MERRY DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We were up to our eyebrows in artichoke, spinach, ranch and clam dip and all the dipping kinds of veggies, chips and crackers you can imagine plus turkey dinner with all it's accompanying goodies. I modified the cauliflower casserole--I will note that in the cookbook. Ran out of time so didn't make the one thing that might have been healthy, the green salad, and forgot to make the teeny-beenie-weenies. Guess we'll make them another day. They are Bentley's favorite and I'm pretty sure he will make a good sized dent in the two pounds.

We had a house full of family plus my daughter-in-laws sister and her husband thrown in for good measure. We were too full so I didn't make the cherry cream cheese pies--again another day but we did manage to diminish the fudge tin considerably. The kids were well behaved and we had a lot of good visit time. The kitchen is still littered with dishes that need to be put away, bags of chips and crackers and french bread. The garage is full of things that can be refrigerated with mother natures temperature--extra mashed potatoes,cranberry sauce, stuffing, etc--and the fridge full of thing that must be kept at a constant cold.

Bentley and Tricia and their miniature Schnauzer dogs are here, I look forward to their visit all year. Minkey will stay holed up in Elizabeth's room until they are gone but Pika pretty much goes where she wants and the dogs learn she's isn't going to run and so a stand-off is established. I have decided to quit trying to coax Minkey into holding his own, so a litter box, food and water are now upstairs and he can have his own private fortress. I went in to check on Minkey this morning and he was sitting upright 1/4 inch from the heat vent--he is missing being stretched out in front of the fireplace.

Today will be a lazy day, a time to catch up on visiting with the kids, wrapping caramels for Tricia's family and food already prepared so it will be leftovers for a couple of days.

One thing funny that did happen, Tricia's sister said, "The last time I was here it was Hillary's birthday and you gave her a wooden leg." Maybe I'll tell you that story later. Right now, I'm off to tidy up and wrap caramels--hopefully the last time for a l-o-n-g time.

Merry day after Christmas. May the love of the Savior be felt by you every day, in times of trials, in times of ease may you know he is there, watching over you, weeping when you weep, laughing when you laugh and all the time loving you. Always loving you.