Party Animals

Party animals ringing in the New Year.

Lollypop Farm - Pet of the Week

Get him a little tux and he will be ready to ring in the New Year with you!

Sinbad - #6874640

Sinbad is an 11-month-old pitbull/Rhodesian Ridgeback mix. This handsome guy came to Lollypop Farm as a stray. Our volunteer dogwalkers say that he is attentive, strong, affectionate, and friendly. He starts to wag his tail as soon as he sees someone approach his kennel. He is pretty good on leash and knows "sit," too! Sinbad would be happiest in a home without young children. He needs to meet any kids or dogs in the household before going home with an adopter, and he must also be signed up for obedience classes. - Lollypop Farm

Christmas Stamps

I am a big fan of these Martha Stewart clear stamps that you can arrange how you like on blank acrylic blocks.

I used them to make gift tags.

This year's designs included some acorns which matched my Christmas theme "nuts".

I used the huge Christmas tree with some other stamps to decorate our gifts.

I even used some of them to stamp the back of our Christmas card envelopes...

... because they matched the motif on my Martha cards from the Kodak Gallery.

Christmas Walnuts

The highlight and inspiration for this year's Christmas theme (other than the fact it's been a nutty year) were the huge walnuts I decorated to go on everyone's gift.

I have used walnuts as decorations before, but I have never given any away.

This is the first time I have glittered them too.

I picked the walnuts from my grandmother's English walnut trees over Thanksgiving.

I soaked the walnuts to get the shell gunk off and then I cracked them and dug out the nuts that were still good.

Each walnut got a loop of velvet ribbon stuck on top before I glued them back together.

After the glue dried, I spread glue all over the walnuts and then sprinkled them with glitter.

I made a lot of glittered walnuts!

2008 Christmas Theme

I have given out most of this year's handmade Christmas gifts so I can blog about them now. The theme was "nuts".

I glittered many, many walnuts for accents on each box.

And each box was filled half with sweet glazed nuts and the other half with spicy, savory nuts.

Aaron made the nut snack mixes.

Stewie oversaw box stamping production.

Christmas Lights

Before we left for my parents house to spend the holidays we had to bundle up and go see the best light display on Rochester.

We go every year and every year there seems to be another addition.

This year it was bittersweet because this is the last year they will be setting up their light display. Everything but the train goes on sale after the 25th. Good thing we aren't there or I would be tempted to buy up a few things for our yard!

Merry Christmas

This is this year's holiday card... featuring our festive furry creatures. Today they will be busy unwrapping their presents!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We all crammed into the truck and headed home for the holidays.

Over the river and through the woods.

To Grandmother's house we go....

Pet of the Week

Vinny and Henrietta are double the fun! One to sit on each side of you. Perfect!

Vinny #6417200

Henrietta #6417196

Vinny and Henrietta are 5-month-old kittens who are brother and sister. They are very sweet and playful. Vinny is a lap cat, and Henrietta is a confident girl who loves attention too. Henrietta's paws are a bit misshapen, but she gets around just fine. They love each other and are very attached, so Vinny and Henrietta would really like to get adopted together. Adopting two cats can be a good idea because a pair of kitties will keep each other company when you're not home! - Lollypop Farm

Holiday Brunch

Today we had a holiday brunch for Chuck, Tina, Shruti and Vishal. Oh,and Lauren too.

Aaron made his signature Dutch Baby... really wowed the crowd.

Brunch panorama.

After we ate we exchanged presents. Oscar and Stewie were very helpful in the unwrapping process.

"Hurry up kid! I want my catnip mouse."

Cookies and Cocktails Party

This evening we had our Cookies and Cocktails party. There were a wide variety of cookies.

And this year we broke out the Wii... Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution!

I had bags for everyone to take cookies home with them.

Spreading the cookie love.

At one point late in the evening Stewie informed us... "I am going home with this one. She smells nice and is promising me treats."

"Whadya gonna do about it?"

winter wonderland

We got quite a bit of snow today. Seems like the most we have had for a couple winters now.

The Smart Car surprised me and chugs right on through the snow and slush.

We got half a snow day today which was a treat. It's starting to look like Christmas at our house!

Keeping warm

As the weather gets colder the more often we come home to this scene.

These two pictures were taken at different times. I think it's funny how each has "their" side of the bed.

Get a job

They really need to get jobs.

Christmas banner

For you RSS feed readers out there... I just put up a new Christmasy banner!

Hot Topper

My mom had one of these HotTopper butter melter and dispensers and I just loved it.

Well she found one for me. It - is - awesome! You can place a whole stick of butter inside, plug it in, the butter melts and then squirt squirt squirt the butter where you want it. Mmmm. I love butter.