3 Down, 4 To Go!

I have sold three puppies, hooray! Two males and one female now have new homes. Well, they still live here until at least the 8th of January, when they will be 7 weeks old. Then they go to their new families. I am so happy with the people we have had come see the pups- they are all experienced dog owners, they all have a terrific commitment to a new dog, and they all have a unique situation for the pups to move into. The first couple to buy a dog has a farm with horses, chickens, and a female Labrador. The second family has two boys and live in El Paso, TX, on a good sized piece of land. And the the third family is a young couple expecting their first baby come June, and they currently have two small dogs. I am thrilled that my pups are going to such fantastic homes.

The puppies are so much fun now. They play, wrestle, bark at each other occasionally, and love to be petted. It's fun to get the payoff from all of that hard work that we have put into them, and to see how happy they are making other people is awesome. This is turning out to be an amazing experience, even with the tough hurdles we have had to overcome.

In an interesting side note, finding great homes for them has led me to the decision to rehome my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Those of you that have met Hadrian know he is a fantastic dog- I am just not the right owner for him. I have found him a new home with a single woman that writes, and wants a dog to be her always-companion. Hadrian will adore being the prince of her house, she will adore having him worship her, and I will adore not having the stress of an unhappy dog. We can go visit him too, which is great for the kids. So this means that after we sell all the pups, we'll have only one dog. Our pet tally is kind of low for us as well- 3 fish, one leopard gecko, one rabbit, and one dog. Considering how many pets we had in our tiny, tiny house in California, it is ironic that now that we have the room, we don't have a lot of pets. We may have to do something about that!

Christmas Programs

O had a Christmas band performance a couple weeks ago, and it was a lot of fun to go to. Except for one thing- I had to bring all of the kids with me. Nate was in Los Angeles on a business trip, so my only option was to take them all or stay home. And there was no way I was going to miss O's concert! He had a solo, playing La Bamba on his baritone. It was awesome. Unfortunately, G started to act up during the concert and I had to take him into the hallway so he would not ruin the performance for everyone else. I was so bummed to miss out on half of the concert, but that's the way the cookie crumbles, right? I've already told Nate that I will be going to O's spring performance by myself so I can actually enjoy it.
M had one at her preschool as well. They sang 8 songs, which is rather impressive considering the age of these kids. It was the usual Nativity Story, with little kids dressed as angels and shepherd's, and even a baby doll Jesus. So cute. While on stage waiting for the show to begin, M enjoyed digging for treasure in her nose. It's moments like that that make being a mommy so rewarding!

Slowing Down

One thing I love about the time between Christmas and New Year's is how the time seems to slow down a bit. Our family rarely does anything more ambitious then a trip to the grocery store during this time. Most of our days are spent at home, enjoying our nest and all of the new items we have feathering it. It becomes a time of relaxation and, in my case, reflection on the year soon to pass.

As this blog can attest to, we have had a lot of changes in 2008. Moving to a new state, getting a new house, and starting the kids in new schools was just one part of the overhaul our lives underwent this year. The bigger changes are the ones that may not be evident on the surface- my oldest child is entering his teenage years while my youngest is moving out of his babyhood, a time of childrearing that I will not go through again. Our family life has become deeper and much more satisfying, Nate and I are closer than ever even after almost *gasp* 16 years together, and we may finally be living in a country where all men truly are equal.

2008 will be a year that I will never forget. Every thing that changed, every thing that stayed the same, all wove together to make a year that was good to me and my family, and there is truly nothing more than that that I could ever want.

Merry Christmas!

Wouldn't you love it if Santa put one of these little guys under your tree? As you can see, or maybe not since they are climbing all over the place, we have 7 pups in that basket. I can safely say that all 7 of the pups pulled through pneumonia, and are healthy and thriving! Now we are getting down to the business of finding new homes for them, because despite their adorable little faces we are not looking to add another dog to our household.

Our Christmas was very nice indeed. It was the first in our new home town of ABQ, and we really enjoyed the colder weather and low-key way we celebrated the holiday. The kids had a blast opening presents, of course, and Nate and I enjoyed watching them. I unfortunately came down with a cold yesterday, and sadly it has been accompanied by a relentless headache. The electric guitar that O got, the drum set the M got, and the noise-making toys that G and E got are not helping with that. But I am so happy to see them enjoying themselves that I am willing to suffer for the cause. Isn't that one of the joys of motherhood?

Let it Snow!

We are having our first good snowfall of the year today, and the kids are loving it. It started snowing overnight, and kept up throughout the day. The mid-afternoon brought a bit warmer air temperatures, so a lot of what we had on the ground melted. Then the temps dropped again, and now the snow is starting to build up a bit.
I am so thrilled to have snow coming down! I really missed Winter in California- it just never seemed right to have a heat wave around the Holidays. Now with cold weather and snow, I feel like I am having my first real Christmas in years. I have been out catching snowflakes on my tongue, packing snowballs, and listening to the distinctive crunch-crunch-crunch of fresh snow under my feet.

Poor Nate is missing all of this fun! He flew to LA today and won't be back until Thursday night. I understand there has been some rain in LA, so at least he won't be dealing with weather shock when he returns.

Now the kids and I are hoping for a delayed start tomorrow, or, even better, a SNOW DAY!

Pupdate

Life is not all roses and hearts in puppy land. Much to our dismay, they started to come down with pneumonia over the weekend and now all of them have it. They get antibiotics twice a day, plus 2-3 breathing treatments a day. This is in addition to the bottle feeding, which fortunately now only happens every 6 hours. The vet did not give us great odds for them making it; only about a 50/50 chance per pup. Those odds mean we will more than likely lose a couple of them, but we are fighting hard to keep them all alive.

They are actually doing better with this than I expected. For the most part, they are healthy pups- they sleep, play, eat, and use the potty like normal healthy pups. But they have this cough that sounds horrible, and the danger to them is basically asphyxiation. Which totally breaks my heart, so I am administering coupage to them (thumping their chests) many times a day to keep the stuff in there broken up and moving out. This weekend they will be starting the weaning process, and once they are off bottles their pneumonia and congestion should clear up. As long as they make it until then.

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year Because Of...

EGGNOG! Yes, I love me some eggnog. Every year when the Holidays roll around, I wait with baited breath for the extensive selections of eggnog to arrive in the refrigerated case of the grocery store. And every year I am not disappointed by the variety of brands to try. Although I must admit to being something of a purist when it comes to eggnog- I stay away from pumpkin eggnog, and coffee eggnog, and anything else too far from the standard eggnog formula. Vanilla eggnog is an exception to this, as Southern Comfort makes one of the best eggnogs I have ever had. Both their regular flavor and vanilla spice are yum yum yum.

And yet this is not the best eggnog I have ever had. That distinction goes to a bottle I purchased from Whole Foods last week. It comes in an old fashioned glass milk bottle, with a green cap. There is no label on the sides, no nutrition information, and the ingredients are fairly straight-forward: milk, heavy cream, sugar, and eggnog base. Which in this case is a rich, eggy, nutmeg-laced concoction that results in the most divine eggnog I have ever had. If you have a Whole Foods nearby and you love eggnog even half as much as I do, it would be worth going there and picking up a case or two. I mean, a bottle or two.

Now, how do I like to enjoy my eggnog? A variety of ways, in fact. In the morning, a homemade eggnog latte is just the thing to jump start my day. Even better? An eggnog chai latte, oh yeah. Mid afternoon? Straight up, cold from the fridge. Evening time? Well, now we are talkin'- eggnog with Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum is a dream come true, with an extra grating of fresh nutmeg on top.

But the joys of eggnog in my life do not stop there, oh no. I've made eggnog scones, eggnog cookies, and, my favorite recipe with eggnog of all time, Eggnog Quick Bread. And since I love all of you so dearly, I will share my recipe for it so you can all run out and try it right away.

Eggnog Quick Bread

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg (this is key, must be fresh! And a half teaspoon would not be a bad thing to bump it up to.)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups eggnog
2 teaspoons rum extract (find it with other extracts, like vanilla, or substitute dark rum)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and nutmeg. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, then add in the eggs, eggnog, rum extract, vanilla extract, and salt. Once combined, stir in the flour mixture just until moistened. Pour into loaf pan and bake in the center of the oven for 45-60 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

(Just a small suggestion for those eggnog addicts like myself- make this in 3 mini loaf pans and freeze two of them as soon as they are cool. Otherwise you WILL eat it all in the matter of a day or two. Or less, depending on your willpower.)

Popcorn Revelation

Alright, so I am a dork. I love me some popcorn, but not nearly as much as M does. She wants to eat it every single day, and loves it plain, with salt, with butter, with herbs, whatever. She doesn't care, as long as she gets to eat popcorn. And since popcorn is a whole grain and by itself rather healthy, why not? My air popper has been getting a lot of use over the past two months, and although it is fairly easy to use I still hate dragging it out every time I need to make popcorn.

Several years ago I saw a Good Eats episode where Alton Brown said you could make popcorn in the microwave using a paper bag and a staple. Well, I was too chicken to try it. Then my favorite food blog had a feature about microwave popcorn, and she did not use a staple. Woohoo! My fears of microwaving popcorn we now null and void. I bought some paper bags, dumped in some popcorn and a bit of olive oil and salt in one, popped it in the microwave, and voila- it was perfect.

So why does this make me a dork? Because for YEARS I could have been making popcorn like this and saving myself a lot of trouble. And before I knew about the evils of commercial microwave popcorn, we used to eat that stuff. And this was so easy, so fast, and really, really tasty that I foresee us eating a lot more popcorn in the future. I may even make some to string on the tree this year. Well, without the salt and olive oil, of course. It will be hard enough for M to not eat the popcorn on the tree, why tempt her even more?

I'm Now a Mom to Septuplets!

Not septuplet humans, thank goodness, but septuplet puppies. Yes, Pandora did have 8, but for some unknown reason she decided she no longer wanted to be a mother and bit one of her pups on Thanksgiving evening. Off to the ER veterinary hospital in town went Blue Boy, O, and I where we learned that he would be fine and would just need some antibiotics to prevent infection. Unfortunately, while we were there Pandora killed one of the boys, and we promptly took all the puppies away from her. Why she did this, we can only speculate- she has come down with a doggie cold, and possibly her not feeling well convinced her that she could not care for a litter of pups.

So now they are my puppies, and I find myself bottle feeding them every 3 hours or so around the clock. Add in washing them up, cleaning up after them, and my usual responsibilities, and I am working my bum off! But, the pups are so cute and sweet to hold, that it is a small trouble to care for them. Add in the fact that they will not be on bottles longer than another 4-5 weeks, max, and I can handle it.

In other news, we are knocking on wood that strep has moved out of our house and not spread to anyone else. A few more days and I will breathe a sigh of relief!