Why can't we come in?

I have promised Maya that we will make a gingerbread house, so Tim is bringing the kids up tomorrow. He's in charge for a few days while Joni visits her family in North Dakota (where the temperature is below zero). This necessitated my diving into one of the last boxes left in the house to unearth the blow-up beds and their bedding for the kids to sleep on. Naturally this meant dragging more boxes down to the garage which OilMan has been striving to put in order. It seems that the more one clears stuff out, there more there is! In a few days I will have to take down the Christmas decorations, disassemble the tree, pack up all the ornaments and find a place for them that isn't in the spot where John's car will one day go.

We had several doggy visitors today. Dana and her friend brought their dogs across the fields to visit Ozzie, and in light of their extremely muddy condition we figured they could play outside for awhile. But noooo....these spoiled mutts wanted to be inside with us! They looked so pathetic peering in the door that we got the pile of towels, dried them off and let them in. Then, guess what, they wanted to go out again! Not too different from a bunch of toddlers. Hank the Basset came earlier, getting out all Ozzie's toys (yes, he does have toys) and then contentedly rolling over on his back with his stubby legs and huge feet sticking straight up, and his ears generously spread out on the floor.

There are still some leeks in our veggie garden so we're going to have potato-leek soup tonight. Foraging in the old garden for a simple meal has quite an appeal after all the home baked goodies, sumptuous meals and excellent wines. We will live off the land like simple peasants and, what was that? Oh, right... the gingerbread house...