Happy Christmas, Happy Dogs

After recovering from a migraine yesterday ("Yes," on Christmas Eve), I woke up at 5:00 am with Merlin and DeeDee. First order of business was to distribute the doggie cookies which were a gift from one of our neighbors (for whom I made the dog theme-quilt). Then, it was feeding time and by 5:30, everyone was all settled in for their Christmas Day nap before Dear Husband (who got to sleep in this morning) joined us downstairs. We snapped this picture of Merlin and DeeDee in the kitchen as Ken was starting to make Christmas dinner. It was too sweet not to post.

The day was quiet and gave me time to finish working on a Christmas table runner that I was making for our holiday table. Guess it will wait until next year. But, I did finish everything except the handwork on the binding, which I am about to begin. I fussy cut some beautiful angel blocks from a panel, and designed a long (72") runner. It is actually quite pretty. I feared this was going to end up a UFO, so I am happy I completed it.

DH took the dogs out walking, while I cleaned up all the holiday mess. I am happy to report that DH - who is also the chef in this family - really likes his kitchen/cooking items that I gave him for Christmas, except (I think) the 'Omelet Express' machine. We will see how much this electric appliance is actually used by a purist chef who believes in "cooking with gas" only. I must admit that I was unaware that this machine had a cord! What a surprise when DH opened the box. Oops! DH did make us a mushroom, onion, and cheese omelet, which was very tasty and had a fine consistency. He says he will use it many times again. Sure hope so.

Tonight's menu is stuffed Cornish game hen and roasted brussel sprouts, with homemade (by me) apple crisp for the final course. Nothing like 1200 calories on a plate! But, today is the last day to eat with abandon, I say.

I was sorry that I could not share an annual holiday ritual with my dear friends in Gold River, CA, but my headache grounded me for the day yesterday. I also was unable to deliver the gift basket of cooking items to my former voice coach and his wife, both of whom enjoy cooking very much.

We hear from 'up the hill' that our niece has gone four days without a seizure. Let's pray that this is the beginning of the true wind-down period. As she and her mother don't celebrate Christmas due to their religion, we don't see them on Christmas. We are hoping that Alicia continues to recover and improve. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

DH is on vacation this week and I so look forward to spending many wonderful hours together, including seeing the new Sherlock Holmes movie, even though one review indicated "No Hit, Sherlock!"

Finally, DH was so sweet and bought me a new sewing machine (Janome ThreadBanger TB-30). Turns out that I erred in advising him what machine to purchase for me, so we are going to try and return it for another Janome model. Let's hope we can do this.

So, that's our Christmas in a nutshell. It was wonderful (except for the Christmas Eve 'Merry Migraine' attack)!

Onward toward 2010. Happy New Year to Dear Readers and may it be a banner year for you all!