It's Christmas!

Only Janet could bitch her fool head off about how much work the last few Christmases have been to be depressed when it drops to a party of four!  It was really quiet....way, way too quiet.  She also says that making Christmas dinner for four may as well be eight as the work load is not at all diminished.

Prime rib, Emeril's Twice Baked Potatoes (with bacon!) and Brussel Sprouts that were sauteed with onions and.....bacon!  It was kind of a bacon themed holiday gathering! 

Bronwyn made the Brussel Sprouts and her bacon to sprouts ratio may be higher than most people!

Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert!

Real English Clotted Cream!  Yum!  Phil takes all credit for Janet knowing how to make this pudding.  Basically, he takes all credit for anything Janet knows how to make, short of toast!  Good to know she can hold onto this tiny "crumb" of pride!

Phil helped out!  He actually did!

 Janet bought a sign from Oak Bay Heritage Foundation for our house.  It was Phil's Christmas gift.  The sign cost $125 and is made of heavy metal.  Janet thinks the price is a major rip off as she was convinced she would win one at the Summer Night Market on Oak Bay Ave.

Cool the way the stitching on the bed top looks like a hanger for the plaque!

For what I'm pretty sure is the first time ever, I got to go on the people's bed.  I'm a major shorty bum, so I had to be lifted up.  And, lifted off lest I hurt myself.  Look how super happy I am!

Mikey loves to lavish attention on us doggies.

Janet says "full disclosure...Bronwyn took this out of focus photo!"

We had our traditional Christmas Calendar Cluster F**K.  All members of our family so enjoy this annual festive activity!  The really clever ones get the Hell out of Dodge and find an alternative gig.

Mike and Bronwyn packed up and left.  Mikey is doing his best to make Phil look really tall.

Can't imagine what possessed Noodles to play with a ball as she is not so slowly going crazy.  I'm kind of thinking she has forgotten she's not a puppy anymore.

Even if Noodle's face isn't in focus, her bum is!

Phil asked Janet if he could take some baking down to Jack and Gwen's house.  She packed up a nice plate.

Phil left it on the front step for them.  Guess what - the crows ate it all!  Every last piece!

This is all that was left!  Dumbass!

Just like that!  It's all over!  Remembrances of another Christmas past!

Here I am, upstairs with Janet.  No wonders Rockers so loved his sectional!

Janet Is A Lazy Ass Blogger!

A week and four days before Janet gets around to chatting about our rich and fruitful lives.  Shocking!

They had a party!  You are probably thinking you will be bored stiff scanning through the plethora of photos, but trust us; you will not be.

About 25 neighbours and friends came to the party.   It was very last minute, so they were happy so many could come.   We have zero evidence of the attendees as there are no photographs.

 Some dumplings...there was also a fair bit of other food, which like the guests was not photographed! 

Some of Janet's Christmas baking:

Janet is as anal as can be so we fail to understand how she can stand the cookies not in perfect rows.  Don't even mention the squares.  Perhaps a guest, not photographed, juggled the plates after Janet set them down.

The aftermath:

Janet loves this Christmas decoration!

You may not be able to read the sign, but it says Santa was sleighing and texting at the same time.

Janet sent some baking to Squamish for Meg and Derek.  The delivery service, Phil's friend Dave, required a "tithe" on his way to Whistler to drop it off a Meg's office.  Janet cranked up the oven and knuckled down to do more baking.  She was super glad Dave and his family could take the baking as it would have taken several days in the post.

When Meg found out Janet was sending the baking, she asked if Janet could send some pie pastry as well so she could make toutiere.  Janet was feeling bad for Meg as she has to work all Christmas holiday so included these in with the baking.

Tortiere and a Pasta bake.  The original sign said "coming to a location near you real soon!"

A yearly Christmas tradition - Sushi Lunch!

Heidi and Jeremy.

Almost done.

 Previous to Sushi lunch, Janet pressed Bronwyn into some Humanitarian Action at Our Place.  Bronwyns' job was to serve up the pizza portion of the lunch - by far and away the most popular component of lunch.

Someone played a joke behind the head of Paolo, who was taking the photo, which made Janet laugh hard.  Based on this photo alone, she has now decided to never laugh in public again.  Bad, bad photo, Janet!

Bronwyn spends some quality time with the doggies and her brother.

Another annual Christmas tradition....wait for it....."Love Actually!"

And this, folks, is Janet and Phil next Christmas!

London....hell or high water!

Good night everyone and Merry Christmas to everyone and their kitties and doggies!

It's My Party And I'll Bark If I Want Too!

Noodles turns 14!  That's the equivalent of 88 human years!  Four years younger than our Grandma!  In some ways, our Grandma and Grandpa have had a harder go of it - someone always cooks for us and makes our bed for us and ensures we get lots of exercise and we never had to go to work to make the wheels go 'round.

 Noodles was kind of like greased lightning when Janet wanted to take her birthday photo.  Janet forced Phil to make the stupid ritual birthday cap that Janet thrives on and then put it on Noodles who couldn't shake it fast enough.

Noodles back end is really weak, but aside from that, she is in pretty good health.

We have a small mat in the kitchen now to enable Noodies to eat.  Her back legs splay out from underneath her on the slippery floor whilst she dines.

But never mind...look at how beautiful we are!  We had to go to the Doggie Beauty Parlour yesterday.  Janet said Noodles would never need to return as she took us last time and couldn't stand how upset Noodles was.    We were as dirty as could be, so she made Phil take us.  I gave Phil my "you can't be serious face" when he left, but he didn't look backwards.  Traitor!

Really pretty, right?

We had yet another huge windstorm.  This is about three in the space of a week.  Phil was out during the day and for the first time, Janet was actually nervous about how high the wind was.

This is BEFORE the winds got really high.  Janet went for a big walk whilst we were at the doggie torture chamber spa and she said she had to fight to walk straight.

This is the house directly across the street from our house.

Guess what?  The Christmas Janet said she wasn't throwing is actually back on her plate.  She swears up and down, come Hell of High Water, next year at Christmas she is in London.

First order of the day for next Christmas would be finding a venue that doesn't charge 80GBP/person for Christmas dinner.  That's $160 Canadian dollars!  The amount in GBP appears to be pretty common almost everywhere they were last month.

This ornament is Mr. Baby's hand prints when he was actually a Mr. Baby.  Look how Yaya's super gigantic hand measures up by comparison!

Do you think Yaya should investigate hand lift surgery?  Is there such a thing?

At Phil's badgering request, Janet made home made hot rum mix.  She said it smelled delicious.

This is a small reminder of the super expensive pre-made food store in the U.K.  It was Tourtiere at Janet and Phil's favourite butcher shop.

Ouch!

And, the Mr No Longer A Baby hits just keep on comin'!   Look what Janet found today in the cupboard where she keeps baking dishes....a bag of Annie's Bunnies!  It has been several weeks since Finley was here, but he is sweet enough to leave little momentos for his Yaya.

Wonder if his Mama wondered where the Annies Bunnies were?

Phil Goes On Vacation Without Janet!

Shocking!  Phil went to Lethbridge and didn't invite Janet to go along.  She was somewhat crushed, but didn't let on.  Bottom line - Janet is such a trooper and team player it's scary!

He left late Thursday night and came home late Sunday night.  That meant Janet had three nights of a stay at home vacation on her own.  She was sad, but again, we reiterate- Team. Player.

Around 7PM on Saturday night, Janet is sitting in the kitchen watching TV and all of a sudden, the lights are gone.  Janet reads alot of crime books and loves TV crime shows, so obviously her first thought was that someone had cut the wires to our house!  It was somewhat reassuring, albeit spooky, to look outside and see the entire block in complete darkness.

House by flashlight!  Our Aunt T called quite by chance so was able entertain Janet in the pitch black for well over an hour.  Bronwyn also called to be an entertainment committee.

This is the kind of gourmet food people that live by themselves eat:

Egg Salad Sandwiches - three times in three days.  This one wouldn't have been toasted if the power hadn't come on around 9PM.

On Sunday, before Phil arrived home, we trooped over to the Oak Bay Avenue Christmas Light Up.  We patiently waited outside whilst Janet went into the grocery store to get some dinner goods.

And then we hit the Ave.!  Janet said it was a huge mistake to bring us.  The street was so crowded it was nearly impossible to move.  Plus, bonus!  We doggies discovered that little tykes drop their food all over the street!  Janet had a really hard time controlling us.

Next up - the Truck Parade!  Janet's favourite Christmas event.

80 trucks in total.  Fantastic!

One out of three photos in focus...not too bad!

The day of the Truck Parade, we had a super big wind storm with rain.

Check out my ears!

Tons of logs on the beach and smashed up sail boats outside GNS.

Phil and Janet have quit counting, but I'm pretty sure I'm nearly up to 60 baseballs now.  I found this one just the other day and it was left with me for too long.  I knuckled down and and started to chew off the leather cover.

Crazy Sewing Lady made another quilt top.  She really likes this pattern and says it goes together quite quickly.  She also made another exactly the same but with blue fabrics.  Now, off to buy some inner and outer borders, binding and backing.  Phil wants to give the red one to a client.

Last weekend, Janet sunk to new lows.  She needed to return the library books they took out for Mr. Finley and she was too lazy to get dressed.  It was only about 8:30AM on a rainy Saturday.  Phil was going to make her a Weekend B52 coffee, but she didn't want to drive after having one.  Phil could barely believe she would go in the car in her "jammies" and Bog boots.  He asked her if anyone had seen her and she lied and said no!

Could be work out wear, right?  Kind of?

Janet took this photo and we have absolutely no clue why.