In Montreal

Jerry and I drove up with Carol to Montreal today to enjoy the week and New Year's Eve here. So check out my travel blog: www.thetravelingbaesels.blogspot.com to check out what's going on with us here. Happy New Year

Christmas

This was such a wonderful Christmas. We really enjoyed having Yaric and Jason home. We got to spend Christmas Eve with Peg and Jeff. Our friends Nancy and Steve had a fantastic dinner on Boxing Day Night (with the "friends of Peg and Jeff" crowd). We ate well...Jason's Christmas Day dinner was fabulous...great roast...fabulous red wine reduction sauce...brussel sprouts...mashed potatos...salad. Never did get to the dessert. We went to the movies together to see Tales of Despereaux. Yaric and Jason also went to see several other movies including "The Spirit". A really nice week. Here are some happy photos:

Yaric with Luigi on Christmas Eve

Jerry on Christmas Eve

Peg - Christmas Eve

Jeff - Christmas Eve

Geena - On Auntie Peg's lap

Yaric and Jason

Yaric and Jason (and Luigi) in front of their portrait (done in 1998/99)

Jason, Leonard, and Yaric on Christmas Eve

Jason at Samurai Sushi - 12/27

Yaric - Samurai Sushi 12/27

Christmas Eve Eve

This morning Jason and I made cinnamom rolls from scratch (well, Jason made them..I cleaned up and gave sage advice...some taken). He did a great job...all agreed they were scrumptious. He put in a mixture of finely cut almonds, walnuts, pecans, and pistachio along with cinnamon, clove, honey, brown sugar and honey...and a layer of phyllo dough rolled up inside the roll. Again...yummy.

Yaric and Jerry went sporting clay shooting with our friends Jeff and Steve at M&M Preserve and Sporting Clays in New Jersey. We bundled them up and said goodbye and both agreed (Jason and I) we'd rather be cooking in a warm kitchen than shooting in 20 degree weather. But they had a great time and Yaric had a great first day of shooting!

In the late morning Leonard and his cousin Stephann came over to visit Jason. I caught the tail end of the visit and took a few photos. I miss having Jason and Leonard around...they make quite a pair!

Coffee with Peg

Peg is in town!!! Yippeee Yahooo! Let the holidays begin! To start off the celebrating, a number of friends gathered at Cream and Sugar in Wayne for coffee (or tea) with Peg this morning. We had a great time (even if we think the heater could have been set a little higher!). Here are some pics....

Peg

Mariadela

Marda

Betty and Sherrin

Peg - happy to be with her peeps.


After Coffee...Peg and I went over to visit Em

How thankful I am to have all these wonderful women in my life!

A Tree Full of Birds

This morning it was 12 degrees when I woke up with a windchill around 0! The sun was brilliant but just wasn't strong enough to penetrate those winds from the north! First things were first and I pulled on my Uggs, my wool coat, and half gloves and braved the morning cold to fill up the deck platform feeders with millet. Yesterday's leftover were frozen into a sheet of ice and millet that looks curiously like millet brittle. Although, the squirrels like to pick up a chunk and chew on it, the little birds: juncos, sparrows, and wrens... are not that thrilled with it. So fresh millet for everyone!

Then an hour or so later I was upstairs and looked outside into our big backyard walnut tree. There must have been at least 30 red-winged blackbirds decorating the treed like christmas ornaments. They were basically waiting their turns at the feeders. Poor guys...their wetland home a couple of blocks over is all frozen! I had seen a small flock last week mixed with the robins and starlings that were devouring the berries off the hawthorn trees...but this was QUITE a gang!

I'll miss these little winter visitors when I move to Florida. However, I won't have to worry about pulling on my uggs to go out and feed the birds in December!

The Boys are Back in Town

Jason and Yaric arrived on Air Tran 624 from Orlando this afternoon. We've ordered pizza, philly cheesesteak and salads. The boys are happily occupying "their" chairs in the basement playing with the X Box. Jerry is watching a football game. I'm doing compilation CDs for Christmas presents. All is right with the world.

Crackling Ice

We all know about crackling fires in the heart of winter, but there is also crackling ice (not nearly as warm and cosy!). We had freezing rain and sleet from sometime around 3am to about 10am...so we had a coating of ice on everything! little icicles frozen in motion off the wheelwells of the car and the edge of the BBQ cover. Bird feed was frozen into something resembling millet brittle (the squirrel would break it apart and chewy off pieces...I had to put fresh millet out for the little juncos and sparrows). And a thin coating of ice on all the branches and leaves on everything in the garden. This evening a wind has picked up, so when I went out on the deck to call the dogs in, I could hear this crackle, crackle, crackle reverberating through the air...all the branches were moving in the wind and cracking the surface of all the ice. Amazing.