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Daisy thinks every year is the year of the dog, and she’s probably right.  Still, there was an extra spring in her step this weekend.

We celebrated the Chinese new year with a dumpling feast, taking full advantage of Sarah’s (and Jen’s) Montessori-derived fine motor skills.

We also had a turnip cake, courtesy of Sue Meng’s mother.  It came out much better than our prior efforts.

Here is Que (pronounced queue, or perhaps Q), a curmudgeonly quarter horse Sarah has been riding lately.  Sarah says he’s nice when being ridden but mean otherwise.

While Jen was in Boston, Sarah and I had a quiet weekend at the farm with Daisy, making soup and waiting for something to walk out of the pond (respectively).

Somehow, improbably, Sarah turned 14 on Saturday.  She celebrated with dinner at Aroi (Rhinebeck’s Thai restaurant) with the Lawson twins, followed by a movie and a sleepover.  Jen made a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for the occasion.

Earlier on Saturday, Daisy and Ringo surmounted Burger Hill and mauled each other.

Here is Jen’s beautiful picture of a sliver of moon above a lovely Saturday evening sunset.

I remained inside, stymied trying to make turnip cakes, a dim sum treat Sarah has enjoyed at the Nom Wah Tea Parlor on Doyers Street in New York.  Sadly, despite having assembled a long list of ingredients (including dried black mushrooms, Chinese sausage, daikon, and dried shrimp), I could not get the cake to cohere enough for slicing (the cake is first steamed, then sliced for frying).  We ordered a pizza.

We spent an extremely chilly weekend at the farm.  I devoted most of Saturday morning to digging out our car.  We had below zero temperatures both mornings when we woke up.  While this was cold enough to justify canceling Sarah’s riding lesson on Saturday, it not dissuade our Daisy.

Sarah had her braces removed on Friday.  Her perfect teeth are now tended only by a retainer.

Daisy is an all-weather dog.

We had a fantastic 10-day vacation at the farm for Christmas and New Years.

We arrived the Friday before Christmas to find that the overgrown hedgerow between our fields had at last been removed.  You can actually see the old stone wall now.

On Sunday it snowed, guaranteeing us a white Christmas and a happy dog.

We had Rinda, Lew and Lewis for the holiday.

Sarah made beautiful pictures for everyone.

And, of course, Sarah made out pretty well herself.  Happy new year to all!

We had three or four inches of snow on Saturday — just enough to justify a blazing fire.

Daisy doesn’t mind the snow a bit.

On Saturday we observed Rhinebeck’s 10th Sinterklaas celebration.  Sarah was a bit over it this year, but we persuaded her and her friend Anna to pose with this polar bear on East Market Street.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our highest pie/people ratio yet: 3:5, or .6 pies per person.  That’s a lot of pie!

Stacey lit the festive candles.

Sarah and Jen led a game of Celebrity.

Julie seemed to enjoy it too.