. Elleigh is also a trooper about going outside for potty every time Lucas goes out. Lucas and Mommy enjoy the company even if she doesn't have to go to the bathroom herself. Lucas attended his first puppy obedience class today. He as the smallest kid in his class, which was disappointing because we hoped that there would be another small dog puppy he could play with. Instead, there was Calvin (springer spaniel), Bubba (Bulldog) and Rosa (a curly water spaniel.) Lucas sat most of the class patiently beside me and looked as if he was already a well behaved pooch while his classmates barked, jumped around, and tripped over their big puppy feet. I think Lucas may have been tired in class today so I don't expect he will be so perfect next class session. Lucas is still able to make it through the night with just one potty break somewhere between 3-5:30 am. He seems to be going through a growth spurt right now. It's amazing how much he has grown in just the week that we've had him. While watching the NASCAR final race of the season tonight, Elleigh and Lucas tried to share the same exact space right in the corner of the sofa beside Daddy while he played on the computer. It wasn't that long ago that Elleigh use to lay on top of Austin and they'd sleep together. Elleigh has definitely taken on the big dog role now that she is on the bottom of the dog pile.