Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year, that is. It is the year of the rabbit...thus tonight's picture. This is one of the bunnies that I took lots of pictures of while I was staying at the Safra House in Bethesda, MD while Woody went through his three-week TIL protocol this past summer.

Woody and I both got up super early...make that "souper" early! I woke up about the same time that Woody did and I decided rather than going back to sleep I would get up and make the soup that I hadn't found time to make this week. I wasn't really enthusiastic about trying this recipe so I hadn't pushed at getting it made...but the cupboards were bare and it was time to make something! So at 4:30 I started preparing broccoli and the rest of the ingredients to make Broccoli and Almond Soup with Sesame. It's pretty good...but I just don't consider it a "main dish" soup...seems more like a "first course" soup. It is a pureed soup...though I did keep some of the broccoli florets out and steamed them and then added them to the pureed ingredients. It does have a very good flavor due to toasted almonds, toasted sesame seeds and sesame oil. I just like a soup that has more to chew in it! Woody followed behind and kept the dishes washed up. After soup preparations, I flopped on the bed to read and rest...but the rest turned into a nap...guess I finished out my night's sleep!

After lunch Woody walked to the Post Office to mail a couple of cards. After he got back he has taken it easy. He even admits to having taken a nap this evening after supper. This afternoon Graham and Abigail came over to help me clean up the toy closet for the three little ones who will be staying with us next week. It had gotten pretty jumbled and I thought that it would be nice for them to start out their two week stay with a clean and easy to get into toy closet. Graham and Abigail "raked" out all the toys that had accumulated on the floor and then Abigail and I vacuumed the floor. Then I crawled into the closet (it is a closet under our stairs) and I straightened up the shelves and put the things up on the top shelf that Elijah doesn't need to play with and then they handed me the plunder that they had raked out and I put it back so there is once again a path (for a child) to walk along the length of the closet. A good job done and I really appreciated Graham and Abigail's help. Woody has worked some crossword puzzles today and watched a bit of TV. We have started planning menus and gotten the list started for groceries to feed three little mouths and ours for the coming week. When Woody went over to Nathan and Kathy's this afternoon, he escaped with Elijah. Elijah enjoyed part of a cookie and having EIEIO read to him by his Goosey (Woody). Then Elijah played for a while with some of the toys (prior to the cleaning of the toy closet). He's not usually over here all by himself so he enjoyed his own time here. He and I played with the tea party upstairs for a while. He loves to pull the dolls out of their chairs so he can sit in the chairs! Such a cute age! Once when he was climbing up in Goosey's lap to be read to again, he said this long sentence...not sure what he said...but he definitely knew what he was talking about! I am reading another one of those thriller mysteries...but only have 100 pages till I am finished...hope to finish it in a timely manner so I can get a whole night's sleep tonight!