Scattered Thoughts . . .

It is a beautiful Christmas Eve... the house is quiet except for soft Christmas music being played on our home theatre... the gifts are placed around the tree... comforting drinks are being served... as Santa makes his way around the globe to visit all the little children of the world, we are relaxing in the warmth of our home decorated for Christmas awaiting the children and our Christmas guests...  We have some gifts from Monticello and a dated letter from President Thomas Jefferson provided to us by timeless Santa... There are so many gifts that they are stacked against the wall, climbing toward the ceiling.... So... where are Lukey and Kenzie???  They are probably wondering when Christmas morning will finally arrive... I'm sure 6am will be here soon enough!   Okay... where is my drink?

Dark Chocolate Bark... not quite done yet... it needs another layer of dark chocolate... We've begun our food prep for Christmas Day...  Sheila started with making some candy... a Dark Chocolate Bark with Candied Orange Peel, Pistachios and Dried Cranberries.  This is the first time Sheila has made this but I'm sure it will be good. That being said, we did encounter some minor issues so we'll make a few minor changes the next time we make it.   I par-boiled a bunch of potatoes for a big pan of Home Fries for tomorrow morning's breakfast... it will have the usual mix of green peppers, onion, bacon and some spices. This evening, I'll be preparing a Breakfast Egg Casserole. I've made this casserole the past few Christmases and I adapt it each year. This year, the bottom crust will be flavored French Toast bread... and the casserole will contain chunks of sausage, ham, green peppers, and cheese... an egg mixture poured over it... refrigerated overnight...

I've been down for the count the past couple of days. My health has taken a serious nosedive which affects everything  in my life.  I'm experiencing difficulty breathing... my bones are aching (mostly long bones... ie, legs)... my joints are extremely painful (mostly my hips, knees, ankles and my spine)... I'm having cognitive difficulties... and the fatigue is completely overwhelming. Oh...  and I simply feel lousy at times, even miserable the rest of the time.  I've thrown a bunch of extra medications at this problem in the hope of stabilizing my body again as quickly as possible. We'll see how that pans out... I'm hoping to stabilize my health today so I can get back to 'Christmas stuff' tomorrow... 

Just before bedtime last night, I was looking at Kenzie's dollhouse townhouse... at first, the new window box on one of the third floor windows had my attention and I was thinking, "That looks really nice... it will look really nice when I get the remaining four window boxes mounted after Christmas." Then my attention moved downward to the first floor and patio french doors I fixed yesterday (Kenzie broke off part of the mullion grill on Christmas morning last year and I just got around to fixing it yesterday along with a few other parts that broke over the past year). I was thinking that the repair wasn't even noticeable. That was looking nice too! Then I noticed the empty patio right outside those french doors and was thinking, "I really need to do something about some furniture or something for that patio"... "Hey wait... didn't I order a tree to put on that patio?" Yes, I already ordered a tree and had hidden it in a different place t

Kenzie's big townhouse dollhouse was perched on our living room coffee table last night so she jumped right into playing with her dollhouse family. It is always fun watching her expressions as she plays... especially through a dollhouse window... Gee played with Kenzie and her dollhouse too!  Interesting place to move the little girl's bedroom... I'm thinking Kenzie wants a room with a view! As Kenzie and Gee played with the dollhouse, Lukey took everyone's order for dinner and then made our pizza's as requested! Kenzie was cleaning floors in her dollhouse in preparation of the Christmas holiday fast approaching... And the gifts spread out under and around the tree seem to continue to grow a little bit each day... Christmas is getting close!

I've begun working on adding some details to Kenzie's dollhouse for this Christmas. Each holiday, I add a little bit more to this beautiful townhouse. This Christmas, however, I will be adding most of the new details after Christmas. I'll be adding quite a bit of detail parts and accessories this Christmas so I'll share photos here sometime after Kenzie opens her Christmas gifts. At this point, Lukey and Kenzie will not be at our house until Christmas morning... and they probably won't be reading this blog entry... so I can start getting some prep work done on the dollhouse and the train set. I did, however, want to add one small detail on one window of the dollhouse... this is one of five window boxes in the photos included here. Just adding this one window box makes a tremendous difference for the front elevation of this townhouse dollhouse... when I add the rest of these window boxes after Christmas (after Kenzie opens her gifts) this front elevation wil

I have a little bit of time this morning so here are some of the photos from our Christmas dinner at The Whip in Stowe. Well, really, it was a  lunch-drinks-appetizers-drinks-Christmas dinner at The Whip in Stowe.  As I wrote in a previous blog entry, we all had a great time, as always! The pork belly with toasted garlic chips over spinach made for a nice lunch... delicious! Sheila says the crab cakes were delicious as well! Christine managed to get another nice shot of Sheila and me... This couple in the background (below) was photo bombing me whenever I shot photos toward their table... and enjoying it! I'd rather have that than people trying to hide their faces. I didn't notice the photo bombing nor the celebrity  ( Rusty DeWees )  sitting at the next table in the background until after taking a few shots. Actually, I  didn't notice the photo bombers until Sheila told me why they were laughing and so amused... it wasn't until I tal

Every Christmas season, we meet with a few friends for an afternoon and a Christmas dinner at The Whip Bar & Grill. This is something Frank started doing a number of years ago and it has become a tradition that we all look forward to every Christmas. Our annual Christmas dinner at The Whip was yesterday and we had a great time! We arrive at the bar around lunchtime each year... have some lunch... some drinks... some appetizers... some drinks... then we move to a large table for dinner. Last night's dinner was delicious, as always.  I have more photos that I'll share sometime later but, for now, I'll share a photo here of Sheila and me at The Whip's bar... a photo of me is a rarity since I am usually the one holding the camera but Christine helped out by shooting a few photos of us at different times throughout the day.  Thanks for the photos, Christine... and thanks, Frank, for hosting this dinner every year!   Merry Christmas to all!