You've Come a Long Way Baby

On February 6, 2010 Tillie passed the AKC Canine Good Citizen test. It took awhile for Susan to receive the actual certificate from the American Kennel Club, but it is finally here. This is a picture of Tillie shortly after her birth on May 24, 2009.

The certificate she received at nine months of age. She passed all 10 items in the test.

Not only did she get her certificate, but we are pleased to announce (knock on wood) that she has not chewed up anything in the new house. She is definitely a cutie!

Christmas Dinner

Susan was busy in the kitchen on Christmas. She prepared Sauerbraten for dinner. She found this recipe in the Food Network Magazine from October 2009, where there was an article about Leavenworth, WA.

For those of you not familiar with Leavenworth, it is a town that was created to look like a Bavarian village. There are a lot of events held in Leavenworth, especially during the winter months. Oktoberfest kicks off the holiday season; starting October 2 and running for three weekends.

The original recipe came from chef Richard Zucktriegel at Cafe Mozart on Front Street. Sauerbraten consists of a beef chuck roast that has marinated for three days, then cooked with vegetables and spaetzle, which are noodle like dumplings. The meal was fabulous. Oh, and I do not want to forget the Pumpkin Pie.

Tillie spent most of the day supervising the cooking in her favorite kitchen chair. She always sits (or sleeps) in this chair when we are in the kitchen.

Toby hurt his back again so he is confined to crate rest for at least the next 9 days. He did not get to open his Christmas present this year, which he was not happy about. Tillie was not interested in the presents - she went to sleep on Susan's lap.

Snow Tales

All this snow piled up along our driveway is really amazing when you consider that Seattle has had more snow during the last few winters than we have. Well, today we were suppose to get about one new inch of snow and four inches have already hit the ground.
It sure is beautiful and unless we have a real heat blast in the next few days, we will have a white Christmas.

Without a doubt we can claim more snow than Seattle this winter. I would rather have the snow than all the rain they are getting over there.

Tillie to the Mailbox

It is snowing really hard today so I decided I would only let Tillie out once, but that I would take her up the road to get the paper and the mail. Well, as soon as I got her leash she went ballistic; crying and jumping up and down, just so excited that she got to go outside. By the time we got home, she wasn't all that excited.

Why, you ask? Well, her legs were so heavy that she could hardly walk and I am not able to carry her that far, so basically I dragged her home while she was trying to bite the snow off her legs.

This is a close-up of her right front leg. I finally found something that makes her stand still! I did manage to carry her inside to her bathtub and after 10 minutes in the warm water defrost cycle and a few minutes under the dryer, she was running around again like normal.

Winter Weather Advisory

Almost all of our snow was gone yesterday. Today, we have a new winter weather advisory in effect. It started snowing about 9:00am this morning and it is piling up fast.
It is just so beautiful outside. I love all the windows in this house. We can watch it snowing no matter what room we are in.

If we do not have a white Christmas I don't feel like we can really complain about it because we have had snow on the ground since before Thanksgiving.

Outdoor Lights

I am so excited that we were able to get lights up this year. I just love lights. Susan ends up driving me around all the time so I can look at the different decorations. Our house is long enough that to include the entire length, you can't see the detail of the lights in the windows, but you get the idea. The wreath is just beautiful and even in this picture you can see a little of the big red bow.

We were actually further away when I took this shot of the backyard and yet it is easier to see everything. The extra lights in the back along the fence make it just light enough so even from this distance you can see the horse and carriage and the deer. I can sit in the house and look at the lights for hours.

I am already looking for decorations on sale that we can add next year!

Edible Ornaments

Susan and I made these cupcakes and edible ornaments this weekend so she can take them to work on Monday.

The ornaments were fun to make. The center is made from melting hard candies; different colors are different flavors. The ornament itself is a sugar cookie. We used a straw to cut out the circle for hanging the ornament and baked a pretzel into the base in order to insert the ornament into the cupcake. We use colored sugar to decorate the ornament around the candy center.

But Toby's Inside!

Here is Tillie right after she and Susan got home from their walk. Tillie wanted to go inside and see Toby in the worst way, and she just didn't seem to understand why we would not let her in the house. Every time they go for a walk, Susan has to give Tillie a bath so she can come in the house. And after seeing this, I am sure you can understand. The worst part - it was nice outside on this particular day.