Makin' Tamales

Hard at work






Saturday morning we started making tamales for the Mountain Man Christmas party. Greg, Jill and Nash came over to help. It was a lot of fun and we had a blast the night before trying to get the chili just right. It was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.


Greg and John BS 0ver chilli

The Chili was so hot that Jill had to wear sour cream lip stick!!




Sunday morning Nash and Pam came over to help finish up the tamales. 14 dozen give or take a few we had to eat. They are delicious and will be great in a few weeks. Finished up now, dishes are done and tamales are packed and in the freezer. What a lot of fun for the weekend.

Can't wait to do it all again on the 19th with the rest of the Garcia Clan

Why wouldn't this make you happy

Over night the Christmas Cactus decieded to bloom. Wow, what a surprize to wake up and find this in your window sill. Happy Holidays!

Bath time for Bella

Bella decided yesterday that she needed to dig in the composts pile from last year. That was fine and fun until she wanted to climb up on our bed and snuggle during the movie. She stunk!! Rex didn't even want to be near her.





She was immediately banished to the basement for the night. You guessed it that meant tonight before she could come in our room she had to have a bath. She doesn't seem to mind them. She does like to shake all of the water off the whole time she is in the shower but over all she does fine.

It was amazing to see what she left behind her in the tub. The usual ton of fur and about a ton of dirt.





Oh well, now she is clean and happy and has fuzzy hair.

Today the tree came down

The Christmas tree that is. We went out to the little tree farm in West Warren or someplace like that. "North Pole Pines" to be exact. The man who owns it looks like Santa himself. He gave us the instructions and told us how to get the best deal on a Christmas tree. The weather was nice and warm and we set out to walk among all of the lovely pines. It was amazing to see how many trees were missing this year compared to last year. It's not quite like going into back country to get your tree but it beats the heck out of going to a tree lot at the supermarket.

There it was....


She is beautiful on top. Her bottom is a little sparse. That's ok. She has plenty of boughs to make beautiful mantel pieces and even a yule log if we please. After John worked really hard to cut her down, we had to team work to get her out of the forest. She is HEAVY. That's good, full of sap and very green. When we went to pay Santa he told us why the bottom branches leave a lot to be desired. We loaded her into the truck. I lost rowshambow and had to get into the back of the truck. It's really hard to get into the truck while the 50lb 12' tree is trying to get in there too.

Well I kicked my shin into the tail gate and held in the bad words I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs. We got her strapped in so she would not fall out on our way home and off we went.

It's really hard to take a picture while you have gloves on so I took them off and shot a picture. I didn't realize that you all could see my glove hanging out of my mouth until I had taken the photo...OOOPPPPSSS

Now to trim her up and put all of the jewelry on her to make her into a beautiful 2009 Christmas Tree.

Nash & Jen Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday NASH!!!! You are a wonderful son and I appreciate all that you do to help me and all of the time we spend just enjoying hanging out. Love, Dad and M

Happy Birthday Jen!!! You are a great daughter in law. We are greatful that you are part of our family. Thanks for being you. P.S This year we are going to focuse more on good photos of you...not in a hospital bed after a baby:)

Happy Birthday REX

Rex has been in our family now for about six years. He is a great dog and a good pal, as long as you put your food up where he can't reach it. He is a good tollerater but is not to thrilled that Bella came to live in his house. He had it pretty good and she changes a lot of things. He does however love Snowflake. Any day of the week you can come home to find the two of them curled up on our bed together. Rex always curls around her so she stays warm. Rex thinks the best part of having Snowflake around is the "kitty treats" that she leaves in the kitty box. I choose not to like that part but I like that they get along so well and make great allies. Happy Birthday Rex!!!

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