...12.16...Over the Weekend...

...early Saturday morning...

...the living room is clean...

...and ready for company...

...and then I didn't take a single other photo...I 'borrowed' the rest of these from my sweet Sissie...

...Great Grandma (Mom) out for a stroll with her great-grands...

...we set up all the drinks on a table on the porch...it was chilly but not really cold...that's grandma's punch bowl in the back...and Mom's in the front...

...I had gotten mine out too...and Sissie snapped a photo of the original box as it's exactly like Mom's...

...there was so much vegan food...practically everyone brought something vegan...love that...

...on my plate...a bunch of veggies and a delicious vegan dip...there's also trader joe's vegan tzaziki in the middle with some pickled red onion on top of it...Mom's vegan coleslaw...and nephew's delicious tofu burnt ends...vegan chex mix...and vegan firecracker Ritz...and I also had a whole plate of vegan desserts...

...and then we did the Crazy Santa gift exchange...it was lots of fun...and lots of gifties were 'stolen'...

...Mom wearing her shawlette that you've not seen yet...

...earlier in the week I had done a special mid-week grocery shop at Trader Joes...

...and just got a few things for the party...and I stocked up on TJ organic beans while I was there...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!

...12.14...Dinner and Dominoes...

...starting with some Blogger comments...

...to my sweet sissie Karen who blogs from her boat at McCraw Sails...Hey K...we're so happy you're here...great food and fun...looking forward to more of both a little bit later today... Love, T...

...to karen from Pumpkin Sunrise...Hi Karen...I also love a good museum...yours looks amazing...and I love a rainy/snowy/sleety day too...your granddaughter's hat is beautiful...and best wishes for finishing all of your projects...I hope you have an amazing visit with your family...

...to Éphée from L'éphémère quotidienneté des repas et autres trucs de magie...Hi Éphée...awww that sweet puppy again...and your wedding soup does look delicious...I need to try it as I'm pretty sure I've never had it before...

...to Penny from Snap That Penny...Hi Penny...loved your night and day pictures...and the poem...I always think when I read a poem that I need to be reading more poetry...

...I've read a few more Maupassant short stories...but I've also just started Carnegie's Maid because I want to get the books back to Mom so she can pass them on to her friends...it's good so far...I'm just a couple of chapters in...

Tombstones
Mademoiselle Pearl
The Thief
Claire de Lune

...my sweet sissie arrived a bit before noon...and yes the Kitchen was 'finished'...I'll show it to you in a bit...

...so the very first thing we did was our little gift exchange...she opened her Cozy Posy ear warmer...I'll post about it on Wednesday...

...she'll need it as she's not in the Bahamas this year...and it looks adorable on her...

...and my gift was a bunch of vegan chocolates...

...which y'all know I love...

...I gave one a try...and it's delicious...of course...

...and I'd not seen these Lindt oat milk ones...

...they're delicious as well...like milk chocolate...

...and these beautiful candles...they're in cute little black cups...so they'll be perfect in the guest/hallway bath...

...then we went out to eat...and I had a delicious cranberry pecan salad...so many cranberries...

...when we got home Sissie and I tried our hands at making a gingerbread house for a party decoration...

...this kit was accidentally vegan...

...and we were surprised at how small it was...

...the Man called it the gingerbread 'shed'...haha...

...it looks pretty good here...but we did have about 3 catastrophic fails where the whole 'shed' tumbled down...I think the key would be to decorate it lying flat...and then assemble one side and wait...and then the second side...and wait...and finally add the roof...of course that's not what we did though...haha...it was fun...

...and so was the game of Mexican-chicken-foot dominoes...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend...

...12.13...Friday Update...

...I know y'all are waiting with baited breath to see if the kitchen remodel will be complete in time for the big family Christmas party...TOMORROW!!!...YIKES!!!...

...especially since so much seems to be unfinished...but we really are almost finished...this week...we have accomplished a LOT!...

...we found that the two sides of the counter top are not exactly level...so I'll be fudging a bit on the tile behind the stove to make up that difference...there will be a larger grout line on one side of the bottom two rows...just in this area behind the stove...and then everything above that will be level...

...so I tacked a ledger board in place...

...and started tiling...

...the area behind the stove is all set...

...and grouted...

...just continuing around the room...

...we've decided to go ahead and extend the tile to the door jamb on this side of the room...there's just about a half inch there...and it would make that light switch finishing a bit awkward if there was no tile under half of it...

...so continuing to set he tile on the final run...

...all set...and I'm so happy that the tile cutting saw can be stowed away for a while...haha...

...and grouted...and the same can be said for the grout and all of the tools associated with it...the kitchen is clearing out a little at a time...

...caulking the little cracks in the tall upper cabinets...

...and mid-week...this topper for the stove arrived...since we mostly use out induction plate anyway this turns our stovetop into countertop...and it's easily removeable if we need to use multiple burners on the stove...

...the Man (mostly...I did some holding and handing) installed the new range hood...

...I love how far it is above the stovetop...

...and we were finally able to slide the stove back into it's niche...and a little bit more clutter is out of the kitchen/dinette floor...

...and...this is STILL the state of the big room...cabinets, sawhorses and dropcloths juxtaposed with the Christmas decorations...it will all be finished and back in place by tomorrow morning...

...we meticulously labled all of the hardware so we could reinstall it and hopefully not have to do any adjustment to the doors when we reinstall them...

...so rather late yesterday...we put the upper doors back in place...

...I'm so happy about how nice and bright it makes the kitchen feel...

...and I also did the final sealant on the tile...so all that's left are the lower doors and they'll go back in place very very soon...

...the end of the kitchen reno is in sight now...

~Have a lovely day!

...12.12...Delicious Vegan Food we ate...

...well...like on Tuesday...there's just no time to do much cooking around here...

...but I love sandwiches anyway...and we had brought back some vegan croissants from the mountains and I wanted to get them out of the freezer...

...so of course I used them to make a delicious tofu sammie...just thinly sliced baked tofu...lettuce, tomato, dijon mustard and vegan mayo...so simple and so delicious...

...what delicious food have you been eating this week?...

~Have a lovely d

...12.11...W.I.P. Wednesday...

...there are still a bunch of Christmas things that I can't show you yet...but this was my sweet sister in law's little birthday present from before Thanksgiving...

...just one of my standard crochet dish cloths...

...and then I made a quick little box out of card stock...

...it's super easy to do...

...and it makes the perfect size box for a little dishcloth...

...and tied up with string...

...what's in your workbasket this week?...

~Have a lovely day!