Deep puddles and cooking

It was a dry day today but there are still very deep puddles about and the river levels are still very high. I met a man this morning on my walk who had three Vizslas, and he told me his wife wants to do an extension to the house so they can get a fourth Vizsla! Here is Xena enjoying a very deep puddle and an extra of her flying!

I had some errands to do after my walk, including collecting prints we had framed for Luke for Christmas and they are huge, they barely fitted in the car. I am at that pre-Christmas try-to-stay-calm stage, all the presents are wrapped, the food shopping is under control, menus planned and now we are just cruising along to to the weekend when it will all explode into manic busy-ness with a very full house!

I am not fortunate enough to have my Christmas duties shared - ever since we have been married I have always prepared Christmas dinner and not had the opportunity to go to some relative's house instead. It's also not just Christmas dinner but Christmas Eve dinner, and Boxing Day meals too as leftovers don't work in our family, the boys eat too much and want something more substantial than that! So a very busy time ahead and I am trying to stay calm and enjoy the thought of everyone coming home, which is a blessing I know I am lucky enough to enjoy. But I do look forward to the day when at least one of the Christmas meals will be at one of my son's homes!

So in the spirit of staying calm and saving my culinary energy for the week ahead, we are going out tonight to the local Italian - so lovely not to have to think what to cook for supper tonight!

Luke got all his exam results for his accounting exams at work, and he did amazingly well, he got such high marks. He cannot believe he has done half his exams already and the next batch of exams will be in September next year.