Christmas Day

Mom got Gus an easel, some more paint and some no spill paint cups for Christmas. The paint cups are great because I can fill them up and stick them in the fridge when he's finished painting and the paint doesn't dry out so not much gets wasted. I like them so much that I've ordered more (along with some small pitchers so that Gus can fill up his own drinks more easily, some glasses, some spreaders, a new vegetable chopper though mom already got him this one a long time ago, and a non stick mixing bowl...I figured, as long as I was ordering stuff....!).

A great book about Paul Revere from Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Charles

A Christmas Brunch Feast

the usual suspects: cheese grits casserole (YUM!), thick cut, preservative-free bacon, homemade biscuits, assorted jellies

This is the dogs' Christmas present: a huge dog house built from these plans. They didn't have anywhere to get out of the cold and rain- unless we always let them inside- because we have a back deck but no roof over it. We built the 2 dog/2 door house. Each door has a removable wind wall and there's a divider in the middle. Floors, walls, and roof are all insulated, and we used tongue and groove pine on the outside. I can tell you with assurance that if we ever ended up homeless, we could live in this thing with nooooo problem staying warm. Course, it's supremely heavy so we won't be able to move it anywhere. I pity the movers that move us the next time we PCS because it's heavy as hell but won't fit through the gate, so they're going to have to lift it over the fence in some way. Oy vey.

We haven't finished it because it's been too cold to paint, but Bear and Sundance can still use it at least. They sleep inside our house at night and sometimes come in during the day, but they really needed somewhere to get out of the rain during the day, even in the summer. As soon as it's completed I'll post pictures.