Christmas for two please...

For the first time in our marriage Elisabeth and I spent Christmas without our families. We missed our families very much, but realized it was a nice change. Not that we are going solo (or duet I guess) from now on, but Christmas for two (or three if you count Magnum) brought us closer. We started the celebration by putting up our tree. The things is, for some reason our tree looked a lot more full in nature, with snow and other trees around it, go figure. So once again we have a Charlie Brown christmas tree and we love it!!
After the decoration came the food. And boy was there a TON of food. Elisabeth was a machine.
She cooked enough food for an army. We were able to give some away to friends and her coworkers. Not only did she cook wonderful holiday snacks like Puppy Chow, Cheeseball, Rumballs, etc.; she also cooked us a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner complete with a Cornish Game Hen, mashed potatoes, gravy, lime green salad, french onion soup and ALL the fixins that rival the best Thanksgiving meals I have had.

Of course I attempted to help. Unfortunately, I take after my mom in the cooking department and my feeble attempt at fudge resulted in a light brown runny mess that more resembled a sugary country gravy rather than a firm melt-in-your-mouth taste of heaven. Yeah, ew! Inside the warm house smelled of food, and Christmas. Outside, the temperature dropped as the days passed. Pretty much every morning we woke to freezing temperatures, frost and ice as in the picture below. One morning we woke to a light layer of snow covering everything. It stuck for a while but melted just in time to freeze at night so the roads were slick the next morning. Walks with Magnum at night on slick roads is very challenging but kinda fun. Not only do I enjoy playing on slippery asphalt, but I also really enjoy the crunch of grass under my boots when I walk on our freshly frozen yard. There is something about the smell of a cold morning, the smoking chimneys, the crunch of frozen grass, and the peace and quiet that brings a smile to my face and gives me a sense of contentment. I love it.



Merry Christmas to all, we miss you and we love you. We are truly blessed to have people who are actually interested in reading what we have to say.

Josh and Elisabeth