Happy holidays!

Nathan and I are spending the holidays sorta kinda ranch sitting.  All others from the ranch are out of town from anywhere between 3 days and over 3 weeks, depending.  One usual ranch worker is around to take care of cattle needs.  Everything else falls to Nathan and I:  four empty houses (keeping wood stoves burning, and preventing pipes from freezing), four dogs (two uber friendly, one friendly to people but basically aloof, and one nervous wreck), two cats (one gives literal hugs while cleaning your face for you, the other is a bountiful kitten), eight chickens (stinky and quick little buggers), and innumerable plants. 

Our Christmas looked something like this:

Chicken coop.  Stinky.

Chicken frenzy.

Nathan with chicken feed.

The runaway.  "They don't walk on snow, so they don't go far."  Took ten minutes of chasing it around to get it back in.  It walked all over the snow.  Oh the taste of freedom...

Playing fetch with Luna and Nina after a Christmas Eve afternoon walk.

Blue bird Christmas Eve.

Mushroom bolognese, our Christmas Eve dinner.

Bad Cat pretending to be Good Cat on Christmas morning.

Nina, eagerly awaiting anything on our stoop.

Surviving the 5 minute car trip to Lookout Mountain in town for an hour's trudge through the snow and hills.  (They did much better on the return trip once tired from chasing a dozen deer, *grumble*)

Post-run second breakfast on Christmas - huevos rancheros, made with eggs laid the day before.  They were satisfying enough that we didn't even want real dinner later one.  (I also blame all the chocolate we ate.  Mom sent the whole bag of Reese's.  You know that will get eaten all at once.)

It has to happen at some point in order to qualify as a true holiday.

Sunset on a Christmas late afternoon walk with the dog dogs.  Before this, I accidentally threw Luna's ball atop one of he sheds and had to climb up to retrieve.  Then I accidentally threw the ball into the stream bank and lost it for real.  Luckily Luna is easily distractable.

Fa-la-la-la-la....

Nathan and I are stuck in town for work, so we decided to have some friends over for Christmas Eve dinner.  We were six in total, which is the largest group for which I've done a holiday meal.  I usually make more than what is needed in one meal by default (good at proportions of ingredients to one another, not so good at overall proportions to the size and number of bellies present at a meal), so this time I purposely shot big so that we'd have leftovers after all the effort. 

I forgot to get a shot of the appetizers.  Black eyed pea salsa (homemade), tortilla chips, hummus, chana (dry roasted chickpeas), black pepper cashews, and banana chips.

Dinner included a chickpea tart with cranberry sauce; apple, sage and walnut stuffing; roasted rosemary red c and sweet potatoes; and kale slaw with fennel, carrot, raisin and almond curry dressing.  Hazzah.

I had asked for a new, full sized food processor since my current one was only 4 cups and would over heat with a few minutes, so when I saw the size of a box sent by my parents I decided to open it early yesterday morning.  Used it to make the crust for the tart, the tart filling, and the slaw dressing.  And from visiting Nathan's grandparents last week we acquired the white Corningware, two large serving spoons, and a couple bowls that I used for the salsa and whatnot.  That means dinner's success was thanks to a few generous people.  Nathan and I did not register for our wedding, nor have we ever contemplated a china set before, but luckily we had enough to make a rustic set of six without having to seek out extras.  And, luckily, it all fit on my little table without feeling crowded.

From left, clockwise: Laura, Davis, Brian, Molly, and Nathan

Laura and Davis brought fixings for lightly fried banana and chocolate wontons with ice cream, and Molly and Brian brought a pumpkin pie and big fruit salad.  Laura also brought Prosecco, which I - the constant lightweight of gatherings - left to the others.

I'm loving the fact that the work involved with entertaining means 1) our apartment is the cleanest it has been in at least a year, 2) we have lots of food ready to go for today, and 3) the commute home and to bed was a mere ten steps. 

Today's plan is much more chill.  Morning run, check on the cats I'm kitty-sitting, movie (likely Hyde Park on Hudson), and yummy leftovers.  I'm going to pull out Charlie Brown's Christmas cd, and we'll probably also watch some more Antiques Roadshow. 

To bid you all a humor filled holiday, here is Nathan managing to stop laughing just long enough to mimic my Gramma's holiday card.  Between the card and our own silliness we were rolling for a good ten minutes....