Kittens From The Dark Side: December 2020

I hope your Christmas was SAFE and cozy and full of love and laughter

(even if it was in virtual form!)

Most of our snuggles have come from our fuzzy family members!

The Baby keeps doing Very Cute Things.

We got a visitor, flat Stanley, who came from our niece, Cora. We have been doing fun things to make his stay with us memorable.

I made some new things for our Christmas feast.

First, I made cookies. I made chocolate crinkle cookies and Spritz.

Stanley had never made Spritz before. He enjoyed it.

Sometimes the cookie press doesn't turn out the perfect cookies . . .

"What is this weird cookie?!"

This one turned out like some sort of octopus.

But most of them turned out delicious and beautiful!

We made wreaths and trees.

Plus the octopus:

We went out to see the conjugation of the planets . . .

and we watched the original Grinch! I adore it when he gets a grinchy smirk and his top hairs curl and his sneaky smile keeps getting bigger and bigger!

I started out Christmas Day with a big smoothie. It was delicious.

When it was lunch time, Greg tested out a vegan version of his favorite holiday sandwich alongside the regular version. The vegan corned beef was sadly terrible.

I made pizza for myself for lunch. Partially because I love pizza and partially because I was going to try a new recipe for dinner and I wanted to have a back-up meal in case the new recipe didn't work.

Roasted red bell pepper, mushroom, onion, and green olive pizza:

My new recipe was a vegan lasagna! Rather than using processed "cheese" or a cashew-based cheese, this recipe uses a bechamel (white) sauce made from (almond) milk and (gluten-free) flour. It looked cheesy, had a good smooth texture, and tasted good, so that's a win!

It had a filling chock full of spinach, mushrooms, onions, and carrots. Yum!

I made Greg veggie chalupas for dinner (another family Christmas tradition). I think this was the best batch of them I've made. He said they were tasty. In case you don't know, Tex Mex chalupas are typically a bean and shredded meat mixture on top of corn chips with veggies and sauce piled on top. Greg didn't want a bunch of veggies (usually peppers, onion, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.), but he does have green olives on there!

In between all the eating, we opened some gifts! Claude helped us out, but the Mini and Stephen were nervous about all the boxes and noises, and Allistair was too sleepy to be involved (he's having a bit of stomach trouble at the moment, though he seems to be bouncing back now).

Greg wore his Christmas sweater that makes it look as if he has a big bushy beard!

Thank you to everyone who generously gave us gifts to celebrate this beautiful holiday of God coming to be WITH US.

After that, we went to look at lights and deliver some gifts to good friends.

Sleep tight and well tonight, my friend.

MERRY CHRSTMAS from the desert!

At the end of each year, I summarize our year.
Somehow, this year has passed, and here I am to share what we have been doing.

Before the pandemic, my parents were once again in Arizona for the winter months. We enjoy having them close by!

We enjoy dinners together . . .

plus a teensy bit of shopping:

This day it actually rained a bit, and it was right as the news was coming out that other countries were shutting down due to COVID. We wiped our carts, but we didn't have masks yet.

In January we had one fun event and one very sad loss.

The happy thing is that a new vehicle joined our family!
This is Clarabelle. She's a 2020 Nissan Kicks.

She's sparkly!

Just mere days later, we realized that our sweet happy girl Juvy was having trouble breathing. She went to Heaven on January 6. We haven't stopped missing her yet, but it's less sharp. Thank you for bringing us such happiness and love, Juvy!

Mark and & Jillian came in early March, before things got really weird.

Somehow at that time, we still didn't think it would get as bad as it did. While they were here, we had a wonderful time! We did a (challenging & rocky) hike and my parents came along!

A different day, we planted succulents together!

This is the box to go back to Minnesota with my parents.

Didn't they do great?!

Hopefully soon Greg and I will live closer so that we can spend more precious time with those precious people!

The weekend before things started closing down due to COVID, Greg and I took a ride on the Dolly Steamboat on Canyon Lake with my parents. I can't believe we've lived here for almost 25 years and we've never done that before! It was much prettier than I had expected.

We saw bighorn sheep along the rocky shore!

Then the world shut down.

Since then, we have been at home, like many other people. Thankfully, Greg still has a job and he has been able to work from home this entire time. We haven't been harmed by this pandemic as many families have been. I have actually enjoyed more staying-at-home time, though, as in introvert, the lack of ALONE time has challenged me a bit from time to time. That being said, I very much enjoy Greg being around more and the cats enjoy it, too! We have established some nice rituals. On Friday evenings, for example, we light candles, have pizza, and watch old Doctor Who episodes. We started at the very beginning of the show (way back in the 1960s!) and have been working our way through available episodes. It's fun to have that to look forward to each week!

I have found a pizza recipe I very much like that I've been using instead of ordering pizza.

I've tried a few more new recipes during the time at home . . .

this cashew cheese was a winner!

as were these chocolate chip cookie bars:

and these waffles (with vegan sausage patties for Greg):

Stuffed peppers have joined my weekly meal rotation:

But I think my favorite new recipe was garbanzo bean brownies!

Somehow they smell more delectable than any other brownies I've ever made, and they're delicious, too.

The past summer was the hottest on record (ew), and it seemed to last a very long time, so I went up into the mountains once a month to get away from the worst of it. Sedona is usually 10 degrees (F) cooler than the Valley (and it has Oak Creek, which is COLD!, and Flagstaff is usually 15-20 degrees cooler. I visited both more than once this past summer.

Flagstaff:

A (grumpy) horned toad:

Once Cindy and I went to Flagstaff together (she had been quarantining, too, over the summer):

We took a picnic.

Sedona:

My first visit to Sedona in 2020 was in January for VegFest!

I'd never been to a vegan conference before and it was great. Cindy and I had planned to go together, but she got a terrible flu the day we were supposed to leave and couldn't get out of bed. I was disappointed, but surprisingly I enjoyed the time anyway!

The floral arrangements contained veggies:

I got to hear Dr Doug Lisle, whom I very much respect.

And I got to meet my nutrition hero: Dr. Michael Greger!

(the photos were taken by a stranger and they were all blurry)

My friend Sara and her Mom came up to hear Dr. Greger, too.

I enjoyed the solo hikes:

This was the view from my hotel room!

Around the time of my birthday in October, Greg and I went to Sedona for a (brave) overnight. We did two beautiful hikes. It was still in the high 80s then, which is pretty hot in the direct sun, but it was wonderful to be out of the house for a little bit and to explore new territory. I had actually done both these hikes when I was in Sedona in January for VegFest, but I was glad to share them with my favorite guy.

Cindy and I went up to play in the creek and found a NEW place to enjoy it (our prior favorite was FULL - sometimes it's a bummer that so many people are constantly moving to Arizona!)

I did happen to fall in the water on this trip . . .

But we had a wonderful time!

Payson:

I found my new favorite place to go! I'm not going to tell you because I think it deserves to be kept a secret, but if you come visit, I will take you there. There are many waterfalls!

It was gorgeous in October, when the leaves were starting to turn.

And it was glorious in November, when parts of it were FROZEN and there were ICICLES!

Local adventures:

Greg and I hiked the Lost Dutchman State Park on my birthday in October.

The views are fantastic.

After we knew enough about COVID to take appropriate precautions and after the horrid hot weather started to cool down a bit (so at the end of October), Cindy and I started meeting to walk on Saturday mornings. We meet at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert

and walk through it to the canal. We can (and do!) walk miles along the canal. It's even sort of pretty in a dry desert way. These early-morning walks are even more special because they are the end of an era . . . Cindy is planning to move to Wyoming at the end of the school year, and Greg and I are thinking we won't be in Arizona forever, either.

Jen and I have been able to see each other a few times, too, in spite of the virus.

One time we met in downtown Mesa, where there was neat artwork!

Just this last week, we wandered the vintage mall near us:

In spite of all the photos of active pursuits, I have not fully recovered from my ankle injury (which took place in April of 2019). I've been going to Physical Therapy twice a week since April. We've seen LOTS of improvement.

Ready for electrical stim!

Ouch - the tool for scraping . . .

Cupping:

Notice a new face? That little orange cat joined us just before Thanksgiving! He was abandoned, flea-ridden, and starving when I found him while I was out on an early-morning run. Now he's healthy and loving and sweet. We would love to find a family for him (just in case we end up moving across the country), but I must say he fits in quite well and we love him.

Our older cats are happy, loving, and well.
They bring us joy and laughter and sweetness every day!

Claude:

The cats love online church!

This picture reminds me that we separated from our local home church in April and have been exploring other local options online in the meantime. It's been a good, healing, restorative time of NOT being in charge of stuff every single Sunday (and it's been great not to feel pressured to agree with theology I don't actually agree with just because I led a ministry). It's also been great to be part of a few different online groups via a church in Minnesota that I've been "attending" online for a good number of years (I attended there when I still lived in Minnesota). I have made some wonderful friends and I feel connected and satisfied with the social interaction I get, even though it's mostly online at the moment! I am in talks with a church about potentially joining their team to help develop special needs programming there . . . but things are still weird from COVID, so I won't be making any announcement soon. Keep checking this space, though!

More Claude: