There is a sliver of lake visible – to the south – from the parking area of a walk spot that is part of a wildfowl regeneration area. (That is the official name, but it is also open for public hunting…)
The orange band is sun shining through a break in the inversion layer of stratus covering about half of the Flathead Valley.
Looking to the north – northeast, the edge of the inversion opens up to blue sky.
I had, what I consider to be, idyllic childhood Christmas Days.
For a time, as a young adult…I tried to recapture those.
But, now, as a middle-aged …almost SENIOR adult (how did that happen???), I have found that I absolutely love some of my own traditions along with the memories.
The current traditions have their foundation in the idyllic traditions of my childhood. It is the best of both times!
Yes, my childhood Christmas mornings were about the magic…the gifts, the full stocking…but they were also about a wonderful sweet roll and a scrumptious breakfast.
My sweet this year is kolache dough filled with almond paste (homemade which took about 3 minutes), given the “Christmas Bagel” treatment along with a marachino cherry for color.
I LOVE the sweet kolache dough. It has the flavor of a flaky pastry without the flakes. It worked wonderfully in this Christmas sweet and it is a versatile dough that freezes well.
Color me happy with my 2012 Christmas Sweet!
I made green chile gravy two days ago.
I made red chile gravy yesterday.
I made corn tortillas yesterday.
This morning I made stacked cheese and onion enchiladas with Christmas (red and green) chile gravy.
Southwest tradition would put a fried egg on top of the enchilada stack but I am a poached egg girl so poached it was.
My own refried black beans and sprouted brown rice…slightly off Mex-TexMex, but good!
The day was beautiful for all reasons: the celebration of the birth of the Messiah, a day of good celebratory food, a day shared with Bear and Bob…and sunshine and snow and beauty.
My preferred Christmas Day tradition is to snowshoe through the woods, but the snow was a bit light and Bear is recovering.
Still.
Bear and I hopped in the Jeep and headed down the road. We had a good walk just a bit north, drove through town and returned home…
The Road Home on Christmas Day 2012.
The sun, blue sky, Christmas Day…the front porch called.
But not to Bear :) !
Bob was my front porch buddy.
An eye was kept on Bear via the “baby” monitor.
Photos were taken via wireless remote. …so much fun with gadgets…a part of Christmas Day!!
24F but it felt warmer.
A dear friend gave me a beautiful calendar. The illustrations are Monet-like impressionist style watercolors and the quotes fit me and my life perfectly. I perused the pages this afternoon as I enjoyed a blue cheese-rosemary lavash treat…afternoon delight!
I hope all who venture here have also had a day filled with faith, love and tradition and good food.
Happy, Happy Christmas Day to all.
The video below…I took several snippets of Bear and I walking so that I could look at how things are progressing with his leg. I am happy! It is a little hard to compare the surgery leg to the non-surgery leg as the surgery leg was shaved… But compared to how the surgery knee was bowed out and now it is in alignment…I am happy. It is early days but I think all is going very well.
Despite all my photos of Bear in bed…he is not always sleeping. He maintains the Beardog watch from time to time.
It is Christmas weekend! Christmas weekend is like Birthday month…indulgences galore for the duration!
Huckleberry Kolaches thawed while I made green chile gravy to be used for my Christmas morning breakfast. And a caramel latte kept me company while I stirred.
After we were all fed, Bear and I headed to town to pick up just a few things I wanted and to have a walk along the way.
Today, we walked on a road that leads to a wildlife area. The road runs from the highway to a spot on the north shore of Flathead Lake. There is a spot to put the Jeep out of the way, about halfway. It is not a walk we typically do during the week so a special weekend diversion of unusual smells and sights.
It was above freezing, the sun was trying to come out…therefore mist and fog.
The walk, the Jeep ride, the shopping…
It wears a beardog out!
Bob was napping also and rather objected to me turning on a light…
I didn’t go for a nap, but a bowl of soup sounded good before I started on some afternoon projects. You can’t see the meatloaf, but there are cubes of meatloaf in this soup. This soup is a kind of Italian Wedding soup using leftover meatloaf cubes in place of meatballs. The broth was some leftover pesto and chicken broth. Orzo for the pasta and carrots and leeks for the vegetables. Refrigerator (all leftover stuff in the refrigerator) Italian Wedding Soup!
One afternoon project was a fennel-leek-broccoli gratin. The first step was parboiling the veg and as I strained the veg, the broth smelled so good and looked so pretty…I froze it for use in soup some day.
The gratin was a success. Fennel, leeks, broccoli, cashew cream, gruyere, an egg and breadcrumbs with parmesan on top.
Done for the day and indulging in a read of the Mountain Trader…Bear near and Bob in the sunroom.
After a week of gray skies, a little sunshine today: above from our late morning walk at the undeveloped subdivision just up the highway.
I’ve been taking Bear in the Jeep to somewhere everyday to help relieve boredom and because he absolutely LOVES going anywhere. We had to do a bit of training about sitting underway – he often stands and that is just not a good thing right now. He is doing very well at sitting. Sitting, he can still see out but he is stable and his surgery leg is in a good position.
The sun and blue ski today was a wonderful surprise. It came at the expense of much colder air, but not too cold and it felt good to be out.
This is the first time in a week that the mountains at the end of the road home have been visible…lovely, lovely with all of that snow: Friday sunshine.
