Merry Christmas, and happy holidays.

I hope today is merry for you whether you celebrate the holiday or not, and that the holiday of your choice is or was wonderful.

Today, I have the sausage I wanted for Christmas dinner, and enough other options to put together a good meal. I have a chicken-veggie dish cooking down in the crock pot (most of it will be frozen, assuming it comes out edible). I have snow on the ground, even if no snow is falling from the sky; I have a reasonable expectation that the snow on the ground will continue to melt off. And while I'm going to miss the pretty, I really do prefer the roads to be safe.

I have Drew, kicking happily in my belly (and waiting out the snow, good lad). I have Ray, being disturbingly cute now that Scott has worn him out with a feather toy. I have Scott, who wore Ray out with a feather toy, and chopped an onion for me, and made waffles for breakfast. (I owe him!) Somewhere in this house is a pretty cuddly Apple, I think upstairs after Ray's earlier rambunctiousness.

We didn't do a lot of presents this year (read, almost any), as is the case most years. But I did get Christmas cards sent out, and I don't need a lot of presents. My life is already full of the blessings that matter the most - family and friends; the cats; a warm, safe, comfortable house; the beauty of the world around me; plenty of food (even when I was whining about my options, I had so many options - just not the one I was wishing I had right then!)...this list could go on forever.

And that? That - and thus, yes, you! - are the best Christmas gift of all.

Merry Christmas. Thank you for making my world a brighter, better place.

Oh, that was good, especially for cobbled-together.

I was so focused on getting the sausage that I didn't worry about what would go with it. (Then again, I knew we had a lot of options amongst canned and frozen veggies and other food.) I just figured I'd wing it today. Actually, "sausage" is a misnomer; specifically, turkey kielbasa. But yum. Had that, Stove Top stuffing, sliced potatoes, sweet corn, and the cranberry jelly (the all-jelly holds-the-can-shape type - hey, I like it :) that I picked up on a whim yesterday. While sitting at the table and looking out at the still snow-covered deck on our property and pasture across the way.

As Christmas dinners go, far from the best I've ever had, and far from the worst, and it felt right and it was lovely. Compared to what we might've had without the sausage, very nice. (I did have two chicken breasts, intended for a crock pot chicken-and-veggie dish, so I might've come up with something - but I really didn't want to improvise there. They're in the crock pot now, assuming that's edible most of it will wind up frozen for later use. And other than those? We'd've been dealing with something like chili. Not really very seasonal, so I'm glad we got out and got the sausage.)

Photos!

I finally got the snowstorm photos up, and a few others taken during the same time period. You can see all the photos I uploaded today here, but here are a few of my favorites (click to see full-size):