Do you remember?

I’ve been thinking quite a lot of past memories recently.  The remembrances are so very profound but difficult to put the feelings that go with those memories into words that reflect the reality i feel. 

I came across the picture of an old saltcellar the other day.  I didn’t even know it was a saltcellar until i read more about it.  I thought it was just some kind of trinket box, because my granny had one in which she kept sewing notions.  I remember it looking very much like this.

I also didn’t know what a “saltcellar” meant.  I guess (from reading on it), salt used to be kept in a dish and spooned out, like we do with sugar.  In fact, from reading about it, i realized that all those small spoons people collect might have originated as salt spoons to go with the saltcellars. 

With the advent of “anti-caking salt” (the 50s are mentioned), people began using saltshakers instead of saltcellars. Of course, people collect all the weird saltshakers from that time, too.  So saltcellars became a thing of the past and people have used them for different purposes.  I don’t know why that hen with the notions is such a strong memory for me.  Granny didn’t have many decorative or fancy things, so i guess that one stands out.

In thinking about that set of grandparents, i also remember a small angel i used to have. 

None of my grandparents had much money and they had a lot of grandchildren (mother is from 1 1 children, daddy from 8).  One Christmas, i was given a small angel.  I think she was from a set of 3 or 4 that was divided among several of the grandchildren.  I kept her for years and years.  I don’t know what happened to her, but my ex got rid of a lot of my things, and a roommate absconded with all my Christmas ornaments i’d treasured over the years, so the angel probably was in one of those sets. 

She seemed to be a combination of these pictures:

She had wings growing right out of her neck.  I didn’t think how odd that was at the time.  She was dressed in pale blue and her dress was straight and flowing rather than the full, fluffy dresses many of the angels at that time wore. She was holding a lyre.  She was probably 3 or 4 inches tall. 

I miss her, of course, but i’m not heartbroken or anything.  She was simply a tangible reminder of days past.

Do you have relics from your childhood that remind you of another time? 

470

Projects -

I am doing very well with my 12 days of Christmas project.  I figured it out, i am covering 21 people, so that comes to 252 small gifts!  I am sticking to the same stuff for the kids - a pencil case, pencils/pen, a snowflake ornament, stickers, a flashlight, a tote bag, finger puppets, etc.  For the adults i decided to do it a little differently.  Three people are already complete (except i'm going to give candy one day and i'll wait until Oct/Nov to buy it).  


Most of the tote bags i purchased inexpensively from eBay or other sources.  I'm making a few.  I still have 5 to make (my July project).  My August project is finger puppets, and i have started, but it is going to be a project!  I'm mostly doing animals - dogs, cats, birds, etc.  I made an alpaca yesterday.  


However, i already have almost all of September complete.    October is just to buy some inexpensive stickers for the different ones.  November is to make a necklace for the girls or a paracord bracelet for the boys.  December is candy (for every one but the baby who will be 14 months old then).  I'm anxious to have this all done and finished.  So i'm working at this faster than the one-gift-a-month.  My goal is to have it complete by Thanksgiving.  Then i won't have to worry about much at all for Christmas (a couple of folks for whom we are not doing 12 days things).  I also need to write up a small history of Christmas to send, so they will know the tradition behind this decision.  And, need i say? i don't anticipate doing this again!  But i'm having fun and i have decided that i probably want to have most of my Christmas gifts done in the summer in future years.

Here are the finger puppets i've finished so far.  I think they're cute.


I also have decided i'd like to learn to tat.  I have to admit that i don't see tatting nearly as useful or versatile as either knit or crochet (and i prefer to knit), but it has its own charm.  Mostly it is used for lace.  I have a tee shirt that i don't care for the way the collar is attached.  I thought i could remove it and replace it with a small triangle of tatted lace.  I can't say why i want to do this, except that i do!


So i purchased a tatting shuttle, extra bobbins, and tatting thread from eBay.  They arrived and i've been playing with it and breaking thread.  Tatting thread is quite fine.  I am going to need to move to a coarser crochet thread to learn, i think.  The whole point is to create knots on the "shuttle thread" that will slide.  Somehow i'm creating knots that just knot, and then break when i try to slide them.  

Okay, i've managed to make "a ring" now.  I think i know the basic tatting knots.  But i haven't been able to figure out how to go to the next one, attached.  When i've tried before to go to the next ring, i can't get the shuttle hand to slide.  I have found someone in Costa Mesa (where we stay in OC each week) who is giving beginning classes at Piecemakers (a quilting and craft shop) on weekends, but of course, i'm not there then.  I left a message at her blog asking if she does private teaching.  


I'm rather proud of my picots, by the way.  They are the little loops and the instructions state that it can take some practice to get them a consistent size.  






464

On the 9th Day of Christmas . . .

Happy New Year on this 2nd day of January!  :)

I did take pics of our tree and our new ornaments for this year.  But i've not loaded them from our camera yet.  I tried, but i think the camera battery needs recharging.  

Duane's cold never got much worse and he seems to be back to normal now.  He has some residual cough, but not bad.  We brought N's daughter, Sierra, over on Thursday.  She hadn't been able to come on Christmas day with the rest of them, so we still had her presents here (i'd wanted to send them home for her but her mama wanted us to keep them).  She played some games on Playstation, and she and i had a "tea party."  I'd even bought some small scones (the leftovers i sent home with her) and made her a small tea sandwich.  I bought gluten free waffles for me (which i rarely do these days) and toasted a couple and ate with lemon curd.  

Lemon curd is divine!  I've never cared much for lemon meringue pie, mostly because i don't much like pie meringue.  But lemon curd is just like the pie filling without the crust or meringue.  It is so good!  

Anyway, we then took Sierra home and picked up Kip.  He stayed with us overnight.  The plan was for him to help me in the house some (long story, but he "owed" me some money from a school project gone bad and this was his proposal to pay it off).  Our house is too fascinating to waste time that way, tho!  He did help Duane carry in and stack some wood.  He would have liked to stay another night, and that wouldn't have been hard, but we felt that some limits are important.  He's a really nice kid.  

We haven't taken the youngest, Joshua, out much.  He isn't 4 yet.  The problem hasn't been behavior or anything.  Rather, he still requires a car seat and that has been an issue requiring a lot of planning.  He is big enough, however, that we could put him in a booster seat (made for this, of course).  They aren't so expensive.  We can get one for as little as $20, so we might do that.  Then we won't have to struggle with his big car seat and having to time it with his mama (she's been working a lot and she has the car, so she has the car seat, too).  

If you think i've been re-using pics a lot, it is true.  I've learned that Picsaweb has a limited number of pics you can use before you have to pay for the space.  So i've been trying to not load as many pics as i used to.  Eventually i'll probably use Picsaweb only for the blog, and load the other pics somewhere else like Photobucket or Flickr.  

I've been working on my ideas for the 12 days of Christmas.  I've been looking at a lot of "home made" blog or web ideas.  Here are the things i've thought of so far:  seeds (planter kit?), a calendar of pics of the kids, bookmarks, candy, an ornament, window ornament? - stained glass, dream catcher?, finger puppets for smaller ones, lip balm, homemade lollies?, home made necklaces/bracelets?, hot chocolate mixes, painted tee shirts?, dollar tree toys wrapped like crackers or in crepe, tote bags, apron, fridge magnets

Of course, anything that is baked goods or candy will have to be made much later in the year.  Homemade lollies would be good, and they'd keep for a while, but i don't think i could make them earlier than October or November.  


I've decided that as there are 12 days of Christmas and 12 months of the year, i'll do one project a month.  I'm also going to sent out a letter saying that we are doing Christmas differently this year, and asking for information like their favorite color, their favorite animal, etc.  I don't know any of the kids on our list very well.  

Have you heard the tale of "the old woman shaking her feather bed" for snow?  It isn't very often that i think of that when it is snowing here.  Usually it snows with a right good will.  However, for a little while today we had big, fluffy flakes coming down in such a lazy way that it was reminiscent of feathers.  Made me think of the story.  :)


I had a lot more to say (i always do!) but got interrupted with my "flow."  Think i'll stop here.

Hope each and every one has had a wonderful holiday season and may God richly bless your coming year.



431

Lazy days of Christmas

Happy 4th Day of Christmas!  I meant to post "Happy Boxing Day" the past 2 days - it is officially the 26th, but in countries that make it a bank holiday, it was on the 27th - but somehow i never did.

We had a lovely Christmas Eve.  We attended St. James Church (where we were married) for late mass.  It was one of the most beautiful services i've attended there, the music was fantastic.  We had had an earlier celebration with Duane's parents and brother.  We had a fairly simple meal and then opened gifts, which were also rather simple.  It seems everyone i know is fed up with the commercialism of Christmas and looking to do "something else."

We were awake early on Christmas morning, but stayed in bed.  I was reading and Duane was on the computer.  A friend had texted me and i called him back and we had a long conversation.  His nieces and nephews are grown now, except a couple of little ones from a cousin (yes, he belongs to such a small family that his cousins' kids become "nieces and nephews").  He is disgusted with his now-grown relatives for never giving any thank you for the things he has given.  Now, i know a gift is intended simply to let the receiver know that they are loved, but years of gifts with no gratitude is not something most folks can continue to do with good grace.  

And, i'm coming to believe that time together is the thing to be really thankful about.  And of course, i struggled with the same issue this year, that is, giving to children who already have so much.  

I think that i've somewhat solved the issue for me for in the future.  I don't have the plan entirely worked out yet, but i'm leaning toward doing something for the children thru Advent or thru the 12 Days of Christmas (which, BTW, start ON Christmas Day and run until Epiphany on 6 January; several folks at FB were posting "the 12 Days of Christmas" posts before Christmas had even arrived).

This will be a big project, if i choose to go that way.  I'm thinking of simple things, like a card in the mail, an ornament for their tree, whatever - but it could turn into quite a projects.  Twelve days of things to send?  What is more, we sent gifts to 14 nieces, nephews, and cousins' kids this year.  That is 168 things to be sent!  I don't even want to think of Advent - if i began it on 1 December (Advent officially starts 4 Sundays before Christmas, usually about 28 days).  Twenty five days for 14 is 350 projects.  Even just a card at current postage rates, that is $154.  I think Advent is out. 

 Of course, i can pare that number down a little bit.  Of the 14 is my married niece, her husband, and their daughter.  If i do this, i will send one project item to the entire family.  

But what this also means is a lot of thinking and planning for me.  I can't wait until, say December 1st to have this ready to go.  It means that i would have to have Christmas be part of my year the whole year thru.  I rather like that idea, too.  We'll see what comes of it.

We got a call Christmas morning saying that the folks we'd invited to dinner had decided they would come.  So we got up and rushed out so that we could get home in time to get the brisket in the crockpot!  Not my idea on the perfect planning (and i likely won't let that happen again) but it was a good day.  The food was simple and almost entirely crockpot cooked, so it wasn't difficult.  We got home in time so the food was done when they arrived just before 6.  We had a lovely evening.  The kids enjoyed the food and gifts.  It was almost a "traditional" meal with brisket and crackers.  We all got paper crowns from the crackers, and had a lot of fun.  

Duane has been fighting a cold.  We are hitting it heavily with large (30,000 IU) doses of Vitamin D3, also Vitamin C, quercetin, and astragalus, and of course, Manuka honey.  He said he thinks he is feeling better today.  It has been a mild cold, he hasn't felt very sick, just not quite right.

I'm still knitting things.  I didn't finish the placemats for my MIL (tho i had other gifts for her) and need to do that.  The whole house feels like a mess to me right now and badly needs some reorganization.  

 Years ago a friend gave me the book, More Hours in My Day  by Emilie Barnes - about the way we do housework.  I don't know what happened to the book, but i remember the premise.  It suggests that we break tasks down into manageable pieces and do some every day to keep up with the house rather than having one long, awful "cleaning day."  I need to implement something like that again.  It is NOT how my brain works.  Not my style.  However, i need to change "my style" in order to be more productive and better utilize the little energy i do have.

 I think i'll re-order a copy of this book.  I do remember it being a bit preachy (about the "proper role" of a housewife, or something), but the info in the book is good.

You can't see it all.  This was from our first married Christmas, 2004.

It was my intent to put up the Nativity scene this year.  But the place i put it is one of Jazz's favorite play spots.  So i need a background (it is against our stairs) to keep him from getting up there when the Nativity is up.  So it didn't get done this year.  By next year we may have a different living room arrangement (i'll write about that soon), so i am not sure what i will do then.

 The "front" way of our highway up and down the mountain is closed indefinitely.  This isn't very high up from Redlands/San Bernardino.  The 18 across the mountain is fine.  This won't do good things for the ski slopes closer to the valley, tho.

I've always more to say, of course, but i think it is time to stop.  :)  I love the ornaments we have.  Each is special, and many have a story behind them.  I've marked most of them with the year they were acquired.  I need to take pics of this year's ornaments.



 429

It's the Day Before the Night Before Christmas

Evidently i'm not the only kid growing up in the 70s on whom this song had an impact.  I put the above phrase into Google and came up with a number of entries of folks who remember this song and the album (although there seem to have been a couple of different albums released).  I found this post about the album.  I'm surprised that i remember quite a few of these now that i see a list.   


It's the Day Before the Night Before Christmas is about being good to get as much loot as possible (not my issue! but i like the remembrance and the phrase). Icicles, Holly, Red Berries and Snow was another i remember.  I've found a few of these at YouTube.  But the song i titled this post after is one that i remember the best, and i tend to sing it on the 23rd of December (finding that i'm joining a lot of other folks i never knew were out there).  The other i tend to sing (living in Southern California) is The Weatherman's Christmas Prayer:

I'm black and blue and my face is red and turning green and grey
'Cause i'm the weather man who said "Gonna snow on Christmas Day"
Only trouble is i'm here in Southern Californ-ee-aye
It hasn't snowed in 100 years or more on Christmas Day


So please Mister Santa Claus, fill up your bag this year
With snow, snow, beautiful snow
And drop it all right here!


I had this dream this crazy scheme to clean the smog away
Just paint it white and drop it right on top of old L.A.
Just like snow but why oh why did i go on radio and say
"Here's your happy weather man predicting snow on Christmas Day!"


So please Mister Santa Claus, fill up your bag this year
With snow, snow, beautiful snow
And drop it all right here!

Well, there's lots of fog and smog a-clogging the sky down this-away
That are coming low and kind of slow and easy in that sleigh
And i'll close my eyes while i disguise . . . (don't remember this part)
You'll start that lovely white stuff falling early Christmas Eve
And i won't feel bad i'll feel real glad i had a chance to say
Here's the only weather man who'll tell you snow is on the way
But if you don't show with a load of snow a filling up your sleigh
I'm packing up and leaving this old town come Christmas Day


So please Mister Santa Claus, fill up your bag this year
With snow, snow, beautiful snow
And drop it all right here!

I've been singing this one for years now, and everyone around me thinks i'm crazy! The song from that album Elsa remembers best is I Want an Elephant for Christmas.  I didn't really remember that one until she reminded me.  I'm rather surprised, now thinking back on it, because this album is about as secular as they come but my parents were very religious.

This past week or so have been insane. My friend's truck needed some major work - a new engine and radiator.  She was here for about 10 days i think.  I did so much during that time.  N and her kids stopped by Monday.  They helped decorate our tree.

I was very glad of having my friend here, but when it came time to take her down the hill, we had had a ton of rain dumped on us and two of the roads were closed.  (We have 3 roads on and off the mountain; the "front" way, the "back" way - both of these west/south-west, and the "back, back" way headed north/north-east.)  


Normally we drive the "back" way; on that road it is 44 miles (about 50 minutes) to where i needed to take her, but that road was closed due to a mud and rock slide.  So i took her the "back, back" way and around the mountain - 120 miles.  It took us over 2-1/2 hours, but the road was good.  I was dreading retracing that, however, and thankful that the "back" way reopened so i could go directly home.  They were making 2 wheel drive cars put on chains, and they made me show them that i was carrying chains (4 wheel drive cars rarely have to put them on but have to carry them).  


There was no justification for chains anywhere on that road the entire way.  It was bare and wet.  In a couple of places there was a tiny bit of slush, but never anything more.  I can only assume they were trying to slow the flatlanders down, which they did.  But they didn't inform them that they are suppose to pull over for faster moving traffic, so it was a frustrating drive.  


As with all of Southern California, we have been bombarded with a lot of rain (and snow for us).  This is what our weather service said:

Our strong low pressure system has finally moved through the area, bringing an end to our recent heavy rain and snow event. After all is said and done most of Big Bear picked up over 7 inches of rain with 6" or so of snow, more in the west end of town, lesser amounts east and up to 2-3 feet fell atop local resorts. One for the record books but not the worst we've ever seen.

Normal for us would be no rain, and possibly 2 feet of snow.  If all that rain had been turned into snow, we would have had 6 feet or more of the white stuff.  It has been an unusually warm December, resulting in rain rather than snow.

Duane shot this vid yesterday of the river running down a street when we were driving home from town.  They are releasing water from the dam for the first time since 1996.  The lake has more water than we (Duane or i) have ever seen in it.  A lot of damage has been done due to mud and rock slides, trees coming down, and flooding.  The "front" way down the mountain is going to be closed for a while.  Still, i don't think it has been as bad here as other parts of So Cal.


Hopefully all this will drain away.  It got down to 29F last night, so the roads are likely to be very treacherous today.  We are happy we don't have to be anywhere.  But we are hoping they are better by tomorrow because we are suppose to go to OC to spend Christmas Eve with Duane's family.  We won't go if the roads are too dangerous, but that would be sad.  


All my Christmas shopping is done and i have almost everything wrapped.  I still am working on my MIL's Christmas gift (part of it) - placemats.  That will keep me busy today.  I mailed off the kids cards (from the last post) yesterday.  I meant to get them out Monday, then planned to take them with me Tuesday (when my friend and i drove down) but i forgot.  So i got them to the post office yesterday, but we don't know when the mail trucks will be allowed up again - the roads are too bad right now - so they most certainly won't have them for Christmas.


I also have not done Christmas cards, tho that was my intent.  Maybe i can get them out for New Year's.  

Duane had a nice birthday Sunday and Monday.  (The day was Monday, but much of the celebrating was on Sunday.)  We had a time with his Christmas party.  (I think he had a good time, i think i was just passing time.)  It was interesting.  We were on a yacht in Newport Harbor, so we saw the Christmas parade and all the houses lit up. 

Last night was his SAR Christmas party.  I made this corn-tuna salsa and it was a big hit.  As one person said, knowing the ingredients in the salsa, you just wouldn't think they'd go together well (well, he said he thought it would be too many vegetables), but then you taste it and it is just great!  I made a double recipe last night, and there was none to bring home.  (The recipe blog is up, tho i've not posted much yet.)  The dessert i made was not as much of a success and i was disappointed. (The fault was my own, not the recipe.  I added something that the recipe didn't call for and it did not impart an improvement.  The flavor was off.)     


I can't seem to write short posts.  A lot has been happening and i'm trying to record it, but i use a lot of words!

 I've not yet taken pics today.  This is an old one (and we don't have this much snow), but looking at the neighbor's house now looks a lot like this.  White, with blue, blue sky behind it.

Merry Christmas everyone.  I'll probably write more before long.

 428

Part Two, "significant gifts"

 Isn't this paper cute?  This is what i used to create the "boxes" for the cards.

This is my pattern for the box.  I made it to fit the cards/envelopes that it will hold.

Here is the pattern traced onto the back of the paper.  If doing a different pattern that has a scene like this one, you'd want to be sure that the "important" part of the scene to show up in the middle.

Here it is, on the back side, after the cut.

The front after the cut.  The corner pieces are extra, and i saved these to cut out the figures to use on a card.

Back of the "box" after it is folded and glued.  (It is about 1/4 inch thick.)

The front, with the flap left open.  I think i'll close this with a rubber band, tho i might use stick on velcro.

Here are a few of the extra pieces, waiting for me to cut them out.

And here is a finished card.  I will do another one with the little town in the background and some sheep jumping around.

Here is a sample of what is in the box, the blank cards.  The group on the right is a sample of what is going to the boys, the group on the left a sample of what i'm sending to the girls.  All the envelopes are plain, white like the one in the pic.  If i had more time i'd make envelopes for them too, but i'm busy!

Here are some of the stickers i'm going to put in for them.  Baseball, monkeys, zoo animals and cars for the boys, the flowers and stuff for the girls.  I have more of these at home i'll add in later.  Only the youngest girl (5) is getting the princess stuff.  I'm sending what i think to be "more sophisticated" for the older girls who are 11, 12, and 13.


So, there it is.  What do you think?  Do you think the kids will like this?

I've linked this to Sara's You Create series.  If you don't read Sara's blog, my recommendation:  DO!  :) 






426

Significant gifts? (part one)

My friend's truck needs a new engine, so she will be with us until Monday or Tuesday.  I'm happy for us and sad for her.  

I fell asleep last night about midnight, as was awake this AM at 5.30.  What is up with that?  I do NOT need to be awake this early!  Sleep deprivation isn't fun!

This year seems to me to be an accumulation of several years of discomfort for me about a particular issue. 


Duane's family (well, his step-family) is rather affluent.  His step siblings and cousins were raised with a lifestyle that . . . i don't even know how to say this.  They got a lot of things.  They didn't seem to give consideration to anyone else (like helping provide Christmas to some family that doesn't have much).  Now there are grandkids (Duane's cousins' & siblings' children) between the ages of 4 and 13, and those kids get a mountain of presents every year.  Essentially, every adult gives every one of the kids something.  


The adults do not do this.  They have a gift exchange with gag gifts and a $20 gift card attached.  


I have had issues with this for a long time now.  But i feel rather caught in the undertow.  We don't have kids (so i haven't the right to criticize).  It is Duane's step-family.  They give us nice things.  We want to reciprocate.  But it also feels so futile.  We can't afford to give each of the kids (7 of them) expensive gifts.  And they get so many things that whatever we give them seems to just get snowed under the rest.  

I've made suggestions in the past that we adopt a family and help them, but the idea doesn't pull any favor.  Duane's aunt said to me "Oh, we all do that.  But it is fun to give the kids things, too."  By "we all do that" she means the older generation - the aunts - do support needy children.  But i think she is missing the fact that Duane's peers and the grandchildren don't see that happening.  What is more, the "needy children" are in another country, so these kids never see that there is need within a mile or two of where they live.

Ok, enough rant.  That is the back story.  I'm not going to be able to change the system.  But i've really struggled with what to give these kids.  In some ways i'm as sad for them as for the kids who don't get anything.  


Duane and i have stopped attending the family holiday party.  They stopped having it on Christmas Eve, and (it seems to us) they've stopped really celebrating Christ and have dropped into a "give me, give me" thing.  This family group that always celebrated Christ on Christmas Eve with the nativity story has begun having Santa come to the parties.  (You can imagine how well that went over with my anti-Santa husband.)  Last year i sent the gifts for the kids (books, but really nice ones) to the party with Duane's mom.  Duane didn't want me to do this (feeling i was "supporting" the party of which we do not approve), but i didn't want the hassle of trying to get the gifts to the kids individually.  


I'm thinking that this will probably be the last year that we do this gift thing.  I don't know how to bow out gracefully, but i need to find a way.  However, in the meantime, i'm stuck with trying to think of a gift for these kids.  I'd like it to be something significant.


So this is what i came up with.  I'm going to give each of the kids a small paper box of blank cards, some extra paper and a bunch of stickers and let them make their own cards to send to people.  I'm going to make each of them a Christmas card that is kind of a sample card of how they might make their own.


What is more, rather than send these to the holiday party, i'm going to mail them individually to the kids.   I remember as a kid how fun it was to receive something in the mail and how rarely it happened.  

Does this mean our gift will be "significant"?  I doubt it.  I'm not even sure what that would be for children who have everything.  But i do think it will be unique and stand out and maybe it will be a fun thing for them.  


I was going have this "how to" now, but this post is already long.  I think i'll do a second "part two" with pics (that i've not loaded from the camera yet) later. 





425

The story of The Box

This is a re-post of the story i wrote last year.  I've edited it some.  A lot has happened in the past week, and i meant to write about it, but it is mostly mundane and complaining.  Think i will skip it for now.

We spent our first Thanksgiving together with my sis Elsa, our parents, and some of sis's friends at Elsa's house. Afterward we drove to Big Bear (we were both living in Costa Mesa at the time) for post-Thanksgiving with Duane's family. While in Big Bear we saw a number of "alpine" trees and admired them.

When we got back to Orange County, Michaels was having a sale on their trees and one of them was a 5' Alpine tree. Because it reminded us of Big Bear, we bought it and put it up together at my house. I had some decorations i'd made the year before and some i made that year (2003).   A roommate from when i was in college (1989-1993, had this roommate in '90) absconded with all the Christmas decorations i'd collected in the years prior to that.  I didn't bother with Christmas for many years thereafter.   I don't have a pic of the first tree Duane and i put up, but they are all pretty similar.  This pic is from when we still lived in Costa Mesa.

On 10 December Duane and i had a date. By this time he was a frequent visitor at my house.  When he came over he came on in while i was still upstairs. When i came down the stairs i immediately saw that i had a new decoration on my tree.

I asked what it was, i tried to tease him by pretending that i'd go to dinner with him without looking at the box. But i didn't get a rise out of him and we started to walk out the door. After a few seconds i said, "I can't believe you would let me walk away without checking this out!" We went back to the beautiful little box.

When we took the tree down i tied a small red ribbon to the branch where Duane had put the box.  

Do you see the ribbon behind the pinecone? Every year when we put up the tree, we put the box back on the same branch. We add lights and granny's star, but the rest of the tree we leave plain for a week or so until we decorate it later. (In all practicality, this works well, too, because the cats have less time to tear apart all the toys on the tree they think we placed there just for them!)

We met on 17 May, we got engaged on 10 December. Duane wanted a wedding that would be either on the 10th of the month, or the 17th, because that way he'd have less numbers to remember! The way the calendar runs, the 17th of the month is always on the same day of the week as the 10th. (Go on, look it up!) Our church had limited days they allowed weddings, (Fridays and Saturdays).  We looked at the calendar for 2004, the only months that allowed us those options were July and September. July all the clergy was away for some conference, so September it was. We chose the 10th.  We've had six wedding anniversaries now, this is our 7th married Christmas, the 8th we've been together.




The plan is to put up the tree tomorrow, the 10th.  But the poor tree, from what i remember, was becoming a little worn.  I think the branches were coming loose, but they were put in with hot glue, i think, so a bit more should do the trick.  We'll probably do some work on it tonight when we get home, repairing and strengthening it to go another year.  

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Packing up, Duane's car, & other non-essential stuff

Well, this is what the tree looked like this year. I know the pic isn't great.







When i box up things i put them in these, & then they stand around the base of the tree looking pretty for the season.

I usually leave the tree up until Epiphany, but it isn't in me this year. And we have guests coming for the weekend & it might be hard to get to it later. The folks that are coming tomorrow (Duane's cousins) are Jehovah's Witnesses & don't celebrate the holidays. If i really wanted to leave the tree up i would, but i just don't & i think having the holiday stuff put away might be more comfortable for all of us.

I have literally a mountain of laundry to do, the holiday ornaments to put away, the cat-free room to prepare (his cousin is allergic to our cats), the fridge needs to be cleaned out, & i'm sure lots more. This, after Patty came to clean Monday!



And . . . tah dah! Duane's car. :)

The one where he is hugging the car is in front of his parents' house on Christmas Eve. The other two are at Sugarbear & were taken at the request of the insurance agent.

Happy 7th day of Christmas! Seven swans a swimming. :)

Happy New Year everyone! Be safe! And may God bless y'all. :)

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