It's December, and now I am getting into the holiday spirit. I spent this week doing a lot of internet shopping - perfect for people like me who hate fighting the crowds at the malls and shopping plazas. Decide what you want for everyone, find a site online, press a few buttons, type in a credit card number, and viola! Presents begin to be delivered to your door, or in the case of out of state relatives, right to their door! I love it!

Our photo Christmas cards arrived, and they came out beautifully! This week I'll work on addressing envelopes and getting them out. I can't believe we've already gotten a few Christmas cards this year - I like to wait until December to get mine out.

It's a cold, raw day with snow, then sleet, and finally rain expected. Typical early winter day, and a perfect day to make a big pot of Cowboy Stew. We had this years ago at a local family owned restaurant, and with some experimenting, I was able to come up with a recipe that seems to be pretty close to Lloyd's recipe. It's a winter favorite!

1 large onion, diced
garlic to taste
2 red peppers, cut into smallish pieces
1.5 pounds lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 jar salsa - hotness of your choice
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 large can country style baked beans
1 can black beans, drained
1 1 lb. bag frozen corn

beef stock of your choice

Saute up onions, garlic, and peppers. Remove from pot, then brown meat, breaking up into small chunks. Put sauteed veggies back in pot and add salsa, tomatoes, baked beans, black beans, and corn, along with enough beef stock to make it a stew type consistancy. Let simmer, covered, over very low heat for several hours, adding more stock if needed.

Serve hot, with some shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese mix on top, along with corn bread.

It keeps well in the fridge, and the flavor is even better the next day!

This is one soup the dogs don't get

Tuesday night, Bryan and Heather had a baby boy, named Devin Joseph! He is just a hair under 8 pounds and has bright blue eyes and reddish blonde hair. He's very cute, as you can see here.



They will go home from the hospital today. Alyssa is very excited to be a big sister! At 5 years old, she is old enough to be a good little helper. I'll bet she will have no problems telling Devin what to do when he gets a little older .

I'd been getting emails from the various photo sites about specials on photo Christmas cards, so this year I actually planned ahead and decided I'd give it a try. I asked my Dad, who is a great photographer, if he'd be willing to take some pictures of a couple of dogs against his holly bushes, and he was okay with that, so this morning I packed up Gringo and Clio and headed off to my parents house.

I thought these two dogs were the most likely to be cooperative . Clio will do just about anything for food (a trait that her son Arlo shares) and Gringo is pretty easygoing in general and not apt to fight whatever dumb thing I may want him to do.

Dad introduced himself to the dogs, one at a time, and after giving Clio a piece of salmon treat, she was ready to climb in his lap and be his best buddy. She is loyal to her stomach first. Clio was a very cooperative model. Here is one of her photos.



I wasn't able to find a big bow at Target yesterday, so I decided to go with garland wrapped around the dog's necks. Neither of them seemed to mind it too much, although I think Gringo thought I had finally lost my mind for good.

He wasn't as an enthusiastic model as Clio was, here is a good shot of his opinion about the whole thing. You can tell by his ears that he's not all that thrilled with this deal.



We did get a couple of good shots of Gringo, and I chose one of his for this year's Christmas card. I hope they look as good as they did on the monitor when I made them up! I should have them within about a week or so.

Phoebe, Trudy, Shrek, and Arlo are getting into the holiday spirit!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9584617774

Enjoy!

We had our first snowfall this morning. It was a bit of a surprise, because the forecast was for a chance of flurries changing to rain. Instead, it snowed like crazy for over an hour, putting a nice coat of white down on everything. Flyer just went crazy - I never saw a dog who loved snow as much as he does. For a fat old boy, he was charging around the yard like a maniac!



It's hard to believe he's going to be 10 years old in a few months. When he looks at me, I can see Temma in his face and it always makes me smile.

Phoebe wasn't so sure about this cold white stuff, and was trying not to walk on it - picked up a foot, shook it, put it down, picked up the next foot, shook it - she was funny to watch. After a couple of minutes she got used to the cold sensation on her feet and tore around the yard like a Whippet. I tried to get a picture of her, but she wouldn't stay still long enough to catch more than her tail or a back leg in the frame.

Shrek enjoyed himself running around, too. He put his face down and did the "Akita plow" routine, but by the time I was able to get a good photo of him, most of the snow on his face had melted.



By the time 10 am had come, it had changed to sleet and then rain, and now most of the snow we had is gone. I'm sure there will plenty throughout the winter to keep us all amused, though.