Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics General Stuff Christmas Shopping, Gifts, Cards, Parties etc.

Just wondering what others do or think about the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Obviously our nation is very busy, how about you and your family?

I set up our tree and decorate the house on that Friday after Christmas. Mr. Scoutgal and sons put up the outside Christmas lights. I usually send out the Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice cards the first week of December. I shop(mostly online for Christmas presents throughout the year. We bake cookies/make candy during the last two weeks before Christmas. I also ship all Christmas.Hanukkah packages the first week of December.

We go to my husband's office Christmas party in mid-December, and I meet up with some old high school friends on the second weekend of December for dinner and conversation. My MIL and I go to my older son's condo in Balboa to watch the Parade of lights. And some evening during the holidays, Mr. Scoutgal and I tour our neighborhood to look at all the lights. When we are done, we go home to hot apple cider and snickerdoodles.

For the first time in many years I have chosen to put up a tree and a few decorations. I will celebrate Yuletide on December 21st and set the Yule log to burning. Then I'll bake until the Christmas Feast when I'll deliver cookies, cakes, pies, and loaves of bread to my friends and family. After that I'll come home and have some egg nog and whiskey.
My dog will get a nice steak for supper.

Arf, arf.

BTW Greger-do you feed your dog kibble or do you make your own dog food for your mutt? This is a serious question. And Christmas related I suppose-gifts and all-bear with me.

Hace seis meses I have inherited a dog from a niece of mine who is diabetic and can’t walk very well. So the dog won’t get walked/exercised unless I (we) have her here. Hell it’s me as I am the person who walks the dog….. If ya don’t know how to do-it I’ll show you how…….

I have not had a dog since I was 24 and vowed never to get one again as the pain of losing one is intense indeed. Been there. Meanwhile I have the bitch. She is a bitch indeed-and spayed after one litter. She is mostly American (not Canadian Nu) Staffordshire Terrier but there is something else going on.

Can you recommend a good home made food recipe for her? Aside from pure beef that is.

BARF in moderation is one solution. Seeking out commercial food which has meat as the first or maybe even the first two ingredients (my vet recommends pretty highly Purina One) and feeding that in conjunction with the BARF diet would probably be a good idea.

My vet says throwing my dog a whole small salmon once in a while would be a great, though damnably expensive, idea. He thinks highly of fish.

A few weeks ago I bought about ten pounds of turkey necks to make stock with, and the dog get the solids over several days.

I have a (sort of) cultural problem with feeding chicken carcasses, though, because when we were kids we all got yelled at that we were gonna kill the dog by throwing it a chicken bone. I need to ask my vet if that really is a problem.

Sometimes I cook for the beast. No time to write the recipe now but I'll get back to you. He eats everything I eat, He gets a good kibble, he gets bones; chicken, beef, pork, everything. I know a lady who fees nothing but raw chicken necks and wings.
I don't exactly walk my dog. I get in the Jeep and say "Let's go for a run" He takes off and I chase him. He can do about 35 mph in a sprint, we ride about a mile out to a little lake, he takes a swim, I take a leak, then we turn around and run home. He usually takes a dump along the way somewhere.
He wanders of chasing critters and sniffing trails and I blow the horn to call him if he gone for more than a few minutes.
Roscoe is a big, athletic, Black Lab. All muscle and not much brain, but a world of fun.

Greger, Roscoe is a handsome dude!

"I know a lady who fees nothing but raw chicken necks and wings."

Darn. Last time I was in the store looking raw wings were the most expensive chicken part. I assumed because buffalo wings are such a fad these days.

And SG is correct, he's a good-looking dog. But you can just about hear the BB brain rolling around in the tuna-can cranium when you're near one. Petey, who is probably half boxer and half lab (we judge that because he has a docked tail) is also a handsome dog, but when the whelpmaster was handing out brains he thought they said drains and decided to forgo the opportunity. But a wonderfully happy dog, just as you would expect for a boxer-lab cross.

Reminds me of the story of the guy whose boxer got hit by a car. He took the animal to the emergency vet office and was told that the dog was dead. Distraught, he asked for a second opinion.

In came a chocolate labrador, who took one sniff, howled, and backed out the room.

The owner said, "Are you both sure?"

So the vet brought in a cat, who sniffed the carcase and began making burying motions. At last convinced, the guy said, "OK, I'll take him home and bury him. How much do I owe you?"

The vet said, "That'll be $1,250."

"What? $1,250?"

"Yes," responded the vet, "my fee is only $75, but the lab fees and the cat scan really are expensive."

We oughta start a different thread for dogs, this one got a little of track.

I just squeezed a gallon of Blood Orange Juice and took the first Orange Tort out of the oven. The house smells wonderful.
My gifts are all wrapped but the tree is still not decorated. If I put it off long enough taking it down after Christmas will be easy.
I found the perfect log for Yule yesterday, about four feet long and almost a foot in diameter. A piece of an oak that was cut down in the summer. I'll probably have to burn it outside though, it's too warm here to burn it in the fireplace.