Liz | The Road Home

Posts by Liz

Christmas Eve Day: my favorite day of the year!

Christmas Eve Day. A day full of excitement, anticipation, joy and just my favorite day of the year! Most of this love of the day stems from the idyllic times of my childhood. And even though, I now enjoy the holiday on my own with my pets, it is still a most favorite day filled with remembrance and just general joie de vivre!

This year, I am especially enjoying the day. For the last 3.5 weeks my work life has been INTENSE. A series of circumstance pushed a deadline forward and the programming team had to go into serious overdrive. As I commented to another: “a tough schedule for an old broad” (ME!). We delivered at the last moment on Friday and although we will probably do some firefighting in January, mostly it was mission accomplished.

The thought of a good amount of downtime over the holiday break kept me going. Also the necessary breaks to walk/play/snuggle with Auggie and Emmett. Often, when I thought I couldn’t possibly stop, but knew I must for them … the time with them, mostly outside in the fresh air, allowed me to come back to work with a fresh perspective and get a 2nd, 3rd and 4th wind!

Ultimately, as challenging as the pace was, there was also an incredible feeling of accomplishment as well as the comradery of working with a team that I respect and enjoy. So. Job.Well.Done. and now we enjoy before the next stage.

Saturday was sunny and bright and although lacking in snow, it was a perfect day for a run to town to gather a few things I wanted, before a spell of Winter Weather arrived.

Saturday … a day with no work and pretty weather was just “ahhhhh”. And I slept so well Saturday night with NO programming conundrums disturbing my dreams. So, Sunday, was a day of relaxing and anticipation.

Now, here we are on Christmas Eve Day… but wait … some fun from last week:

In illustration of why, once again, we do not have a “real” Christmas tree…

No harm done to the little silk tree.

Auggie’s wound has closed with no issue.

I don’t know, but it was funny!

This morning’s most perfect fire in the woodstove!

It was a gray day – perfect for enjoying inside, but we also got outside!

A wonderful day.

Inside.

Outside.

Christmas music in the background.

Joy.

Christmas Eve Day.

I love Jennifer Garner

https://instagram.com/p/BrgOKCnliXY/

Emmett is 10 months old!

A quick “Happy 10 months” to Mr. Emmett post and some Auggie news … (all is well, but a warning that there are some graphic images!!)

AND, if you follow my Instagram stories … repeats, but the schedule has been overfull lately.

Yes, Emmett is 10 months old and has been part of the fambly for 8 months – unbelievable!!

Still has a blonde bottom and gorgeous tail feathers :)

Meanwhile…

Auggie came in Monday afternoon with a kind of spectacular wound. We got right into the vet – fortunately 15 minutes away in Bigfork. After a shave, cleanup and antibiotic shot, we came home.

Auggie was pretty sanguine about the whole thing and has been complaining about my enforcement of inside time. My reply is: “You MAY NOT go outside with a hole in your head!”

Honestly, inside is not that bad.

And Emmett … good grief, he is 10 months old.

Thanksgiving Recap: Thanksgiving 2018

In the twelve years I’ve lived in this house there have been some atypical Thanksgiving Days. Some years I’ve been on the road in the motorhome travelling to my folks or returning. One year I wrecked the turkey and had meatloaf. There was the year that I decided to have pumpkin stew and Portuguese cornbread instead of turkey. Last year I had sardines and black beans in an effort to speed healing of a bruised (maybe cracked) rib.

So.

Thanksgiving 2018. My plan was to work Monday and Tuesday and have Wednesday to decompress from work … play with Emmett and Auggie and get things in order for my simple Turkey dinner on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.

However, I ended up working all day Wednesday to get things in a place where I felt comfortable with a 4 day weekend. So, on Thanksgiving morning … a gray, freezing fog day … I started the woodstove, outings with Emmett, coffee … and procrastinated until I said to myself: “I think I’ll have my turkey dinner tomorrow.

So my Thanksgiving day dinner was a pizza with shredded brussels sprouts, bacon and smoked gruyere. La-di-dah-dah-dah. Wonderful. And I spent the day enjoying the fire, playing with Emmett and Auggie and reading a book.

I DID make a pumpkin pie. But I went off script with a crushed pecan crust vs a regular pie crust. I made a mini-pie to test the crust and YUM! So Friday, my turkey dinner day, I made another little pie!

And I cooked the turkey (turkey breast). And made bone broth from the bones. And that’s as far as it went.

Two days after Thanksgiving: Saturday.

Finally!

But, while I was procrastinating on my Turkey dinner, I spent some time on my blog looking at past Thanksgiving “adventures” … so a bit of reminiscing follows:

2017 Sardines for dinner (Bear’s last Thanksgiving)

2016 A leek gruyere bread pudding was a highlight

2014

2013

2012: The year we had meatloaf because I wrecked the turkey

2010 Pumpkin stew and cornbread vs Turkey (Karl’s last Thanksgiving)

2002 Pre blog days! This year we were renting a house on Flathead Lake. I’d just sold my “in town” house and had not yet bought anything else. The house was furnished … badly. But I am responsible for the somewhat garish table runner. Karl (Karelian Bear Dog 1.5 years old), Bob (Garfield look alike that came with a boyfriend and stayed although the boyfriend didn’t :) ) and Gus (Tuxedo cat and my first ever cat … 4.5 years old)

The walk down memory lane was not sad, it was happy remembering and I laughed at many of the photos I saw along the way.

My dog Zack, was pre digital camera, but I hope to dig out some photo albums and maybe do a “Christmases Past” including him, since this was so much fun.

Hope all had a good holiday. I am very much enjoying this nice break and I have some nice turkey, mashed taters, gravy and cranberry sauce to enjoy for the next few days.

Thanksgiving 2018.

Thanksgiving Day Eve

So, we progress!

XXL wire crate is now used only when I go out and about and can not take Emmett with me. Emmett does “go to crate” with no hesitancy!

Mostly, the house is now WIDE OPEN – YEA! We still have gates for some times when Emmett and/or Auggie have “the crazies”.

Crazies generally happen early morning or late afternoon.

The bedroom. The bedroom with NO “pen”. Currently, Emmett “goes to his bed” after some pre-bed snuggles. He sleeps in his bed or on the floor until about 3:00 a.m. when he wakes. I hear him shake and then pitter-patter and he comes on MY bed and settles.

Speaking of settling… this is a culmination of teaching Emmett and Auggie to settle – HOO RAH!

Light and Mountains!

Auggie.

Auggie and Emmett: Thanksgiving Eve.

First Snow 2018-2019 Fall-Winter

The photos will be a repeat for those who follow me on Instagram AND look at my stories… BUT such a fun time with Emmett that I decided to post some of those photos here.

Several days ago we had our first “real” snow. The forecast was for 2-5 inches and somewhere in that range fell, but since the ground is not frozen and the temperatures were nearing 40 when a lot of the snow fell … much melted as it fell.

BUT.

Some did not and we woke up to maybe a scant inch of snow on the ground…