Our Christmas tree this year. You can't see much of the ornaments for all the shiny lights and tinsel!
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 08, 2021
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Christmas Lights
We drove around the area looking at Christmas lights over the weekend. I had trouble with the camera - no tripod, for one thing - so my photos did not turn out as well as I had hoped. I'm not sure I was using the right setting, either, as some of these are over-exposed. Maybe I will get a chance to try again, but we are looking at snowy weather for later in the week, so likely not.
Lots of folks had lights out, though, and I appreciated seeing them. Thank you!
Friday, December 04, 2020
Friday, October 30, 2020
The Aliens Landed!*
Last night, I heard a lot of racket outside. Whirring noises, mostly. I saw blinking lights, too, and thought it was an ambulance or fire truck going down the road, which is a long way from my house. Sound carrying on the wind, maybe. I went back to sleep.
But when I got up this morning, I realized something was amiss in my yard.
Crop circles?
We had crop circles in the yard!
Spaceships had landed!
I put a water bottle in the middle of the changed grass so you could see that something had happened here!
The grass was a different color. The ground looked like it had been unsettled a little!
The areas are nearly round and about 15 feet across. There are five of them.
What it the world?!?
What NOT OF THIS WORLD!!!!
The INVASION HAS BEGUN!
RUN FOR THE HILLS!
*Ok, you caught me. I know what made the circles. No invasion. Halloween prank. All in good fun.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Happy Christmas Eve
One thing about it, the days come along whether you're ready for them or not, don't they?
Christmas Eve has always been a bigger celebration day in my immediate family than Christmas Day. My parents used to throw huge Christmas Eve parties when I was a child. (Maybe they weren't so huge, they simply seemed that way to a young'un.)
To keep us calm and quieter, my parents used to let my brother and I exchange presents on Christmas Eve.
We still do that.
In the past, my husband and I have held open houses with people coming and going all day long, an 8-hour party that began at lunch and lasted past dinner. Friends, family, neighbors - anybody could drop by for a cookie and a visit.
I'd spend days preparing a table that included an assortment of cookies, fudge, meatballs, ham biscuits, and drink.
This tradition has changed as we've aged. The young nephews and niece are grown up. Many of my relatives on my mother's side have moved out of state. I don't see them anymore. Other folks have moved on to the other plane of existence, the one we only guess at.
My back hurts when I stand a long time, which cooking requires.
Part of me misses the excitement of people coming and going.
Part of me enjoys the new quiet.
Peace on earth, goodwill toward all.
Blessed be.
Christmas Eve has always been a bigger celebration day in my immediate family than Christmas Day. My parents used to throw huge Christmas Eve parties when I was a child. (Maybe they weren't so huge, they simply seemed that way to a young'un.)
To keep us calm and quieter, my parents used to let my brother and I exchange presents on Christmas Eve.
We still do that.
In the past, my husband and I have held open houses with people coming and going all day long, an 8-hour party that began at lunch and lasted past dinner. Friends, family, neighbors - anybody could drop by for a cookie and a visit.
I'd spend days preparing a table that included an assortment of cookies, fudge, meatballs, ham biscuits, and drink.
This tradition has changed as we've aged. The young nephews and niece are grown up. Many of my relatives on my mother's side have moved out of state. I don't see them anymore. Other folks have moved on to the other plane of existence, the one we only guess at.
My back hurts when I stand a long time, which cooking requires.
Part of me misses the excitement of people coming and going.
Part of me enjoys the new quiet.
Peace on earth, goodwill toward all.
Blessed be.
Wednesday, July 04, 2018
Happy July 4!
The fireworks are pretty, but the real reason for the day is to celebrate the birth of this nation as a new experiment in government, a democratic republic with checks and balances that are supposed to ensure the rights of the people and guarantee everyone the opportunity to live a happy and productive life.
Let's not roll back the clock to a time best forgotten but instead look ahead to a brighter tomorrow, when we are all standing tall, stronger together.
Tuesday, January 02, 2018
A Grandmother's Quilt
One of the items we received for Christmas this year was one of the quilts pieced together by James' grandmother on his mother's side.
She was a great quilter and my mother-in-law was able to give a quilt this year to us, my husband's sister, and each of her two children.
She was a great quilter and my mother-in-law was able to give a quilt this year to us, my husband's sister, and each of her two children.
I thought the pink squares were an interesting color to throw in there. It increases the visual interest in the piece.
Quilting has an interesting history, especially as it pertains to women. I don't know much about it because I haven't studied it, but I understand that women have been known to leave messages, advice, and other hidden notes in quilts and other types of needlecraft.
This is a great family keepsake.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Monday, December 26, 2016
Christmas 2016
I took no pictures of Christmas this year, aside from a photo of my tree and of Santa Mouse.
On December 18, we held a little "holiday open house" which was mostly family, though a friend of my husband's also showed up. We had invited other folks but everyone had other plans. It is hard to do get-togethers this time of year.
The "holiday open house" was nice, with my husband's friend and his wife, my father and stepmother, my brother, my sister-in-law, their two children, my mother-in-law, and my nephew's girlfriend all joining in for food and conversation.
After everyone else had left, my brother gave me Santa Mouse, which I had given up on ever seeing again. I received two other Christmas mice this year, too - one from my dear friend B. and another from my aunt.
On Monday, December 19, the timbre of our holiday changed. My physical therapist felt a lump in my stomach that she'd not felt before, and it hurt. She's been rubbing on my belly for 16 weeks because of chronic abdominal pain, so of course she would recognize any change immediately.
I happened to have a doctor's visit already scheduled for December 20, so I asked my physician to check it.
My GP is not one to send you off for tests, so when she told me she wanted an ultrasound, I panicked. My mother died of pancreatic cancer, so of course my brain went there first. Too high for the pancreas, my doctor reassured me. But she never said what she thought it might be.
The internet indicated it was either a hernia, fluid build-up in my abdomen, a bulge in the stomach aorta, a cyst, or a tumor. Doctoring by internet is probably not a good idea, really.
Worry led us by the nose for the remainder of the week. My friend T. came by on Thursday and she could feel the mass in my stomach when she hugged me goodbye. That was scary, that it was so noticeable.
I was a nervous wreck when I had the ultrasound on Friday morning. Worse, since it was the holiday, I expected it to be December 27 before I knew the results.
That's a long time to wait.
I told only a few people there might be a problem. No need to worry folks, after all. Christmas Eve came and I was home alone, with the firefighting husband out saving the city from the ashes of itself.
A friend called, and another dropped by unexpectedly. I hadn't seen B. in ages and she's had a rough time. I was so pleased to see her, and I was pleased with myself for keeping my mouth shut about my testing and worries. She has enough to worry over.
My brother came back, too. He had one of my husband's Christmas presents in his truck, and he dropped it off. We also exchanged gifts, a tradition. Brother and sister always opened the present from one another on Christmas Eve, a ritual created to shut us up, I think. But it's a tradition we have preserved.
Santa woke me around 4:30, stumbling around in the living room (not really, I'd had a bad dream), and after I checked on things and went back to bed, I woke about 6:30 a.m. My husband arrived home a little after 8, and then it was time for our Christmas.
We had a very pleasant hour opening gifts, each of us taking our time to examine what we opened and to express our love and joy with each other. No matter what the rest of the world brings to us, my husband and I manage to find our way back to one another in love and in friendship.
Late in the day we went to my mother-in-law's, where we had a fulfilling and delightful dinner of turkey, green beans, squash casserole, cheese ball, meat balls, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy. Everything was good and we could hardly manage dessert, which for me was carrot cake and for my husband coconut cake with boiled custard.
Then again we opened gifts, with my sister-in-law complaining as she does every year about how we weren't supposed to buy anything (yet they always buy us something and we buy them something). I finally told her I was 53 years old and nobody was going to tell me what to do. Sometimes I can be mean.
At any rate, I received some nice reading material, dish towels, and gift cards, which are always welcome. Hopefully everyone was happy with the treats we gave out as well.
Then we came back home, and as soon as I finished my shower, my husband was ready for bed. Apparently he'd had a rougher night at the fire station than he had let on.
Today my aunt visited me. We laughed when we both opened our gifts to one another and discovered we'd given each other coloring books. That doesn't happen often, and fortunately they were not the same books! We had a nice visit, and she left.
Alone again in the house, I read the paper and finally came back to my desktop. I discovered a message from my doctor.
The fact that it was email and not a phone call was in itself good news. I don't think my doctor would tell me anything bad in an email.
So I held my breath as I opened the test results. The mass in my stomach is likely a lipoma (non-cancerous fatty tumor) or a hernia, and it had been present on my CT scan in 2014. There was a little change in that it was a tiny bit larger, but otherwise nothing life-threatening.
My GP suggested I see a surgeon to see if surgery is warranted, but I think I've had enough of surgery for a while - I've had my belly cut open 7 times. If she will let me watch the thing and see how things go, that is my preferred way.
With that sword of Damocles no longer hanging over my head, I can relax now for the new year.
A Christmas miracle? Probably not, but certainly a load off my shoulders.
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| Santa Mouse, a long-lost remnant of my childhood, finally returned. |
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| Our tree, 2016 |
On December 18, we held a little "holiday open house" which was mostly family, though a friend of my husband's also showed up. We had invited other folks but everyone had other plans. It is hard to do get-togethers this time of year.
The "holiday open house" was nice, with my husband's friend and his wife, my father and stepmother, my brother, my sister-in-law, their two children, my mother-in-law, and my nephew's girlfriend all joining in for food and conversation.
After everyone else had left, my brother gave me Santa Mouse, which I had given up on ever seeing again. I received two other Christmas mice this year, too - one from my dear friend B. and another from my aunt.
On Monday, December 19, the timbre of our holiday changed. My physical therapist felt a lump in my stomach that she'd not felt before, and it hurt. She's been rubbing on my belly for 16 weeks because of chronic abdominal pain, so of course she would recognize any change immediately.
I happened to have a doctor's visit already scheduled for December 20, so I asked my physician to check it.
My GP is not one to send you off for tests, so when she told me she wanted an ultrasound, I panicked. My mother died of pancreatic cancer, so of course my brain went there first. Too high for the pancreas, my doctor reassured me. But she never said what she thought it might be.
The internet indicated it was either a hernia, fluid build-up in my abdomen, a bulge in the stomach aorta, a cyst, or a tumor. Doctoring by internet is probably not a good idea, really.
Worry led us by the nose for the remainder of the week. My friend T. came by on Thursday and she could feel the mass in my stomach when she hugged me goodbye. That was scary, that it was so noticeable.
I was a nervous wreck when I had the ultrasound on Friday morning. Worse, since it was the holiday, I expected it to be December 27 before I knew the results.
That's a long time to wait.
I told only a few people there might be a problem. No need to worry folks, after all. Christmas Eve came and I was home alone, with the firefighting husband out saving the city from the ashes of itself.
A friend called, and another dropped by unexpectedly. I hadn't seen B. in ages and she's had a rough time. I was so pleased to see her, and I was pleased with myself for keeping my mouth shut about my testing and worries. She has enough to worry over.
My brother came back, too. He had one of my husband's Christmas presents in his truck, and he dropped it off. We also exchanged gifts, a tradition. Brother and sister always opened the present from one another on Christmas Eve, a ritual created to shut us up, I think. But it's a tradition we have preserved.
Santa woke me around 4:30, stumbling around in the living room (not really, I'd had a bad dream), and after I checked on things and went back to bed, I woke about 6:30 a.m. My husband arrived home a little after 8, and then it was time for our Christmas.
We had a very pleasant hour opening gifts, each of us taking our time to examine what we opened and to express our love and joy with each other. No matter what the rest of the world brings to us, my husband and I manage to find our way back to one another in love and in friendship.
Late in the day we went to my mother-in-law's, where we had a fulfilling and delightful dinner of turkey, green beans, squash casserole, cheese ball, meat balls, candied sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and gravy. Everything was good and we could hardly manage dessert, which for me was carrot cake and for my husband coconut cake with boiled custard.
Then again we opened gifts, with my sister-in-law complaining as she does every year about how we weren't supposed to buy anything (yet they always buy us something and we buy them something). I finally told her I was 53 years old and nobody was going to tell me what to do. Sometimes I can be mean.
At any rate, I received some nice reading material, dish towels, and gift cards, which are always welcome. Hopefully everyone was happy with the treats we gave out as well.
Then we came back home, and as soon as I finished my shower, my husband was ready for bed. Apparently he'd had a rougher night at the fire station than he had let on.
Today my aunt visited me. We laughed when we both opened our gifts to one another and discovered we'd given each other coloring books. That doesn't happen often, and fortunately they were not the same books! We had a nice visit, and she left.
Alone again in the house, I read the paper and finally came back to my desktop. I discovered a message from my doctor.
The fact that it was email and not a phone call was in itself good news. I don't think my doctor would tell me anything bad in an email.
So I held my breath as I opened the test results. The mass in my stomach is likely a lipoma (non-cancerous fatty tumor) or a hernia, and it had been present on my CT scan in 2014. There was a little change in that it was a tiny bit larger, but otherwise nothing life-threatening.
My GP suggested I see a surgeon to see if surgery is warranted, but I think I've had enough of surgery for a while - I've had my belly cut open 7 times. If she will let me watch the thing and see how things go, that is my preferred way.
With that sword of Damocles no longer hanging over my head, I can relax now for the new year.
A Christmas miracle? Probably not, but certainly a load off my shoulders.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Home Where He Belongs
A few weeks ago, I showed off my collection of Christmas mice, and lamented the fact that I did not have the *original* Santa Mouse, the one that is as old as I am. I had only a photo of the ornament. I feared he had been lost in my brother's clearing out process as he and wife have separated.
Last night, after an early Christmas celebration, my brother placed Santa Mouse in my hands.
I cried.
Isn't he the cutest darned little Santa Mouse ever?
He is on my tree now, where he belongs, amongst the tinsel and garland. Next year, and every year after, for as long as I celebrate the holiday, he will be the tree's topper.
An early Christmas gift of grace.
Thanks, bro.
Friday, December 16, 2016
My Christmas Tree
This is my tree this year. It is a pencil tree. It is small, because we bought it last year when we had different furniture. That furniture was new but it broke and the furniture company replaced it after a long and arduous adventure in furnishing a living room. In any event, we ended up with smaller furniture which left more room in the living room than we had with the other furniture.
So the tree looks very tiny. It didn't look tiny last year because the furniture took up so much space in the living room, but this year it does.
That doesn't really make sense to me but perception is a strange thing.
A new tree cost a small fortune, so we kept this one and will use it until it starts shedding badly or gets dusty (all of the artificial trees do one or the other or both eventually).
We are fortunate and I am grateful we even have a tree, as I know many people cannot afford one. We have always donated our old trees to Goodwill instead of throwing them out in hopes someone can still get some use out of them. Usually once they get dusty we must purchase another because of my asthma and so there is life left in them if a person doesn't have that kind of health concern.
Of course we cannot have a real tree because of my allergies. Real trees are beautiful but they certainly do make me sick.
Friday, January 01, 2016
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Christmas Day 2015
Christmas Day is generally spent with my in-laws.
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| My sister-in-law (left) and my mother-in-law preparing snacks. |
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| The prodigal nephew comes home. We weren't expecting him; he said he had to work but showed up. A pleasant and lovely surprise. |
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| My husband apparently pontificating on some important point. That's nephew Chris on the right. |
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| Mother-in-law's Christmas tree. |
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| The opening of the packages. |
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| More package opening. |
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| My husband had wrapped this parcel in duct tape. |
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| The remains of the day. |
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| A little food porn to finish it off. Christmas dinner! |
Monday, December 28, 2015
Christmas Eve 2015
Christmas Eve is when I held an open house of sorts and folks, generally family, dropped by.
Here are some photos of the day:
Missing from the photos because apparently I didn't pick up the camera while they were there: my sister-in-law, Dina, my niece, Zoe, and her boyfriend, and Shannon's boyfriend, Chris.
Here are some photos of the day:
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| Table ready for guests. |
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| How I hid my treadmill. |
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| My tree for 2015. |
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| Packages and decorations on the other side of the room. |
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| How I decorated the fireplace. |
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| My friend Teresa brought me this lovely painting on Christmas Eve. Didn't she do a fantastic job? |
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| My aunt, Carolyn. |
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| My husband, apparently eating. |
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| My brother. |
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| My brother and his son, Trey. |
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| My father. |
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| Shannon and Rita. |
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| Shannon, Rita, and Eunice (my mother-in-law). |
Missing from the photos because apparently I didn't pick up the camera while they were there: my sister-in-law, Dina, my niece, Zoe, and her boyfriend, and Shannon's boyfriend, Chris.
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