Merry Christmas 2023!

Hello friends, and Merry Christmas!  Last week, before a low in the teens, I harvested kale, collards, lettuce and a small amount of broccoli.  The broccoli was blanched and frozen.  We had collards and rice for one dinner, cranberry quinoa kale salad and cubes of fried sweet potatoes for another, and a few salads.  All but the door shelves in the refrigerator were cleaned.  It's so nice to open now, I sure wish it would stay like this for a while.   Three varieties of GF cookies were baked from ingredients in the pantry.   I redeemed Swagbucks points for a $25 gift card.  Brandy's taco soup was made, on Friday night.  Such a quick, easy dinner, after a very long day preparing.

In our ongoing chicken saga, I realized two of the three young game hens are gone.  Though we'd clipped their wings once already, they started flying out of their yard again.  We assume a hawk got them.  The two that are gone were our best layers at the moment.  Of course, all the roosters are perfectly fine.  Sigh.  I cut greenery from our land, and combined it with pinecones and trimmings of our Frazier fir to decorate the tables for our gathering.  Besides offering the cookies at our Christmas gathering,  I've also gifted them to our postal carrier, my massage therapist and a delivery driver.  I mixed up a batch of celery salt for gifts, using the celery I had dehydrated.  I picked up their last three small poinsettia's at Lowes, marked down to $1.49, for the tables for our gathering. 

Siblings

Guinness went to the vet, to have a place on his foot looked at.  Turns out it's nothing scary; just caused by him licking the same spot, but the vet thought he could put on a few lbs.  Each day, I've been dividing a half pint jar of home canned meat and broth between he and McNibs, in addition to their kibble and sweet potatoes.  With McNibs being so skinny after his adventure, I bought him a coat.  The first one didn't fit, and when I dropped it off at Staples for the return, I received a coupon for 15% off an in store purchase.  It's only good until the end of the year, and I may use it if I'll already be in town.  The second coat fits him perfectly.  On Christmas Eve, I baked a batch of dog treats, to put in their stockings.  Of course, they had to taste test some beforehand.  Thankfully, they passed with flying colors.  Happy Holidays to you and yours!