The Holidays March on

OK. Here it is December 30 and I'm just getting around to looking at my blog--first time in like a week. I haven't haven't looked at any of the other blogs I follow, either. Hey, CCV--thanks for the comment. I really like your blog. So anyway, here's a synopsis of my holiday (short and sweet).
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Christmas Eve--I worked for a couple of hours and then made Sugar Cookies, Whole Wheat Bread, and Pumpkin Muffins. Son made Date Balls. And then we all frosted the cookies (all of the stuff was vegan, of course). That evening, my folks came over and brought presents and then we went to a couple of friends' houses to deliver goodies.
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Christmas day--We got up and opened presents. Santa was good to my kids. Daughter got an easy bake oven and mixes, and son got bionicles. From us, kids got cameras. From grandparents, kids got camera cases. Hubby got tools. I got a mandolin and a new food processor. Grandparents got pictures.
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Then during the day, I made a devils food cake and re fried beans; daughter took pictures and "baked"; son took pictures and built bionicles; hubby napped. Later that day, we went over to my folks house and had tacos for dinner and cake and pie for dessert. My brother and his family were there too. We gave them vegan bread and goodies--they gave us a meat and cheese gift pack (gag).
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December 26th--more bionicle building, picture taking, easy baking etc. by kids. More napping by hubby. I worked. We did have one disaster related to the cameras. The kid's cameras can take videos and they both loved that. Daughter did a "hurricane" video and ended up losing her camera for a week because "we don't treat cameras like that!" (She just didn't understand that you don't toss a camera to make it look like the hurricane took it. I am pretty sure she understands now.)
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December 27th--Saturday--I played at "stupid 40 year-old woman tricks" and did a face plant in the parking lot at the movie theater. I said some choice words. I'm still sore, and my knee is beyond bruised. It was snowing on top of slightly melting ice so was really slick and I was in a hurry because I didn't want to be late and I just slipped. By the time we got into the theater, I was laughing at myself for being so stupid. We saw Disney's "Bedtime Stories" by the way. It was good, but not one I'd want to see over and over again.
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December 28th--Sunday--we went down to the hot tubs and swam. Really fun and eased the soreness.
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December 29th--Monday--I just worked. It was a really busy day.
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And that brings us back to today. I am resolved to start eating better again. I ate all together too many of the Christmas goodies and need to get back on top of things. I didn't lose all that weight only to gain it back my first Holiday season thin.
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I'll try to do something wonderful tonight for dinner and then I'll blog all about it tomorrow. Take care, all. And I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Whew, I've been away from my Blog a while

Hi! I've been away from my blog for awhile. I have just been really busy!
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Look at my poor puppy.
She is just too active. She won't let her belly heal up so now she is in a wiener wrap and a fancy collar. Fortunately we'll try to get the stitches out on Friday, so we've only got a few more days of this.
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Son got his braces on yesterday!


Isn't he cute? He'd hate me for saying that. His mouth was sore so he had some broth and a smoothie for dinner last night. For breakfast, he had cream of wheat. I made him mashed potatoes to take to school for lunch, but he decided he'd try the Christmas dinner they were doing. It'll have mashed potatoes.
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Here's a picture of our yard right now. It started snowing last night and just quit a few minutes ago. We now have some sunshine, but it's only 21 degrees.

Hubby is on the couch trying to catch some ZZZ's. He has to work again tonight. He got home last night a bit after 2 am, slept until 7am, and is now catching some more sleep. I would be really grumpy if my sleep was broken into bits and pieces. I hope he's not.
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I haven't done anything exciting with food lately, so I don't have anything to talk about there. I did get a start for Kefir from my aunt. She has hers in milk, I rinsed mine and am doing it in soy milk. It definitely imparts a yogurt-y taste to smoothies. And from what I've read, it's supposed to be really good for you.
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We have a piano recital tonight, a violin recital and a boy scout Christmas party tomorrow night, and trumpet lesson and a girl scout Christmas party on Thursday night. Then on Friday, the kids are out for a 2-week Christmas break. Saturday and Sunday, hubby works and on Monday, we have another Christmas party.
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It just gets so busy this time of year.
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Well, I had better get back to doing something constructive.
Ciao for now.

Friday Morning

Good morning. I'm sitting here at my computer waiting for one of the gals at work to get in. I'm certainly not lonely this morning--Daughter is home sick today and hubby is home again today.
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Daughter has had a runny nose for a couple of days and now she's really feeling rough. It's just a cold. I'm listening to Disney's "Lion King" on the TV. She and her daddy are watching it.
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I'm also really cold this morning. The thermostat doesn't say it's any different than usual, but I get cold easily and once cold, I don't warm up easily.
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Depending on my boss and the office manager, I'm either going to be really busy today or have nothing at all to do. (I'm waiting on each of them before I can get into certain projects.) I was kind of hoping for slow and then I was going to take off and go to the mall and get a haircut and a pair of shoes. (I have a jumper I was going to wear to hubby's work Christmas party tomorrow night, but I don't have any shoes to go with it. I just need a pair of super cheap black flats.) With daughter home, I doubt I'll make it shopping even if I am slow at work.
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Dinner last night was steamed cauliflower, sweet potato mash (left-overs from thanksgiving that I took out of the freezer), and a small bean burrito (leftovers from last night). Hubby and the kids had ham in lieu of burrito--hubby bought a ham with his gift card from his employer.
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Then we went driving around to look at Christmas lights. They were so pretty.
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Then we came home and had a strawberry/banana smoothie for a snack and went to bed. It was a nice evening.
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Well, I should be getting a call any minute now--she was going to be in at 9.
Ciao for now.

Curry for Dinner and Christmas Ramblings

We had a curry for dinner. I got the recipe off of vegcooking.com (it was the eggplant and cauliflower curry but I substituted a pumpkin type squash for those two ingredients). It came out pretty good, but I like my regular curry better. (This is so fun--snapping pictures of my cooking with my phone and sending them to my computer and uploading them to my blog. Yeah, I know, I'm weird.)
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Last night we took son shopping for his sister's Christmas gift while she was at Girl Scouts. He wanted to get her an easy bake oven. Well, that's like her number one item on her list and I'm pretty sure Santa has his elves making it for her (ahem, ahem). So I had to put on a show saying that he is not getting her an easy bake oven because it gets hot and I don't want her to burn herself. Hubby said I did a good job of it. And I made son promise not to tell his sister what I said--so it won't hurt her feelings and make her think I don't believe she could do it. He ended up getting her a metal detector made for kids. I can't help but wonder if he really thinks she'll like it or if he thinks he'd like it.
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Sis picked out a bionicle for her brother. Hubby took her shopping while son and I were at his ortho appointment and doctor's appointment on Tuesday. With him you can't go wrong getting him Lego's.
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I want a new food processor and a dehydrator for Christmas. The food processor I have is a really small attachment to a really old (not very good) stand mixer). I want a bigger one that I don't have to put together so much and will work better than what I have now. I have been looking at different stores and there is one on sale now at Target. I thought hubby and kids were going to get me that, but son told me that they had already gotten me something (I hope I started hinting long enough ago that it's something I want--I have to love whatever they get me but I am so tight that I really hate them spending money on me if it's not something I really want or need.) I'm not really looking for a dehydrator, for now I just use my oven on a really low temperature.
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Hubby is torn between a spotlight they have at Wal-Mart and a tool kit they have at Costco. I keep telling him he needs to decide so I can take the kids shopping and steer them right.
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And by the way, speaking of ovens (two paragraphs up), yesterday afternoon I made some Seitan (the round thing beside the curry is a slice of it.) I took a recipe I got off of the Post Punk Kitchen website and changed the seasonings to how I wanted it. It came out really good, but it's a baked recipe instead of a boiled or steamed one (I love that--it's easier for me to put it in the oven and leave it alone rather than having to keep a pot on the stove). Well anyway, I either made it too wet or didn't wrap it up tight enough or something because it expanded out the ends of it's foil wrap and then there was liquid from it that ended up all over the bottom of my oven. I had to clean my oven. (It wasn't a whole lot, just a bit, but I don't like my oven all gross.) Next time I'll bake it in a pan with sides, just in case.
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Well, that's all for now. The dog is sleeping; the cat is sleeping; I wish I were sleeping, too.
Ciao for now.