We had a fabulous Christmas. We got to spend it with family we hadn't seen in awhile and ate a ton of food. I didn't get a picture of everything but believe me we ate well. I did take a photo of the marshmallow pops Chris and I made. 
Yummy marshmallows dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with coconut, graham cracker crumbs, peanuts, crushed candy cane and candy sprinkles.
We had a blast opening gifts, Penelope scored big time and I made out pretty good as well. Santa brought Penelope the pink piano and little barn she asked for,
and not only did I get the food processor I have been wanting but check this out!
I finally got it! I must have been really good this last year.
Hope your Christmas was as much fun as ours was!
 |
| Penelope's first ever visit with Santa, she couldn't take her eyes off him. |
Christmas is only a week away, I am so excited! I love this time of year and it is even better this year because Penelope is actually old enough to understand what's going on. She can't wait for Santa to come and bring her presents. I have been trying to teach her different Christmas songs but so far the only one that she lets me sing all the way through is Frosty the Snowman, she loves it. I decided I would make her a little Frosty inspired bento today. I wrapped it in a Furoshiki, which is a Japanese cloth used to wrap items for transport such as gifts or other items. Here is the edible gift I made for her.
OK, so this was my first attempt at making a "snow man", don't laugh! I used an ice cream scoop to scoop out balls of rice from my rice cooker. Unfortunately I only had long grain rice and it didn't quite stick as well as short grain would have. The snowman is on top of ground beef seasoned with soy sauce, mirin and a small amount of ginger. I used an olive for the eyes and nose and a hat...LOL. Green peas for buttons and wait...wait...a fruit roll up scarf! (She pulled the scarf off and handed it to me...smart girl.) the other box contains star shaped jack cheese, star shaped apples and banana slices with a Christmas chocolate to end the meal. Thumpety thump thump, thumpety thump thump...
Today when I asked Penelope what she wanted for lunch she of course answered "macaroni and cheese". This and "cheesy roll up" are the usual answers I get when I ask her this question, so I don't ask her very often. She is almost always satisfied with what I give her anyway. Today I thought I would give her what she wanted with a little compromise. I added some tuna and peas to her macaroni and cheese along with some grape tomatoes. She loves tomatoes!
There is a large population of Bald Eagles in Homer, Alaska. One of the reasons is the abundance of salmon in the area another reason is a lady named Jean Keene. Jean Keene fed the wild Bald Eagles that visited every year between the months of December and April on the Homer Spit, between 200 to 300 Bald Eagles daily for several years! Since she worked at a seafood plant she had access to surplus fish to feed the birds. Jean Keene, the "Eagle Lady" died on January 13, 2009 and even though it is now illegal to feed the wild birds in the area you can still see many of these majestic birds soaring in the sky and often times perching on the tops of tall trees all over Homer. We drove out to our local dump today and their were about 8 to 10 large birds just hanging out. I tried get some good pictures but Chris felt kind of weird snapping shots at the dump. Here are a couple of photos I took of the birds on two different trees. They are awesome to look at. 
And on another note...I think I am being stalked by wild animals. First the bear, then the other night I was on my computer and I looked out the same exact window I saw the bear through and there was a round face looking back at me. AAAHHH! It looked like a large cat maybe a mountain lion? There have been several alleged sightings of them in the area. From what I have read a Lynx is more likely since they are native to Alaska. Either way it frightened me to see some wild critter trying to find a way out of the cold via our office window. I ran upstairs to let Chris know about the peeping tom but by the time he looked out the window it was gone. I think Chris is going to start thinking I am imagining these animal visits, really I am not!
