Christmas Crazies

Whew . . it's crazy out there. Got kinda crazy here last night too. You all know how much I love my dog. Poor Speck . . his front right shoulder/leg is defective, not sure if it's a birth defect or from an injury, and every now and then, it kinda pops out of socket. It happens if he jumps and lands wrong (he has one speed . . wide open!) or if he's playing with toys and running and makes a sudden stop. The vet here doesn't really like to mess with it. Speck has an orthopedic vet in Indianapolis. Thankfully he has a satellite office near Paducah (in Murray) and if we're lucky, we can see him there. It isn't something that can really be fixed, the ortho vet can put him to sleep and get it back into place if we can't do it ourselves but Vince has been able to get it back in place pretty much all the time. I've only been able to fix it once. Last night I gave him a bath and he always gets real energetic after a bath. He was on the back of the sofa, jumped down to the seat part and landed wrong and there went the leg. Vince was at the other house, it was almost 10 and he was already asleep. Lucky for us, he loves the dog as much as I do so he came to town, popped it back in place and for now, Speck is good as new. I get so upset when it happens . . I have to learn to be more calm in frustrating situations. I swore I wouldn't go near the shopping areas any time in December but there was one more thing I needed so we could make Vince's gift work and I want to put it to use soon! :) Oh, goodness! That sounds funny. I've built this gift up so that you're all probably going to be disappointed when I post what it is. So, bright and early, I was at Lowe's. They didn't have it but thought Rural King might which is on the other side of town. Not really a big deal because town is pretty small but I decided to check Home Depot and they had one . . even better than what I was hoping to get. Then to the meat market where I had ordered a prime rib for Christmas dinner. To make a long story short, I left without the prime rib and will not go back to that meat market. From there I went to Kroger for a few things I needed. Seems as though everyone else was at Kroger today. Everyone was friendly and cheerful and they had plenty of checkers so it wasn't bad. Didn't get everything I needed because I was meeting Vince for lunch and it's quite warm out today so I didn't want to leave meat and milk in the car. Met Vince, ate, came home and unloaded everything, back to the Wal-Mart on my side of town for gas and the remainder of the groceries. I think I am set and I am not leaving home again til 12/26 or later! I'm kinda wishing I had planned to do Christmas at home instead of at the house in town. Is this the smallest kitchen you've ever seen? I can't imagine why anyone would have a kitchen this small. This picture was taken when we first bought this house. We've changed out the stove (has a smooth top 5 burner with a convection oven), put in a new dishwasher and changed out the stove vent for a microwave/vent unit. If you're standing at the sink, there's a fridge and pantry to your back, and a closet with a washer/dryer so what you're seeing is all the space I have. Worse than the space is that I have only one fridge here, and it's not a huge fridge. At home I have a huge kitchen but since I spend most of my time at the house in town and all my "stuff" is here, we decided to do Christmas here. I'm not complaining (sure sounds like it, huh?) but this two house situation has gotten a bit frustrating at times. We're having prime rib (first time I've ever cooked this), baked potatoes, salad, rolls and something with carrots. I have a great carrot souffle recipe but I think I saw something in a magazine that I might want to try. Dessert is a grasshopper cake and maybe some kind of pie. Nothing like knowing exactly what we're having, huh? What's everyone else having? Judy