HAPPY 2021!!
It was a late night for all.
Even for Ralph, who was not used to having so many people nested up where he sleeps.
"UGH. WHY ARE YOU UP SO EARLY WITH A CAMERA IN MY FACE......."
"....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ."
Speaking of Ralph, he took his last prednisone pill on this day.
HOORAY!!!
No symptoms had returned and so he was on the mend.
Still asleep.
Still asleep.
On. The. Floor.
Ouch.
I was up early because I had promised to make waffles for the kids.
I decided that if I was going to the trouble of making "everything free" waffles, I might as well make them happy waffles.
I also broke out the instant hashbrowns.
Dia de los Reyes was on Wednesday, January 6th.
It's sort of become a tradition.
Sigh. COVID is not one for following tradition.
We were sad that we wouldn't be able to hang with our friends.
To try to make up for it, I planned to heat up some frozen tamales and bought some fancy guacamole.
Not a great comparison to the awesome food that we usually ate at our friends place, but at least it was something.
Lo and behold, that afternoon, there was an unexpected knock on our door and an email soon followed.
Our friends were still going to host their celebration, but virtually!
They dropped off some chorizo, a few Mexican loteria cards and a chunk of Rosca de Reyes.
It was the nicest thing ever.
So, our lame dinner was kicked up a notch with the addition of the chorizo.
And here is our set up for playing loteria over Zoom.
EL BORRACHO!!!!
It was time to test our luck and see if we could find a Baby Jesus in our hunk o' sweet bread.
The party took turns oldest to youngest, cutting so all could see.
Huzbend, myself and Mikey all struck out.
Katie, though....
...she got herself a Baby Jesus.
The kids got to choose what they wanted to eat instead of the Rosca.
Cookies won out.
Mikey can't seem to eat chocolate sandwich cookies without ending up with a coat of crumb lipstick.
We had the largest grey squirrel in the PNW living in our backyard.
This guy was SCARY big.
I think he could literally kick Ralph's ass.
About a week after taking his last prednisone pill, Ralph started "phlegming up".
He began to make a noise like he was clearing his throat.
Soon, that throat clearing turned into a full on cough.
Bummer.
I put him back on prednisone. One pill every other day.
Mikey continued to make his way through his Halloween/Christmas candy stash.
This night, he chose to conquer the last of his Jelly Belly jellybeans.
He was eating and talking at the same time, not paying attention.....
......and, then, BAM! He ate a cinnamon one.
He spat it in his hand and yelled for water.
BWA-HAHAHAHAHA!
We packed up our car with styrofoam from the giant TV we purchased in Spring of last year and took it to a socially distanced recycling event.
I know.
You are SO jealous.
That same weekend, a portion of a crown in my mouth broke off.
I went into the dentist that Monday where they yanked the old crown out of my mouth, requiring two tons of painkiller, and installed a temporary crown.
NOTE: Brush your teeth, kids! You do NOT want cavities, which lead to fillings, which lead to weakened teeth, that lead to cracks in said teeth, that sooner or later will fail and you'll need a root canal and then you will need fake teeth in your mouth.
As that week progressed, Ralph's cough was still hanging on and seemed to be getting worse.
I had to increase his dosage to one pill a day.
Within a day or two, his cough disappeared.
Sigh.
I guess he is a prednisone "lifer" now.
The kids and Huzbend had a three day weekend.
That Saturday, judo was held outside.
It wasn't raining, but it was COLD outside.
Notice, the socks and the hat/undershirts.
They practiced break falls among other judo-y things.
It must've been hard to break fall when it was so cold out.
Ouch.
Katie, meanwhile, began work on the first of her six month "everything free" baking subscription kit.
This month's project was Snowman Cupcakes.
First, she baked up the cupcakes.
They were a devils food type of cake.
Next, she had to create different color icings.
She used the icing to create these cuties....
Here's an up close shot of the "perfect one".
While Katie waited for her cupcakes to cool, the kids beat on each other foam swords and pillows.
I guess foam swords won?
With the cupcakes now cool, Katie got to work assembling her creations.
So cute.
They were pretty good.
The cake was moist and chocolatey.
The frosting was sweet, but not TOO sweet.
Success.
And, everyone could eat them.
Mikey had no issue putting one (or two) away.
With Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday from school, Mikey took the time to finish up a project for his English class.
He was working on a map of a naval battle from a book about Benedict Arnold.
He was very proud of the outcome of his work.
That Monday, Huzbend tried to recreate lasagna within the restrictions of our kids diets.
We, who had eaten vegan cheese before, warned him not to try, but our pleas fell on deaf ears.
As it was cooking, the smell of delicious lasagna filled the house.
When it came out of the oven all gooey and warm, all of us were salivating.
We were so excited. It really looked and smelled GREAT!
Cheesy, saucy, meaty goodness!! BRING IT ON!
Then, we tasted it.
UGH.
NEVER. AGAIN.
This was not only the grossest lasagna ever, it was also the saddest.
The final two weeks of January were a blur of various meetings - PTA and otherwise, an IV infusion, me getting my new crown and other random things.
We made virgin pina coladas for the kids.
Mikey took some walks for his physical education fitness log.
Ralph ate some pre-chewed gum on one of our walks and I had to take him to the vet.
Again.
Some gum brands can contain xylitol, which is very poisonous to dogs.
The doctor checked him out and after talking out the chance of risk associated with eating one piece of pre-chewed gum, which was decidedly small, I decided to take Ralph home and observe him.
He was fine.
We finally had to replace our old Farberware pots.
These puppies were about 25 years old.
The handles wouldn't stay tight anymore.
With the kids making their own lunch most of the time, the pots were becoming a hazard.
Katie decided to make herself a complicated bento lunch using some
leftover curry Huzbend had made the weekend before.
She was very proud of it.
And, at some point, she made me take a picture of this happy face on a sausage.
Some things never change.
