As Bella predicted, I am now going to bore you with the flip side of the photos that I took on our walk this weekend: not dogs!

The sun is so low in the sky this time of year. It helped to enhance the already somewhat creepy mood that hangs over Jungle Habitat where exotic animals used to roam.

With all our rain and moderate temperatures fungi still flourish. These were still soft and pliable, so they were new.

The moss likes the moisture too.

We have many kinds of parasitic vines here. They wrap around trees and take them prisoner. I find them eerie.

We might not have snow but at least for the past few days we’ve had colder temps that allow some frost.

And some ice to form in leaf-filled shallow puddles.

The week in-between Christmas and New Year’s is always an odd one. Rick used to get the whole week off back when he worked for HP/Agilent but it was mostly because they were trying to be cheap and it was without pay. I always loved having him home, watching movies and playing video games that we’d gotten for Christmas. This week he is working but shorter days.

This week also, without fail, includes my birthday which was yesterday. Having a birthday at this time of year is not always easy or fun. Everything comes at once. But, after all these years I am used to it. I never get stinted for gifts on my birthday. My Mom made sure of that, and my dear husband is the same way. I got an iPad 2! I’ve had an iPad for about a year and a half now and just love it. I’ve been drooling over the “2” since they came out. It has features that the first one didn’t have. And just look at it’s super cute folding cover!

Also for my birthday my two neighbors pretty much kidnapped me and took me out to lunch. I didn’t even know where we were going! The restaurant was great and one I had never been to before. We sat and shared a glass of wine and all our food choices were excellent. On top of buying my lunch they also gave me gifts! What a treat! Part of my gift from neighbor Aileen was this sweet package of fresh eggs from her chickens. The blue-green ones are from her new araucana chickens that just started laying. Almost too pretty to eat!

It hardly seems possible that just one week ago I picked my sister and her hubby up at the train station. Time flies by, doesn’t it? We had a good Christmas. We ate and tried out some new and quite delicious recipes. We drank (but not too much). We played video games and my sister beat us all at bowling with a grand score of 195. We all enjoyed each other’s company.

Also in-between is our weather. Winter has yet to arrive in our part of the country. Just the other day we had nearly two inches of rain. Again. Enough with the rain! It hasn’t really been cold enough to freeze the ground either so everything comes up muddy. Today I think it’s supposed to struggle to get above freezing which will be a welcome change to our 40’s and 50’s. C’mon Mother Nature! I have a new coat that I’m dying to wear and it needs to be cold!

By the way, remember this fox? Neighbor Kim pointed out to me yesterday at lunch that she thinks it was not in fact a fox but a coyote. She said there was an article in the paper about how many coyotes were around now and how to identify them. The more I thought about it and the more I looked at the photos again, I realized she was right. It just might be a coyote. I’m just not used to seeing them around here although we did have one a a few years ago. To see it, follow this link.  Tell me what you think!

Anyway, no real news to impart here, just wanted to catch up.

Our sky this morning.

Presents wrapped? Check.
House clean? Check.
Grocery shopping completed? Almost: picking up prime rib today.
Company arrived? On the way!
Snow falling softly outside? Nope.

Really, if you look back at my posts this time of year they all say the same thing. Rain instead of snow. Temperatures in the 40’s. No snow. Bah Humbug. Etc. Every year it’s the same old song, and this year is no different. It can snow back in Colorado, it can snow in Las Cruces, NM where my in-laws live, and it can even snow in Texas. But New Jersey? Nope. Isn’t snow supposed to fall in the North and not the South?

We’ve had about an inch of rain over the past three days. As if we needed anymore of that! The ground is already so saturated that you sink into our yard when you walk on it. Mud is rampant and brought in on the bottom of dogs’ paws. On my freshly scrubbed floor.

But enough of our un-wished for weather! Be gone I say! On with Christmas!

As I type my sister and her hubby are trundling on a train towards us. They will arrive this afternoon and we will pick them up at the local train station after they make their connection at Penn Station in New York City. It will be nice to have them here for the holiday.  We have plenty of good meals planned for their stay and a visit to the Oakland Diner (better known as the O.D.) so her hubby can see the diner where they filmed Danielle always eating in The Real Housewives of New Jersey. (They even have a salad named after her.)

So, I’ll be busy for the next few days with company. If I don’t post anything beforehand or during their stay, have a safe and happy holiday wherever you are, no matter what weather you have!

Puddled reflections from last night’s rain:

My sister pointed out to me that she was still waiting to see the blog post where Alex picked our tree.

Last Saturday we drove to Wintergreen Christmas Tree Farm near Lafayette, New Jersey to cut our tree. I’m glad I had printed out the directions since it was like following a trail of bread crumbs to get there. It was a beautiful drive through countryside we had never been to before.

We parked and walked up to the barn to get a saw and a tree cart. How nice of them to provide nice, sharp hand saws and a cart to collect your tree with! They sold about four different kinds of trees, but we had driven by the kind we wanted: Fraser firs. Of course they were the furtherest ones away from the parking area!

Row upon row of nearly perfect trees! Which one to choose? I wanted to just close my eyes, spin around and point to one but I am sort of a perfectionist when it comes to trees. We were looking for one that wasn’t too big around at the bottom since we don’t have much space for it to fit into between the fireplace and the entertainment center.

Here I am, saw in hand taking a look around.

And then Alex said, “Dad, let’s take this one!”

Although I joked with the man at the barn about bringing my dog along to find the right tree and “mark” it, he kept his leg on the ground! Lots of other people who were coming in after us had also brought their dogs with them.

Trees were being tied to tops of cars at a fast pace.

By the time we left it was getting very crowded and people were having to wait for other people to bring back tree carts. We got there just at the right time I think.

The tree fits perfectly into its spot in the corner and it’s a very pretty tree. All in all, a nice way to spend the better part of a day.

On Wednesday Rick took some time off work and we drove in to the city a little earlier than our dinner reservation to view the tree in Rockefeller Plaza.

A few months back I had purchased vouchers on Rue NYC to the restaurant Butter. (Rue La La is an online discounted designer site. They recently added Rue NYC and about four times per week or so I get discounted offers to restaurants, spas, etc. in New York City.)
The executive chef at Butter is one that Rick and I both are acquainted with from both our private screening of Chopped being filmed, and from watching the Food Network: Alex Guarnaschelli.

The vouchers were for a prix-fixe three course menu with wine pairings:

Cured Wild Salmon, Meyer Lemon Confit, Red Thumb Potatoes and Caviar :
Foxglove Chardonnay, 2010

Dark Chocolate Cake, Creme Fraiche Ice Cream and Spiced Almond Brittle : Eilo Perrone Moscato D’Asti

I was so excited to tell you about the food that I am getting ahead of myself! First on to what we did before we ate.

We drove in to the city, leaving our house at around 2:30 p.m. The traffic was heavy and we finally arrived at the parking garage across the street from Butter at close to 4:00 p.m. We found the Subway and got on the B train uptown to Rockefeller Center, a ride of about 15 minutes. We walked out from all the subterranean shopping right next to the tree.

To us it looked smaller than the previous time we’ve seen it. It was very crowded in the plaza! Here are some scenes.

The ice skating rink (which had a line a mile long waiting to skate). Sorry for the blurry skaters but it’s hard taking photos at night when people are in motion.

A toy soldier.

Angels you have heard on high and the Rockefeller building.

Everyone was watching the ticking down of this clock projected on this building.

No one seemed to know what was going to happen. When time ran out a little movie began to play on the side of the building with bubbles floating up to pop against snowflakes. Okay, it was fun to watch but what was the point? We soon found out.

That building happened to be Saks Fifth Avenue and the little movie tied in with their window displays. A very odd little story played out window by window about different people and methods of making bubbles. The bubbles once made were routed up and out to the side of the building and let loose. Here are a few of the windows.

Not your normal Christmas fare! If we hadn’t walked over to look at the window displays the little movie would never had made any sense, or for that matter, the window displays would not have made sense either!

We then found our way back to our restaurant and arrived ahead of schedule. They were able to seat us anyway. The seating was intimate and by that I don’t mean we were off in a corner by ourselves. Other than the larger parties seated at booths around the sides of the dining room, most two person tables were placed within a few inches of each other. This led to interesting conversations with the people seated around us and also for delicate eavesdropping and observations.

The people across the way were doing a full tasting menu and were collecting glasses of wine quicker than they could drink them. There table was nothing but wine glasses! When their third course arrived and it was foie gras, I oohed and ahhhed. One man offered to trade me his foie gras for my steak. Who ever said New Yorkers were snobs?

The meal was delicious. Before our first course they brought out another course “compliments of the chef” that was a cream of butternut squash soup with a tiny bowl of popcorn on the side. I put some in as croutons, but the popcorn was better eaten on the side. It added a nice saltiness to the cream of the soup. Rick and I both decided to have the steak and I think we made a good choice. The steak was so huge I had to bring most of mine home. It was on a bed of braised baby carrots and what we think was bok choy. The steak had an almost-but-not-quite-burnt crust on it—delicious!! A glass of wine with each coarse was perfect and they matched the food well.

I asked our waiter if Chef Guarnaschelli was in the house and he said she was not. I wanted to know if the food we were eating had been overseen by her, but such was not the case that night. Probably off filming more Food Network segments!

We were home by 10:00 p.m. after a very enjoyable evening. Lucky girl, aren’t I to live so close to NYC?

I have more exciting events coming up that I can’t wait to share with you (one that requires me to go shopping for a “gown” for a black tie event in Beverly Hills!!) but that will have to wait until another day. Stay tuned ...