January 2012

 Gwen and her nieces and nephews made this wonderful gingerbread cake house for the grandkids.  It was a wonderful thing considering how weird the holidays were.

 I got together with my gal pals over the break.. Briggie is holding Maripat's girl dog named Barney!  I love Barney.

 This is my green kitchen.

 Maripat, Rosie and her friend Katie, and I went to the UMMA.  I love this exhibit of Tabletop sculptures.  Many of the sculptures are kinetic and can spin in a pin head even though they are so heavy and not symmetrical.

 We had a great time.  This is graffiti alley.  We had lunch at Afternoon Delight.  Great hospitality, food and prices.  Yummmy!  I got a lot of compliments on my hat.  This was a bitter cold day.  I took my gloves off to show MP how to operate the camera.  Otherwise we were bundled and covering our faces.

 We finally got snow to go sledding.  We had a great time.

 Arianna's covering her eyes.

 I'm on the back

This is me being excited by how far we went.

Jacob and Dominic went the farthest.  Down the hill, across the field, over the road, across another field into the woods.  WOW!!!!

Another great day I had in January (forgot the camera) was spent in Perrysburg and Toledo.  Randy and I drove alongside the Maumee River.  The house are just lovely.
We ended up in Toledo and had a late lunch early dinner at The Blarney.  The restaurant has a great vibe.  Nice decor and menu.  We had latkes with corn beef, bangers and mash with a side of peas.  I wanted to tell the owner that the best peas are tossed with olive oil, S&P, and roasted under the broiler just until toasty. 

December 2011

 My springerle and lebkuchen were perfect this year. 

 This is Kadie's boyfriend, Dan.  We approve.  Points in his favor are the he isn't afraid to play word games with me.

 This is the pretty tree at the Children's hospital in Toledo.  Why were we there . . .

Our sweetie had a ruptured appendix.

Here's the thing . . . for a time I just stopped taking pictures.  I didn't take my camera to the wonderful tea party I went to at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Saline.  I had a wonderful time there.
I didn't take a picture of  when Dominic and I had breakfast by candle light, or of the cute "get well" sign we made for Mekayla. 
Although not necessary I made excellent cocktails for Christmas, Stillettos.  Yummers.

November 2011

 I took this picture of a morning glory vine that invaded the star sculpture.  The vine grew in daring and imaginative ways.

 My friend Shelly gave me this spectacular molasses oatmeal bread.  The recipe came from a Tasha Tudor cookbook.  Tasha won an award at the fair with this bread.

 Here is our dear Mekayla playing volley ball.  She did really well.  I was so proud of her confidence!

 My friend Mikkie gave me this beautiful vintage red coat many years ago.  I finally sewed the parts back on and made a new button for it.  The coat is in beautiful condition so I can't imagine why the buttons were off and one was missing.

 The neighbor boy saw a neighborhood hooligan playing with my missing bowling ball.  Little Noah just took the ball away from the delinquent when his dad recognized the ball and told Noah it was mine.  What a honey for returning him.  He's beat up, but it looks like he had a pretty good time.

After Thanksgiving we started on the kitchen.  I can't believe I don't have a picture of the old wallpaper.