Christmas

Christmas Eve we went to my parents' house. Shadow and Rocky had a blast playing with their cousins. Here they all are, waiting expectantly for scraps from dinner:

After dinner we opened stockings. The dogs got theirs first. They were pretty excited:

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Rocky helped Henry open a gift:

Shadow was actually a really early Christmas present from me and Henry to ourselves. We just decided that if the right dog came along, we wouldn't wait until Christmas and let the opportunity pass us by.

My parents got me and Henry snowshoes, which is pretty awesome because mine are really old and Henry doesn't have any. Now hopefully we'll get a chance to go soon. Henry still needs snow boots to wear with the snowshoes.

When we got home, I decided on a whim to put up some last-minute Christmas lights. It was really cold outside and I froze my butt off. The wood stove helped out with that. Note our stockings hung by the fire. Henry got me a hand-made one with Tinkerbell on it.

We stayed up late drinking cocktails and watching Elf. Henry made popcorn for the movie, but we can't make popcorn in the kitchen because the popcorn maker always blows a fuse, so he made it in the bathroom:

Christmas morning we opened presents at home, which was really nice. Our first Christmas together in our own place. Henry got me Sketcher's Shape-ups, and I got him a Blu-Ray player. He also got me a beautiful blown-glass necklace. Then we headed to Henry's parents' house where we had Christmas dinner and even more presents. After that, we headed to the bar where Henry works because his bosses were working and we hung out with some of Henry's co-workers while his bosses waited on us for a change.

Posted via email from cosmictadpole's posterous

Merry Little Christmas

Hank, Rocky, and Lucky. This photo was fairly difficult to pose.

Me, Rocky, and Henry on Christmas Eve. Getting ready to open presents!Christmas morning it had dumped two feet of snow! Henry enjoyed it.

It's (finally) beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today is the last day of work before Christmas!!! Tonight I'm going to my friend's house for Hanukkah dinner. Tomorrow Henry is driving up for Christmas Eve celebrations. Then on Christmas morning we will drive back down to celebrate with his family. Last night I made cookies and brought them to work this morning for my coworkers. Here is the recipe:

Peanut Butter Oatmeal No Bake Cookies

10 minutes prep.
Makes 12 cookies. (I find that it makes more than 12 - around 18 or so)

3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
5 tablespoons peanut butter (reduced fat works great)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup milk (non-fat works great)
¼ cup butter

1. Mix together the first three ingredients. Set aside.
2. Stir together sugar, milk, and butter in medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally – full boil for one minute.
3. Immediately pour over oatmeal mixture and stir thoroughly but rapidly.
4. Spoon cookie size scoops (heaping tablespoon) onto waxed paper or plastic wrap and let set until firm (refrigerate if in a hurry).

Woke up yesterday morning to see that we had finally gotten a proper "dump." My car had about a foot of snow on it.

With flash:

Without flash:I made my bed up all nice and lined up my stuffed animals. Then Rocky jumped up there and squeezed himself in between two of them. He's such a snuggle bug!
Me and Rocky wearing our gay apparel:

Christmas Cards

Below are some Christmas cards I made this weekend. I'm not quite finished yet. Click to enlarge.