December 2022 Happenings

We had so much fun in December!

-We went on a cozy winter escape to a yurt! Read about it by clicking here.

-We had our first ‘country date’ to Italy and it was SO MUCH FUN! Read about it by clicking here.

-We celebrate the New Year Chinese style (our second ‘country date’). Read about it by clicking here.

 
New Kitchen Equipment for Chef!
I got a fancy new stove with a wok ring, and Jac got a big wok to go with it.  So, with all these new tools of his trade, Jac cooked a delicious Chinese meal:

Look at all those full of fresh veggies! I love it! This is surely just the first of many healthy, wok-fried meals.

 

Grizzlies Hockey Game
One
Saturday night, we ventured out in the FREEZING cold to see SLC’s
professional hockey team, the Grizzlies, beat Kansas City. 

 

Jac got nuggets & fries and nachos. Average stadium fare.  No Jac creation, but decent.

It
just so happened to be their annual Teddy Bear Toss, where attendees
throw teddy bears/stuffed animals onto the ice after the Grizzlies score
their first goal, and all teddy bears/stuffed animals then get donated
to local charities to distribute to children in need.  It was perfect for our annual Christmas giving tradition.  So, we stocked up
ahead of time…

…and within minutes of arriving, we got to chuck all these little guys on their journey off to their new homes.

It was a fun night. We probably won’t go back for another game, but still fun.

Goodbye Maxy!
Just before Christmas, we had to say goodbye to little Maxy.  It was tragic! I have had Max for 14 years….14 great years with this loyal, scared by a softie, anxiety-ridden but also super snuggly cat.  He will be SO missed. 

 

I took him in for what was supposed to be just a
wellness check, since he’d lost some weight recently and wasn’t eating
as much.  Turns out, he has the same infection that killed Buddy!  His
body kills his own blood cells, and there’s no cure.  The vet said he
likely wouldn’t even make it through the weekend, so there really wasn’t
much of a choice.  So so sad.  Jac was nearby at myhouse, so he came to be
with me at the vet when it was time to say goodbye.  🙁  

It’s always too soon to say goodbye!  Thank you Maxy.  You were loved!!!  

 Moving on to happier parts of the month… 

Tell Me About Jac…
For awhile, there was a trend on social media for people to say “Tell me ____ without telling me ____.”  And then someone posts a picture that tells it all with no words.  For example, if the challenge was “Tell me you’re a Utahn without telling me you’re a Utahn,” a person could show themselves with a Swig cup.

Here’s my version of “Tell me about Jac without telling me about Jac.”

I love this picture. 🙂 
I took it one morning after spending the night at
his house. I had the day off so I slept in, but he had to get up and go
to work on a snowy morning at his usual cold, dark 6am. And still….this is what I found when I finally rolled out of bed to go home. What a thoughtful
man he is! 

Christmas Time!
December is, of course, the month for Christmas!  We got in the spirit and merged our decorations to turn my house into our own cozy little Christmas cottage. 🙂

(Oops, ignore that white wall. Still haven’t gotten around to painting it back to blue.)

 

Here’s our little Christmas tree (and look…Maxy is laying in the basket in front of it.)

I discovered (aka became obsessed with) turning on my “fireplace”:

Christmas Gift Assembly Line: For Christmas this year, we teamed up and put together a bunch of crockpot dinners to give as gifts to Jac’s kids and my family.  Here we are assembling the meals:

And here’s the final product.  Hope they like it!

Christmas Eve: Just like last year, we spent Christmas Eve with my family (this time at my parents’ house).

 

…crab cakes with dipping sauce, and cranberry goat cheese purses.

 

He also made a beautiful crown rack of pork with stuffing and cranberry relish, but I forgot to take a picture of that. 🙂

And…just like last time, we played “the money game” and McClain won.  Again!  

It was a fun night.  Boisterous as always, but fun!

Christmas Day: And we had a fantastic Christmas day at home, just the two of us. After a yummy breakfast, we opened our presents:

and hung the first annual ornament on the tree. We plan to collect one ornament each year while we are out on one of our adventures, but since we just thought of doing this, we didn’t get one for this year…so I made us this cheesy little one.

Kitty loved all the focused time with him!

We capped off the day with a sparkly Christmas dinner, just the two of us.  It was a fantastic holiday together.