Dear Winter... Go Away!

Truly I shouldn't complain. It's been a fairly mild winter here in the Midwest. Folks around us were riding well into December this year. I say 'folks' because I, alas, couldn't get my schedule coordinated enough to ride past mid-November. Between the new house, friends, and family, I've been one busy little beaver. Still, I'm over it and I could do with a day that doesn't involve dressing in layers and checking the windchill before leaving home.

So, what's a girl to do during those cold months? Well, I don't know about the rest, but I tend to fill it with entertaining friends. This was the spread for the appetizers at a Pre-Christmas dinner party I hosted. The main course consisted of my homemade lobster-bacon macaroni & cheese. My goodness, I could have that once a week and be a happy, happy girl!

I've also been working on perfecting my cheesecake skills lately. My most recent one was a traditional New York Style cheesecake topped with a raspberry coulis and chocolate sauce garnish. I'm told I knocked it out of the ballpark on that one.

To offset all the entertaining, and heavy, winter food the mister and I have joined a new gym that's about 5 minutes from the new house. So far we both really like it. There's a good mix of ages and fitness levels so that no one feels out of place. In addition to the usual cardio and strength training workouts, we've been attending yoga classes a couple of days a week. Yoga is a great way to improve your flexibility and riding.

And that's how all my time has been spent for the past few months: house stuff, entertaining, and hitting the gym. I've been trying to keep myself as busy as possible so that I don't have time to slip back into the deep level of melancholy that hit me after losing Loki and Edward. I still miss my fluffy little guy more than words can convey, but I have to keep moving forward.