He's touching me....

So hopefully everyone remembers the Bill Cosby "Himself" skit where he talks about his kids repeatedly saying, will you stop touching me? Our dogs NEVER lay all snuggled up together. Roscoe tried so hard to snuggle with Duke when he was a puppy but Duke was not having it. Last night, the dogs were chewing their rawhides after being so good on their walk and look who ended up together. As long as they're not touching each other, I guess they can share a pillow. Usually Fonzie sprawls out across the pillow so he doesn't have to share with one of the big guys!

W-A-L-K

We decided to take the dogs for a walk in the snow last night. It was quite an adventure. I dressed Fonz up in his coat, he kept getting stuck if he jumped into deeper snow. I didn't walk all 3 of them - I just took all 3 when Jason was taking pictures. Everyone was happy to be indoors and warm again after about a half hour in the freezing cold. Jason made us go and look in the retention pond in front of our neighborhood in search of ducks. No ducks but there were 7 geese. I always joke when he can't see ducks/geese in ponds or whatever that they've gone to the "duck spa". Last night I said, those geese must have waited too long for their reservation at the spa! Jason responded with, maybe that is the spa. Definitely wouldn't be what I had in mind for a spa!

Lights out

We have gotten quite a dumping of snow. Last night, this is what the lights started out as at the beginning of the evening.

Notice them here.....

Zoomed in a little closer, you can see that the lights were underground so to speak!

The Mini has been parked for days. I started to clean it off this morning but I'm using it at as my snow gauge!

Dog portraits

We jokingly call Fonzie "Mountain Goat Dog" because he likes to climb all over everything. Last night, he was looking for his racoon and climbing around on the back of the sofa. I noticed the tree in the background and got an idea. I found his beloved toy and pit it on the back of the couch so he would climb back up there after I got the camera. We have to talk to him and mention biscuits to get the head movements.

Alexa Who

We had our first Christmas celebration last night. As Alexa was getting ready for the car ride home, she posed for me. Doesn't she look like one of a "Who" from Whoville? Too cute!

Icon Grill

I have a monthly date with 2 of my friends, Troy and Sarah. Troy works for Alaska Airlines and has been stationed in Anchorage for the last 7 months. :( He's back in Seattle temporarily for 3 months and we had our Christmas date on Thursday night. Check out the dessert below - yum! That would be alternating layers of Red Velvet and White Chocolate Cake with Peppermint Buttercream frosting in between. I am not at all ashamed to admit we had 2 desserts, the other was a Gingerbread Bread Pudding which was equally exquisite!

Snow - holy crap!

It's still snowing here, I would say we have gotten at least 5 inches but maybe more. The big guys love to play in the snow. Fonzie has other things in mind!

Doggie jail

My massage therapist send home some goodies with me for Christmas. She has 3 dachshunds so we are totally on the same page with dogs. She sent home toys for the boys. What I did not realize was that she had a bag of biscuits in there wrapped in tissue paper. When I came home from work on Thursday, they had found them. The bag was dumped, the tissue paper was ripped off and there was a torn up empty bag of biscuits. Needless to say, they were in TROUBLE! Don't they look pathetic? I had to do my best not to laugh while disciplining them!

Santa pictures

I met Carrie and Allyson at Tacoma Mall for Santa pictures today. Allyson fell asleep when we got to the mall so we did some shopping. She looked so cute in her dress, everyone kept stopping to comment how cute she was!

Watch out for doggy feet!

As I was putting kolach on the table tonight to cool, I stepped on something that moved. I looked down to see Roscoe's feet. He didn't get up and move or anything, just kicked his leg as if to say, "Watch it!"

Kolach

Okay, I am seriously a masochist for trying out this family recipe. I knew I was in for it when the recipe started 16-17 cups of flour. I remember my Grandma making this every year and the gigantic bowl that she used to make the dough. According to my mom and aunts, my Grandpa actually helped her with this. My Grandma was tiny - only about 5'1" and never weighed over 100 lbs unless she was pregnant. I can totally understand why after today - no sane person would do this alone! I do have to give snaps to Jason - he rolled out one ball of dough for me after I told him my Grandpa helped my Grandma.

So hear goes - I learned today that you can tell when yeast is bubbling. (It might be hard to see though!)

The dough rose! I left for my massage appointment and came back to see it had risen. You can see where I poked it with my finger. Another thing I learned - yeast will make your dough hot. I was so surprised (and was afraid something was wrong) when I felt how warm the dough was.

You roll it out then put the nut/raisin mixture in. Total bummer sidebar, grinding up the raisins may have broken my food processor. The blade is totally stuck in there and I can't get it out. Jason tried too, no luck.

Yum! I ended up with 10 loaves and have dough leftover but ran out of mixture. My mom told me about a cheesecake type thing my grandma used to make with the leftover dough. I need to get a glass pie plate tomorrow in my travels. I ate a tester slice and it tastes just like a remember it. It's so strange how smell triggers your memory. As soon as I smelled it baking, I knew I had made it right, it smelled just like my Grandma's kitchen used to. It makes me so sad that I didn't get to make this with her tonight. I was very close to my grandparents so the holidays are always tough on me because they're not around. I know they were smiling looking down on my tonight and wishing they could have some too!

Kifli

Kifli is a tradition in my mom's family and I do my best to make them every year. My friends have grown addicted to them as well. The dough is made from lard so they're pretty rich but oh so good. I thought I would do a play by play.

First you take the dough.....(I LOVE my pastry mat from Pampered Chef by the way, way less frustrating than having dough stick to the rolling pin AND the counter!)

Roll out the dough....

Cut into 2X2 squares....

Add in the nut filling in the center....

Roll them up and put them on the baking sheet and into the oven....

Remove from the oven and place on wax paper, cover them with powdered sugar.

Holiday Baking

I'm off this week so have been working on my baking.
I rolled out the sugar cookies which is really a pain.
I had twice as many as these when I pulled a Megan and dropped the container and they spilled on the floor.

My four legged friends were more than willing to help any chance they could get!

Deck the Halls!

Our tree is up and Jason even put up lights outside! I am so excited to have white lights on the tree for the first time ever in my life! I think this look is worth keeping!

Tree Hunting 2008

Last Saturday, we made our annual trek to Sprouffske's Tree Farm with the Masterson's. I gave R and T their Christmas presents so I could see them open them up. I scored big with R apparently, she put the shirt on immediately.