Happy Groundhog Day!

Okay, I know that technically Groundhog Day is tomorrow, but I figured I'd get a jump start on this too-often-forgotten day. Really, the only times that I can remember celebrating Groundhog Day was in early grade school. I don't think it's much of a big day outside of Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, but it's a great day to turn a sausage into a groundhog for lunch. 🙂  Or, as my husband said " the perfect thing to eat for Groundhog Day is sausage ... (ground hog)"  Ha ha ha. He is popping out of the snow ( rice) over a bed of taco meat and cheese. His face is made from cheese, nori and tomato.

So I thought Mr. Groundhog looked a bit bland sitting there in the snow, so this time I added some colorful fruit and veggies. Which one do you like better?
Happy Groundhog Day tomorrow, everyone!

Edit Sept. 2014: I have been looking over old posts, and when I came upon this one I thought I ought to tell you the story behind this infamous groundhog lunch ( it's now a family joke/favorite story) ...

Okay... first of all, everyone in the family laughed their heads off at my groundhog lunch! Why?!? I thought he was cute, but for some reason the whole family laughs every time "groundhog bento" is mentioned. In fact, all bento lunches are now compared to this one. For example, someone might say, " Mom, I love all your lunches - even the groundhog one" or "I think that lunch looks great - I like it better than the groundhog one." Hmmmm....

Then I should tell you what happened immediately after photographing this lunch. It's not pretty. My husband and I laughed so hard! I debated whether I should write about it in this post originally, but I was a new blogger, and I was afraid to share something so ... okay, I'll just say it - gross! But here's what happened:

We have a cat named Charlie. Charlie has brain damage ( he really does!) He has a hard time thinking. He often gets confused about where he is and what he was doing. (We love Charlie) Well, right after taking these photos, Mr. Groundhog was sitting on the counter. I had turned my back to look at how the photos turned out on my camera. While I was scrolling through photos, Charlie had jumped up behind me to have a taste of some "ground hog". This is very unusual for him, because he will only eat cat food. He never, ever eats anything else, no matter how delicious it may be. So Charlie was behind me licking the eyeballs off my groundhog in total silence. When I turned around and saw what he was doing, I screamed! It scared Charlie, who had cheese and nori bits stuck on his whiskers and paw. He jumped up, knocking over the whole bento, which spilled all over the floor. I had to scoop the whole thing up and dump it down the garbage disposal, laughing the whole time!

Hubby said I should post the pictures anyway, so I did. Notice there was no mention in the original post of who got it for lunch - because I didn't have the guts to tell you it was my cat Charlie!!!