Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and as usual DH and I cooked our Christmas dinner and then went to the early candlelight service at church.

The cooking of the big meal on Christmas Eve is a tradition that was started many years ago by his Mom (everyone called her Maw) and Dad. All the family gathered at their house for the holiday. The big meal was on Christmas Eve in the late afternoon and then to the candlelight service at church. Then on Christmas day she could sit and be a part of all the gift time without having to stop and go cook. Maw always made plum pudding which was SO much work--all the cutting up of stuff and then the cooking. She also made hard sauce for it and you talk about yummy..... Haven't had it since. She's been gone for 26 years and I still miss her. My parents have been gone almost 7 years. Miss them.

I gave little Zippy a bath this morning for Christmas and he's now all clean, fluffy and smells good.

It rained yet again today! The yard is mushy and we have a lot of standing water. Out in the back it looks like a lake.

And again the hawk.....

This morning Zippy and I had only been out a minute and were walking down the driveway (rake in hand like a servant following the Maharajah with a fan) when the hawk flew over our heads. He was a little higher this time (maybe 30 or 40 feet) and landed in the very top of a pine tree by the house and sat there screeching at us. We walked on and he was no longer visible to me , as my shift in direction caused the branches to block him from view, but I could still hear him for quite a while. That's why we could not see him the other day when he was in the trees across the driveway. In the dead trees he sticks out like a sore thumb, but the pine branches give him cover and he can just wait there. Most of the time he is not quiet, however I must ALWAYS be alert......

Digging up the yard, one thorn vine tuber.............

Yesterday was another digging day. I got Zippy to pose for a size comparison and also put the shovel in the back. This was all attached as one giant mass with multiple vines sprouting from various places. It broke into pieces as we pried and pulled it out. It took a shovel, a pickaxe, a long, heavy metal pinch bar and the wench on the quad to get it all out! With the thorn vines, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, honeysuckle, and wisteria--clearly, it's a jungle out there. Thank goodness we don't have kudzu!!!