Well it’s finally here … the end of a horrendous year … Bye, Bye, 2020!! Hopefully 2021 will be much better … and that the vaccines work … and that we can get back to a lifestyle that’s almost normal … and safer 
. We had a white Christmas last week – literally – a foot of snow fell overnight and kept falling for the next two days … I had to blow out the driveway with the snowblower both days 
Doug the Dog enjoyed it though, he was running around like a demon possessed!! We had our normal Christmas dinner – Steak, Shrimp, Scallops, Asparagus, and Baked Potatoes … excellent!! … And tonight we are using the leftover shrimp and scallops along with … you guessed it … BBQ’d Steak. I find that with the lockdown you really have to plan your meals ahead of time and use left overs creatively so that there is little / or no spoilage of goods. Last Saturday we had our leftover Albondigas Soup and had Montreal Smoked Meat (I had made a few pounds of it last summer) and Provolone Cheese Sub Sandwiches to go along with it. On Sunday I broke out my Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker – I love the smell of mixed woods burning - and smoked up 5 pounds of beef and 3 pounds of pork. I use my own BBQ Rub for smoking. Out of that we had: On Sunday Sliced Smoke Pork with Garlic Mashed Potatoes (from scratch) and Mushroom Gravy (from scratch) ; Monday – Steak (left over from Xmas) Salad; Tuesday – Smoked Beef Enchiladas (from scratch) with Refried Beans (from scratch); Wednesday – Smoked Pork and Lima Bean Casserole (from scratch - I replaced the ground pork with smoked pulled pork); and Thursday (today) – Smoked Beef Chili (from scratch) to simmer and have on the weekend. Tomorrow I’ll be making a Quebec Tourtiere (from scratch) – it’s kind of a New Years tradition And Sunday, who knows … I haven’t planned that far ahead Over the next couple of days I hope to add more recipes to the site – simple meals (like the ones we had last week) that don’t take a long time to make … and also don’t take a lot of resources . I will also have to get my New Year’s resolutions going too … but not until the 4th of January … it takes a couple of days to ease into them I finished watching all three seasons of ‘Babylon Berlin’ – the first two seasons were about a missing train of gold – the third about mysterious murders on a film set, and ending with the stock market crash of ’29. There was also a lot more Nazism involvement - Season 4 will arrive on Netflix next spring and hopefully there will be many more seasons, it is such a great snapshot in time of the way Berlin was back then. I started another series on Netflix – ‘All For Love’, a Columbian 63 episodes telenovela – but I love watching telenovelas (there, my secret is out) and the main actress is the same one from ‘La Nina’!! Okay, telenovelas are silly, don’t have much of a plot, and have large holes in the script – but they are fun to watch, this one has lots of music and dancing as well, and everyone should have a guilty pleasure – this is mine!! Kelly and I watched more Christmas Movies on Netflix – some had pretty weak scripts, but hey, it’s Christmas!! . Season 2 of Monarca starts January 1 and both Kelly and I enjoyed Season 1 – so we both can practice our Spanish. All I have to say about NFL games is - My ‘Hawks held on to beat the L.A. Rams and clinched the NFC West!! . There is a very slim chance that they could get the bye (both the Saints and the Packers would have to lose and the ‘Hawks win) but hey, either way they get their first game at home!! I just saw a new update … volcanic eruptions and activity in St. Vincent and the Grenadines … people are being evacuated, hopefully everyone will be safe. Kelly and I were there a year ago and enjoyed our time there. Have a great and safe New Year … Happy Holidays … we will see you in a bit!!