snowflurries & smoked turkey soup

It's amazing how much you can fit into a weekend, good and bad, happy and sad.  Two short days sometimes hold so little or so very much.  From the loss of two patients; mourning with the couple whose young puppy went through terrible suffering and also feeling the sudden loss of a wonderful dog whose owners would without a doubt go to any lengths to care for him.  The weekend was full of sad.  There were harsh words between loved ones and tender moments of a new family.  This was a very much weekend for me.  Too often Sunday night rolls around and I feel as if it flew by but contained little.  This weekend held good and happy, bad along with sad.

There were good times too!  We had our clinic dinner party at a local steakhouse.  Gifts were exchanged and toasts were made.  The trivial and petty strife that too often creeps into a group of people who work together were forgotten and all was well.  It was a full and exhausting Saturday.

Sunday morning brought a bit of a surprise.  I awoke to check the baby monitor and found it blank.  The sound monitor was silent and the electricity was gone.  A new mother flew out of bed into the nursery to find her little boy sound asleep.  There were no blankets pulled over his head, he was not squeezed against the bumper and he was not wailing about an empty belly.

We migrated across the house to the guest room within hearing distance of the nursery and cuddled up with our terrier under three layers of blankets in a tiny double four-post bed (compared to our regular king sized one).  Finally, we slept in- baby and all.  I awoke around 8 or so to turn on the fireplace and venture outside to feed the horse.  Low and behold- it was snowing!

Now you can blame it on the fact that I am half kraut from Wisconsin or possibly because we went snow skiing out west every year until I was about ten, but I don't really consider it snow unless it sticks and is deep enough that your footprints don't reveal grass poking through the white blanket.  I didn't take pictures to post although the flurries continued throughout the day!  Although it wasn't a real snow there is definitely something very peaceful about seeing a gentle powdering through the window, especially when there is no noisy television or glaring lights on inside.   Soft, quiet and absolutely beautiful.  The perfect way to begin a day!

The next great thing about my day- dinner.  A simple, delicious soup conveniently made from left over frozen Thanksgiving smoked turkey.  Each Thanksgiving and Christmas my daddy sends his loved ones DELICIOUS Greenberg Smoked Turkeys which are great cold or warm and also make the best sandwiches around!  Thanks Dad!


Smoked turkey & barley soup



And so with our bellies full and our minds at peace...my little family heads to bed.  And again, all is well.

The last thing to add is a little Christmas tradition my mother started.  On Christmas Eve after church, we got to open one specific gift early...an ornament.  Mine were teddy bears (my sister received mice, my brothers, Santas and birds).  So needless to say...I now have a tree full of adorable little bears!  I'll add a picture of one in each post from now until Christmas!

Here is one of the first:

My beloved ornament collection begins!