Christmas Carnage

Happy Birthday Mom!



Christmas on Haven Drive



I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas celebrations yesterday.  We had a quiet, rainy holiday here in Savannah.  And I guess it was gearing up to be a little too quiet, because we must have decided it was necessary to create our own excitement for the day, but I will get to that in a little bit.

We attempted to stay up on Christmas Eve to attend midnight mass at St. John's, but neither one of us is a night owl.  Generally speaking, by 9 o'clock we're dead to the world.  For us to be out downtown past 11 is an accomplishment in and of itself.  (And yes, I do realize we are already turning into that "little old married couple.")  But when we drove by the cathedral at 11:15 and saw the crowds elbowing to make room past the front doors we realized our already dragging bodies were going to be no match for those families in matching crushed velvet suits.  

After burning the midnight oil, we naturally slept in Christmas morning.  It still feels blasphemous to do so.  I miss sneaking down the stairs at 4am to tip-toe around the kitchen to "surprise" everyone with breakfast...just like I "surprised" them the year before...and the year before that.  Maybe if I spend enough Christmases apart from my family they might actually be surprised again one of these years. 

Breakfast is still my favorite meal on Christmas day.  I made gluten-free vegan pumpkin cinnamon rolls this year.  I am in love with King Arthur gluten-free flour!  My dad was the one to turn me on to this product, and it is phenomenal!  It actually rises and gets fluffy like regular gluten-filled flours.  But it is a rare treat (for occasions such as Christmas morning only) because of its cost.  But it's definitely worth it.  Does flour ever go on sale?? 

And for the non-vegan in the family, I made a gingerbread omelet.  There's no gingerbread in it, but if you have some imagination you can make out the house shape with the door and windows.  :) I would say it looked better in person, but no...it really didn't.  

Can you see the house??

So everything was hunky-dory until it came time to open the presents...and that's when the excitement pursued.  (I know my mom has been waiting for this moment in the post...and I have a sneaky suspicion she has already scrolled down to the bottom to see the carnage ;)).  Just like kids, the dogs are always the first to receive their gifts.  If nothing else it serves as a distraction so we can get some space while we have our own celebration.  So each of the dogs received a "peppermint" pork skin bone as their holiday treat.  But you see, our dogs never really learned to share.  And Reilly is the worst.  She doesn't care what she has if she knows you have something that she can steal.  So as soon as Vegas had his bone she was in his face trying to take it.  Teeth-bared, snarling and going at each other it was a puppy free-for-all.  We separated them, but in my attempt to apologize for Reilly by giving Vegas some loving, he mistook my rump scratching as an attempt to steal his bone.  ...I won't do that again...   

Christmas memories...maybe for many years to come...

 Kinda gangsta, though, no?  ;) 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! 

A Winter Solstice Surprise...

O:)



I said yes...



Jingle Bells and Welding Rods

We may not be winning any prizes in the neighborhood spirit competition, but our humble light display is just enough to make the house look warm and inviting and to provide the power company with a few extra dollars for their holiday bonus.  Besides, I've always appreciated the understated.  It's amazing what you can do with just a couple strands of holiday lights.  Instant Christmas cheer!  The photos don't do it justice, but I'm including their blurry awesomeness anyway.   



31 Haven Drive at Christmas

Inside the house, the simplicity continues.  A few ribbons here and some gold pine cones there and voila!  It's a subtle winter wonderland.  We haven't ruled out the idea of getting a tree just yet, but have you seen the price tags on some of those parking lot evergreens!?  That tree cost could easily translate into several bottles of a different sort of holiday cheer. 

Speaking of holiday cheer...we joined the Savannah Striders Thursday night for a "jingle jog" through the streets of downtown.  We were a group of 30 plus runners decked out in jingle bells and elf costumes participating in a spontaneous night jog.  The run was great, but the true fun was observing the reactions from the unsuspecting crowds.  Are noisy "flash" run stirred lots of smiles and "merry Christmas"s and even more "what the f#@k!"s. " We ended the run with dinner at the Crystal Beer Parlour and a round of Christmas spirits!

   The holiday runs aren't over just yet! Today we ran the 2nd annual Reindeer Run on Hutchinson Island (that's the island that you see across the river on River Street).   I didn't have any luck finding a Mrs. Claus outfit to put over my running clothes, but I did find some fun sparkly black tights, so at least it looked like I tried.  And the couple of jingle bells I tied to my shoe nearly drove me insane by the end of the 5 miles.  The bells are really cute when you're in a group whose sound mimics Santa's sleigh, but that single jingle on every other foot fall was enough to send even the most focused elf to the edge of the North Pole and over. 

So in lieu of a holiday baking entry (though have no fear I'm cooking something up right now for the next post!) I figured I would indulge in some show and tell from work.  I know my job still remains a bit of a mystery to some of you (and why shouldn't it?...I'm still trying to figure out what it is exactly that I do).  So maybe a picture or two in this blog will help bring some clarity...to you and me both.  

I've been welding up some wheel wells for our gantry crane (the big iron crane we use to move the massive headstones we can't pick up ourselves).  It's not the prettiest work you've ever seen, but I'm kind of proud of the small improvements I've made.  I wish I had a photo of the first fences I welded up...NOT so pretty.  You'll just have to picture spattering of melted steel and compare it with the relatively straight line you'll see below.  It's like night and day!  I don't know if anyone will appreciate the photo below, but Mom, if you're reading this, call Dad in to see my picture.  O:) 

I'm on my way out the door!  It's time to make a run to the grocery store for baking supplies!

It's Cookie Time!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

I made my first few batches of Christmas cookies this past weekend.  Melissa and I are hosting a cookie exchange this Saturday, so I had to get a jump start on my recipes to make sure they're omnivore friendly.  I'll be the first to admit that vegan baking can often be lacking, especially in the dessert category.  The results are either too soft (as in eat your cookie with a spoon) or too crumbly (more like the topping on a fruit crisp).  And the biggest drawback is the curb appeal.  Vegan baking is rarely pretty.  Have you googled "vegan Chrismtas cookies" lately?  Even the "models" aren't that attractive.  I can't take ugly cookies to a cookie exchange!  I guess I'll just have to make up for it with some pretty packaging or a shiny bow to distract the eye.

I tried three different recipes.  The first is a traditional chunky monkey style cookie.  I didn't have brown sugar, so I substituted molasses and white sugar which resulted in a dark dough that looked more burnt than beautiful.  The problem with these cookies is that they just weren't anything special.  They looked like a cookie...like one of those circles with the black dots that a kindergartener would draw.  And the taste wasn't particularly unique.  It was a basic flour, sugar, flaw-seed "egg" recipe.  This cookie has been denied!  It will not be making a debut at the cookie exchange. 

The second recipe I attempted was a little more fun.  They're called pina colada cookies, taking their name from the coconut and pineapple ingredients.  I'm not a huge fan of coconut, but these have a sweet, sticky goodness that is not like the typical bird's nest cookie.  Again, they're not particularly attractive, but they at least look somewhat out of the ordinary.  They will definitely stand out on a plate with chocolate chip cookies.  Next time, though, I'll add a marschino cherry to each for a punch of color. 

Pina colada oatmeal cookies



The third recipe looked very pretty online...but mine were not as successful.  They're supposed to turn out to be little sugar-coated balls of lime green...mine are more of a flat, pancake-looking section of sod.  I plan to frost them to disguise their fugliness.  The green comes from spinach.  I thought that was a pretty cool idea, but they taste too healthy.  You can't taste the spinach, there's just not enough sweetness.  It's almost a spinach bread.  Again, I think the frosting will help with that. 



Mine look nothing like this...



I also made banana bread on Sunday while I was doing all of this baking.  Our refridgerator is on the fritz...ie.  it doesn't work.  So I felt it was essential, my domestic duty, to bake up everything in there.  Did you know soy eggnog turns into a gelatinous yogurty substance when not kept cold?  I wonder if I should just eat it with a spoon...

I think all the baking was also a result of the previous day's race festivities.  There's something about the day after a race that makes me want to eat everything in sight.  It was a great event, though.  Jason and I ran over the Talmadge Bridge (that big one between Georgia and South Carolina) not once, not twice but three times at this year's Bridge Run.  We were joined by almost 6000 people, including Santa, a flamingo, a whole team of Forrest Gumps and a number of other people competing for the $400 costume prize.  This is Savannah's most popular run (at least it was pre-marathon days).  And as a city with no hills, it is also the toughest run of the year and arguably the coldest of the year, hence the mittens.  We ran both the 5 and 10k this year just to get an extra dose of the bridge while it was runner friendly. 

I've agreed to dress up for the Reindeer Run on the 17th...so I'll keep you posted on what I come up with.  Any suggestions?  It has to be holiday themed.  I'm leaning towards Mrs. Claus...

Sorry about the lack of photos...I thought I brought my camera cord with me today, but I guess I didn't...