"Happy New Year"

Auld Lange Syne

by Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to min’?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne!

That second last line says it all for me. "We'll take a cup of kindness yet"...
I wish you all a big cup of kindness as we venture into the unknown with a new year ahead of us.
The last year has had it's trials, no doubt, but we pull up our boot straps and carry on, don't we. Yes, we do.

Thank you all for being 'there' throughout 2016 to share in the good times and the bad. We've had a few good laughs together and it's been a privilege to be invited into your world through your blogs.
I feel we've gotten to know each other all the more.

I have three wishes for the coming year.
First, I'd love to see peace be established throughout our troubled world. Is that too much to ask?
Whether we want to admit it or not, it affects us all so much.
Second, I want there to be more kindness bestowed on our animals.
Humans can be the most cruel of all beings and the effects of that tears me apart. So, I pray for all the wild-life and the domesticated animals that rely on our compassion. God love them.
Third, I wish good health to all those I know and love. That certainly includes all of you. Life is not merely to be alive but to be well and maintaining good health is our biggest investment. So, let's move more and eat our greens, everyone.  And the odd glass of wine won't hurt. ;-)

                                 To your beautiful homes 
                              from our little mouse-house...

             "Happy New Year, everyone"
          
                                     Be happy and cozy.
                                            Cheers!

                                   Deb, the retired-guy, Annie and Audrey.

In the grips of winter.

Altogether now...

"One of these things is not like the other..."

Your morning ear-worm. :-0

It is very busy at the feeders after the storm that blew in.

I am offering to mail snow to anyone who needs some this year.

It snowed all day today; non-stop.
Although the roads were a mess, I headed out early to do some cat-sitting in our area. I have three charges; Leroy, Neo and Serena who need one visit a day. Little Leroy is shy and I am working on getting his trust so he will stay in the room and play a bit. Some cats need time to warm up to even the cat-nanny (that's me) and we thankfully are making progress daily.

It still looks a little like Christmas at the mouse-house while things are slowly being put away.

Two stockings embellished for our youngest grands.

One is 9 months and the other 5 months.

We will keep our Charlie Brown tree up for the rest of the week and my wreath that had a little addition added to it Christmas morning with a stocking stuffer. :)

                                                   A cat makes anything look better. =^..^=

Once home for the day, I made another batch of suet for my hundreds of birds that seem to appear out of no-where. You would feel sorry for them today, believe me.

Ready for a quick freeze, then removed from freezer, cut into squares to fit the suet cage and back into the freezer bags until needed.

This makes approx. 12 suet cakes.

I'll have some happy birds, for sure.

We are in the grips of winter and there's no turning back now.

hugs, Deb

It was a Merry Christmas.

and a long one at that.
We had Christmas eve and morning at the mouse-house with the fabulous felines and their free-loader friend, Forrest. Christmas dinner was at my daughters' with little Gwynn & Gus (and Hugo and Ruby, of course) and then on the 27th we celebrated with the whole family, thirteen in all, at my younger daughter's home. So, we are all Christmased-out.

It is time to relax and enjoy the next few days of the season with movies and festive leftovers. And I do believe I will break this lovely in (one of many beautiful gifts) and invite a few friends for tea.

                                          "Thanks, Santa"
I'll just leave you now with a heavy dose of  photos from the holiday season.

I wish you all a fun and relaxing week before we ring in the new year.

Our newest grandittle.

We had so much fun with the wee ones.

Now

I have to make up for recent wrongs.

I will pay for this. :(

Enjoy the next few days of merriment.

Hugs, Deb

Merry Christmas

Time for a hot toddy.

                "Merry Christmas, everyone" 
                     from the mouse-house.

I've just cleaned up a mess at the water dish as Audrey walked through it to get to her stocking. :-b

Sending much love to you all, 
Deb, Gary, Annie, Audrey and free-loader Forrest. xo

Christmas eve.

The day has started out at +1C. That's not too bad for our area and the feeders were full of birds by 7:00am. 
This is the first week of winter even though we have had freezing cold weather, freezing rain and a few snow storms of late.
And Christmas eve is here.

            Outside the mouse-house window it is a winter wonderland.

Our big dinner will be delayed this year as spouses of our kids take their turn having it with their side of the family. But, in the meantime, smaller more intimate dinners will be prepared and enjoyed over the next few days.

I have hung a 'woof' stocking as we have a guest at the mouse-house for a few days. Our grand-dog Forrest is here. Annie and Audrey are livid 
                                              "You owe me."

but I keep telling them that is no way to act at this time of year. It'll work out, it always does, and then my daughter can travel with no worries about her big baby.
I'll just put a bit more nip in their stocking. :-b

I have a wee bit of cat-sitting to do over the holidays and hope to share those gorgeous faces with you soon. 

I am feeling back to myself again (thank you so much for your good wishes) and enjoyed visits with good friends the last two days. 
 Barb's home is so welcoming; like a big hug when you enter. And her Christmas decor is magical. We had such a great visit and look what came home with me to sit under our Charlie Brown tree. He looks right at home here. :)

So it's a busy day and I must get at it. I have keys to pick up, gifts to deliver and a dog to tend to.

Enjoy the last few hours before Santa loads up that sleigh. I hope you have all been good. Audrey has been such a nervous nilly lately trying to make up for past wrongs. Why, she even helped me pack up some gifts to deliver. Her way. :)

She really is a joyful nut and we love her to pieces.

It's time now to find that Norad Santa tracker and pass it on to the grandittles.

They are beside themselves today. :)

Have a wonderful Christmas eve, everyone.

Enjoy!
hugs, Deb

Another easy recipe for gift-giving.

This was one of my mom's favorite loaf cakes. If you like cinnamon you will enjoy this.

                                Loaf Cake
1/4 c butter
1 c white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 c sour milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Mix one tsp cinnamon with 3 tbsps brown sugar.

Line cake pans with parchment paper or butter and flour.

Put 1/2 of cake ingredients in pan then layer the cinnamon mixture. Then 1/2 cake ingredients on top. (see photos)
I sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon on top.

Bake 1 hr. at 350 degrees.

This is a nice bread with or without a bit of butter. It can be enjoyed at breakfast instead of toast or with tea any ol' time of the day.

I love this loaf cake. It tastes much like a coffee cake and makes a nice Christmas gift for a friend..


Our funny little Charlie Brown tree.

Boy, it's cold out there.

But, we are in for some warmer weather for Christmas.

I've been trying to clean the mouse-house today 

&

someone keeps getting in my way.

I told her to go down to the garage and nap in front of the warm, cozy pellet stove but she wants to help ?? me instead.

I told her I called Santa and told him that she was hell bent on making me work twice as long today.

And,

that he said he may not come to the mouse-house this year.

                                "OK, you're kiddin', right?"

 ;-)

"Happy first day of winter."
I'm glad I did this post up yesterday because today I am down with the flu. This is where nurse Annie will stay close for a day of cuddling. :)

Be well.

hugs, Deb

A Christmas memory.

I'd better lock up the old out-house so we don't have any confusion on Christmas eve.

The old out-house on our property is probably one hundred and fifty years old. It's been moved from here to there and, of course, it is out of commission now, but it is a piece of history here and always a conversation piece.

Our trail is covered in untouched snow.

I was thinking back to when I was a child and would come out to my grandmothers' farm house for Boxing Day dinner.

There would be a few families gathered around the table in the front room that held not only the Christmas tree but the oil tank, too.  Oh, the character of old homes. :)

Christmas music would be playing on the old turn-table.

The dining table was filled with aunts and uncles and cousins who had gathered to have another big Christmas meal with my grandmother.

From that table, you could hear the wood crackling in the wood-stove in the winter kitchen. And traditionally, it was a big fat chicken with all the trimmings that was the star of the meal.

Granny's pumpkin pie was the preferred finale of the feast.

After we had all stuffed our faces, the cousins would each receive a nice white envelope with a Christmas card and a brand new $2.00 bill inside. And there was always a bag of candy for each of us, too.

Believe it or not, that was a big deal to us kids.

Remember...that was one hundred years ago. ;-)

It's funny the memories you have at Christmas time and the ones that you hold so dear.

=^..^=

While Audrey guards the Christmas tree,

geesh, she's weird

and Annie snoozes off lunch

We wish you all a fun and peaceful week while you prepare for Christmas.

I'm heading out to fill the feeders and the heated birdbath.

It's like Alfred Hitchcock's THE BIRDS out there.

hugs, Deb