New ornaments

I'm not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. The tree is up, presents have been bought, and plans are underway to make cookies, but I'm feeling quite 'meh' about it all. Not quite Grinchy, but 'meh'.

Back when I did feel like Christmas, we added to our set of ornaments from our travels.

From Conwy Castle in Wales, we added our Welsh flag.

From Holyrood Palace in Scotland - the place where several corgis romped freely on the grounds, we have the thistle.

From the Disney Magic ship, our ornament to commemorate the sailing. Each port of call is listed on the back.

Lastly, from passing the store in the local mall, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

I remain hopeful the Christmas spirit finds me in the next few days.

Where have we been?

It's starting to look like Christmas around here.

As I mentioned in last week's post, the past month and a bit have been rougher than usual.

On our anniversary, Mike's gallbladder decided it was going to become inflamed. This prompted 2 separate trips to the ER about 10 days apart, which culminated in a hospital stay for about 4 or 5 days. They placed a stent into the tube between the gallbladder and the liver so he's stable for now.

They plan to remove the stent and gallbladder in December.

Much of the month of October was difficult for our household. Our exercise regimen stopped and my sleep schedule hasn't gone back to normal yet.

We started our Christmas decorating a few days earlier than normal to bring some cheer around here. This year, I decided to shake up the banister. Usually I wrap the garland and lights around the banister and through each spindle. I like this look a bit better.

But Santa, I've been ever so good...

	Gimli would like: - cheese - toys - cookies - Marrobones - a new Mr. Sun - more cheese - some apples
	Merida would like: - all of what Gimli receives so she can steal it away - cuddles with Candy - but most of all, she wants snow Alas, it's a green and rainy Christmas for us this year.

New ornaments

Every time we travel, we make it a point to return with a new ornament. This year was no exception.

Merida

When her ornament was first released, it was quite popular and the shops at Disney couldn't keep it in stock. Now that Frozen has taken over, there were quite a few Meridas available :)

 We picked up this one and the next one on our most recent trip in November.

This is my unofficial motto when I run.

Faith in myself. Trust in my body. Pixie Dust for that extra bit of something.

A friend gave us this one.

Exterminate!

Here's our tree now.

Merry Christmas!

And I watched him exclaim as he frapped out of sight,

Merry Christmas to all!

And to all a good night!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Festivus or a good holiday with your family and friends!

Days of Christmas - 12

As one ages, Christmases tend to blend into one another so that you remember them in flashes here and there.

One of these flashes takes me back to Christmas Eve as a child in Trinidad. There was ham in the oven, filling the room with the lovely smells. Carols on the radio and fresh bread anxiously waiting for the ham.

This is one tradition I've brought forward to our lives. Every Christmas Eve, I make a ham and we have ham sandwiches for dinner. The corgis are always close by and they are rewarded with a small piece. I am rewarded with gobs of drool on the floor. :)

Then, we horse around on the floor with the dogs, race up and down the hallway, and have plenty of cuddles. Right now, it's a waiting game for Gimli to go to bed. Then, I can fill the stockings without him obsessing over his and the cookies inside.

Days of Christmas - 11

What started out as a place to put our Christmas cards has now become overrun with other, non Christmas items so we have to put some of the cards on the half wall.

I think next year I will come up with a better method to store the Christmas cards. To Pinterest I will go!

This is a nice idea: Paperclip ribbon card display as is this one: Kitchen cupboard ribbon.

Time will tell on if I actually get it done next year!

Days of Christmas - 10

This year, I strung the lights a little differently. I found this method: Stringing lights and figured I'd give it a try.

The first thing: you use a bit more lights than usual. In this picture there are 6 or 7 strings.
Secondly, it's probably best to stick with one color or a multi-colored string of lights, else you may run out and have to locate an extra string that may or may not go with your color scheme. We ran into this scenario - usually, I put up red and purple lights, but I didn't have enough, so I switched to the red and white. It makes it look like a candy cane, so it's not too bad.

Our tree now has a wide assortment of Disney ornaments, and fewer regular ornaments. I keep joking to Mike that we need a second tree to handle Disney!

Days of Christmas - 9

Stuffed animal friends.

These little guys only come out for about a month each year and I position them around the house. Gimli doesn't pay them any attention, but Merida thinks they are hers to poke and investigate.

I wouldn't put it past her to steal one and de-stuff it!

Days of Christmas - 8

Ugh, I've been horribly late with the majority of these posts, but this one at least is ok.

One of the things I enjoy about the Christmas season is getting together with friends. Friday night, we went out for schnitzel. It was to die for!

This is the Husar Schnizel, which is pork with potatoes, bacon, and hot peppers. I ended up taking home a doggie bag and ate it for lunch the following day. Still good!

After dinner, we went back to our friends' house to hang out.

On Saturday night, we visited our neighbor's and extended the holiday merriment. On the drink menu were Hazelnut martinis and Blue Glowtinis, in a word - YUM!

At times, we become caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season and we forget that the simple things like good food and drinks with great people are what really matter.

Days of Christmas - 7

Our Throwback Thursday for this month:

Puppy Merida on her stocking.

Six years ago, this was us with squirmy little fluffy Gimli.

I miss having a fluffy puppy swishing around the house. Fluffs are so incredibly soft and Gimli was such a cutie at that age.

Days of Christmas - 4, 5, 6

So, dear friends, I'm sorry for missing those 2 days. Life, and work, gets in the way sometimes, but here I am now.

Monday and Tuesday were crazy busy days and I felt a little down,

However, there's nothing like receiving mail that makes things a little better.

I had ordered a corgi t-shirt from GiveAFluff and it arrived on Monday. We also ordered next year's calendar, some magnets and some mugs from Vistaprint and the shipment arrived on Tuesday. This, coupled with some snuggle time with Merida, made me feel a little better.

This is part of the Christmas spirit, having family to prop you up when you're feeling down. Of course, this face doesn't hurt either.

Our drink for today is tea in some fetching cups. Some days, only a cup of tea will do!

Days of Christmas - 3

The corgis have created their Christmas lists:

Gimli:

cookies
food
cheese
toys
a new wubba
apples
more cookies
tons of Marrowbones
more cheese
peanut butter
bacon
toys
an egg

Merida:

snow!
cookies
apples
some Marrowbones
toys
whatever Candy's eating
a toy with lots of stuffing that I can destroy
a new shirt to wear
peanut butter
my own big blanket to cuddle on the couch, in Mike and Candy's bed, on the floor, and other such places.
more toys

My dogs have a one track mind, as you can see.

I find, when making up Christmas lists, it's nice to have some hot chocolate with Baileys in it. Today's mix contained store bought hot chocolate mix, Bailey's Hazelnut, and whipped cream.

Yum!

Days of Christmas - 2

We received a rather large Christmas stocking and it seems both corgis have claimed it.

Gimli hasn't figured out that it's a stocking, he thinks it's a big piece of fabric. He is well aware of stockings and what can be found in them, though! It's at the point now where I cannot put out the stockings until Christmas Eve, after the dogs have gone to bed.  If not, Gimli will find it and he'll figure out a way to steal it or he'll sit in front of it all day.

I thought I had corgis, not children!

With the dogs hanging out with this large stocking, it's time for a nice glass of cider. I'm a big fan of Strongbow cider, and I'm a big fan of the Bacardi Breezers drinks, so when I saw this mash-up, I was intrigued.

Alas, it did not live up to my expectations. It contains cider and rum, and I didn't like it. It wasn't "cidery" and it wasn't "rummy", just something in the middle - as if you'd mixed apple juice and one of the Bacardi Breezers together in your kitchen.

I won't buy this one again, back to Strongbow it is!

Days of Christmas - 1

Here's another go round of our Days of Christmas themed pictures. I know I said I'd include drinks in these, but alas, no drink picture for today.

I will make it up in later posts.

Edit: There's a 6 pack in the picture, does that count? :)

For today's post, we have a sneaky creature by the Christmas tree. I wonder if she's scouting for the Grinch?

Wordless Wednesday - Christmas fuzzies

Sorry for the blurries :(

Late Christmas posting

I'm late in posting our Christmas shenanigans, but I hope you enjoy them just the same.

This was Merida's first Christmas and she pretty much just roamed around the house wondering why a large tree was in the corner, why things were under it and why Gimli became so excited over a stocking.

We don't yet have any place to hang the stockings, so I had to place them on the love seat. Of course, Gimli, like any child on Christmas morning made a beeline for the stockings.  Don't ask me how he knew, maybe it was the presence of cookies, who knows?

Notice Merida sitting next to him out of formality, she had no concept of a stocking.

Of course, Gimli took advantage of the stocking and stole his. He shook it a little so he could steal his Dentastick and gobble it up before I realized what he'd done. I then placed both stockings on the top of the chair and waited for Mike to come downstairs.

The stocking cookies were gobbled up in no time - these are corgis after all!  In the toe of both stockings, the corgis found their new shirts.

Gimli's supposed to be Thing 1, but they didn't have his size.

Next came the actual presents. They received a couple new items, but the majority were toys that I had repaired and regifted to them. A total of 6 toys were given and by the end of the day, 3 toys were already in disrepair. That red-white-green ball had to go to the bin after only a few minutes. Miss Merida is a toy destroyer! It's quite frustrating and we've stopped purchasing any soft toys as they don't last too long.  Argh, we were spoiled with Gimli :(

After the presents, came breakfast. The corgis got some extra goodies here too - some egg and small pieces of bacon.

Then, it was time to romp outside to survey the damage from the crazy ice storm. There was a fine layer of ice on top of the snow, so they couldn't romp and run.

All in all, a good day, though Mike and I were a little frazzled over it all. Going away on vacation at the beginning of December, while is great for your birthday, really turns on the Christmas stress when you're back home. I don't think I'll do that again.

Days of Christmas - Day 10 - Costumed Christmas

Days of Christmas - Day 9 - Christmas Tree

Behold, our Christmas tree! Notice, no tree topper again this year. I cannot find a suitable angel to save my life. Oh well, there's always next year.

We also have a new ornament.

It's Mickey Mouse dressed as one of the caretakers of the Haunted Mansion, along with the date written on his foot to commemorate our visit to Walt Disney World in 2013. Alas, I had hoped to get a Merida ornament, but this Disney Princess is so popular they couldn't keep the ornament in stock! I will keep trying though, the next time we are in Orlando.

Days of Christmas - Day 8 - Cookies

My first attempt at making Gingerbread cookies. I'll admit, it was from a mix and I'm not that impressed with the taste. I'd like it to have a bit more flavor, but for my first try, not too bad.

I'm toying with the idea of making cookies for the corgs. I found some neat recipes online and I think they'll be a hit with our two and with our friends' dogs.  If I get around to making those, I'll post about it.