The Fourth Sunday of Advent: Food and Family

O LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world with out end. Amen.
                                          Book of Common Prayer, collect for the fourth Sunday of Advent

We were up at seven this morning to eat a quick breakfast and commit the "perambulation of the pooch." We left for Warner Robins at eight with the truck loaded with gifts.

We hadn't had such a long drive in literally years, but this early on Sunday, even on the Sunday before Christmas, the freeway was very clear, although there was a steady stream of migration of travel trailers, mobile homes, and packed-up cars going south, probably to the "House of Mouse." The biggest problem was the sun in our eyes (no matter which way you drive in this state, the sun is always in your eyes!).

We arrived in Warner Robins after one bathroom break, about 10:30, and hung around with Candy and Mom until Candy's daughter Nicki and her husband Vinnie and little Max arrived from where they had stayed with a friend last night. We hadn't seen Max since he was a baby. He's a fine little imp now, blond, angelic, and gets into everything. He took a shine to me and kept leading me to decorations or toys to show me. Nicki was making pigs in the blanket and Max kept coming back for "just one more" until he finally had to be shooed away. Nicki placed the remainder on a plate on the dining room table and I found Max kneeling on a chair peeling away the "blankets" from the "pigs" and eating them!

Eventually we had a swell little buffet with chicken wings, meatballs, chicken salad sandwich halves, crackers and meats and cheese, fruits, veggies, and of course sweets (lots of cookies, cake, gingerbread) among other things, and we had a bigger surprise: James' youngest sister Sabra and her husband Lee showed up from Charleston!

After lots of talk and laughter and food we did gifts, and soon it was time to leave. I have a hard time driving in the dark these days due to developing cataracts, and James and I intended to leave about three, so as to get home before dark; we did leave before dark as it was still quite light when we were gabbing in the driveway for fifteen minutes. By the time we got down Watson Boulevard (and Watson Boulevard now goes all the way down to the freeway now), clouds were scudding in. We had our plastic box, but we only got a few splashes of raindrops.

I drove from Warner Robins to the exit for the Tanger Outlets (in retrospect we should have gone up to the flea market exit ten miles ahead; everyone was turning right towards the shopping area). We just wanted to get to the QT station, use the potty, and swap drivers, which finally managed to do despite the relentless passage of shoppers' vehicles. We got home just before seven to find a package from Rodney on the doorstep.

The internet seemed to have calmed down from earlier in the week, and I was able to finish watching The Man Who Invented Christmas (a comedy drama about Dickens' writing of A Christmas Carol) without continual dropouts, and then St. Nicholas: The Real Story, and finally another neat documentary with Ruth Goodman and Peter Ginn, Tudor Monastery Farm at Christmas.

Two Days of Christmas

Had a busy Christmas weekend, starting yesterday when we were expecting company: James' mom and sister were coming up for a Christmas dinner. I believe this is the first time they have been up since we had Thanksgiving dinner in 2006. James was up early to put our little turkey, all nine pounds of it, into the oven. He tried it Alton Brown's way: brown it for a half hour at 500°F, and then lower it to 325 and let it cook until it was done. In the meantime he made a gravy with the neck and giblets, and stuffing. (This gravy came out thick and rich and wonderful. Like Aunt Meg's gravy in Twister, it was a food group all its own, especially since James put pureed vegetables in it.) I finished cleaning up and made room for folks to sit down and primped the bathroom a little, and even went downstairs and put the new tags on our license plates and our new registrations on the sun visors. The turkey was done at noon and we had a chance to relax—and nibble on it a little, of course!—before Mom and Candy arrived.

We had an informal lunch around the coffee table, with Mom bagging a tray table. The turkey came out well except that one side was a bit underdone, another sign that the oven is not working properly. The stuffing was soft and flavorful. Mom and Candy had brought scalloped potatoes, green beans, corn casserole, and a grape salad. There was Christmas music on in the background and the tree lights were all on. After lunch we exchanged gifts. James got a nifty airplane clock and an airplane wine bottle holder and some sangria. I got a bunch of bird related things, including a rustic frame, a big stand-up sparrow in a Santa hat, and another little bird. We have been giving them a different type of food basket every year: once it was Italian, once it was soup, etc. This year it was a "garnish" basket, things to spice up meals: salad fixings, finishing sauce, Asian noodles, ice cream topping, garlic dip mix to go into butter to make garlic bread, sprinkles for ice cream and cake, etc. We also gave Candy an Eeyore mug and a Cowboys Beanie Baby for her birthday two weeks ago, and Mom a Robert Ludlum novel.

They headed out before it got dark. We gave them the rest of the white meat and kept the dark; James put the drumsticks in the freezer, but as the shadows lengthened, we had a light dinner of the rest of the leavings: I just put hunks of turkey meat and some gravy on two Kings Hawaiian rolls and ate those; James made a little plate with stuffing. Then we hurried out to go look at Christmas lights; we've been going so "late" (like 8 p.m.) that people already have turned them off! This is absolutely flabbergasting to me because we always keep our Christmas lights on all night: Mom said it would help the Holy Family find our house. (I also keep ours on New Year's Eve and at Twelfth Night.)

The light situation was a bit iffy. I didn't want to go far from home because James was feeling a bit off, so we just stayed around the neighborhood. Not a whole lot of festive folks around. Not sure if it's the political climate, the economy, or if people just aren't celebrating. I do notice, though, that a lot of the newer homes have their living rooms at the rear of the house, so you see fewer big Christmas trees in front windows. We did have some luck going up toward downtown Smyrna; while the Park development seemed to have several fewer decorations than last year, two new plats were well dressed. We saw swooping stars, large decorations that looked like giant illuminated bulbs, classic decorations (white candles, green wreaths, red bows), those new "star shower" things, lights outlining windows, lights along paths. Also checked out the Craftsman-style homes on King Springs Drive. I would love to have one of those. (Yeah, I know. House envy. But it's more because they tickle all the nostalgic bones in my body.) However, we didn't go to Dunleith to see if they did luminaria this year, or to see of the big house on Cunningham Drive had turned into what we call "the wedding cake house," it is so draped in lights.

Finally, back home, I took Tucker out, and then we settled down and watched The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. Once that finished, we put on the news and then watched Midnight Mass from the Vatican. This year NBC did not cut it off at 1 a.m., but showed the whole thing. And since we were up anyway, we opened presents. I had bought James a new Ott Light for his model work, and four books (one about the Berlin airlift, another about World War II films, the new book about Pearl Harbor defending Admiral Kimmel, and a book about the World War II Memorial). He bought me War of the Roosevelts, a nifty metal barrette, a "thesaurus" t-shirt, a great Cumberbatch-as-Doctor Strange poster, and a Steiff budgie. (Yes, a Steiff budgie, blue with a white face. I knew they made more than bears, but not birds!)

Needless to say, we slept in on Christmas morning, and then James was up before me, having walked Tucker and made himself some breakfast. I made myself an eggnog to have with my oatmeal and yogurt, and spelled James making his special dessert, caramel sauce over oranges. He also made corn to take to the Butlers, and we brought the green beans and mushrooms left over from Christmas Eve dinner. I'd had Christmas music on earlier, but while the oranges were soaking in their sauce, I watched The House Without A Christmas Tree and then A Christmas Memory with Geraldine Page.

I also gave Tucker the second half of his Christmas gift. Last night I gave him his new plush blanket. I meant to bring it out from the spare room and surprise him in the living room, but I forgot to close the gate and he followed me in. I held up the blanket—he had chewed holes in his old one—and his eyes widened and he reared up on his hind legs and grabbed at it with his forelegs. When I did give it to him, he shook it like a rat and proceeded to growl and roughhouse with it until he finally got it in a lumpy pile and laid on it. This morning I gave him the fox. This is a non-stuffed toy because he eviscerates stuffed ones. He had the squeakers that are sewn at either end killed within an hour.

We headed to the Butlers about 2:30 and were still one of the first to arrive. As always, it was a wonderful time. There seemed to be a running gag today: someone would walk in and see A Christmas Story running on the television (first Charles, then Juanita, then Alex) and say, "You know, I've never seen this movie." Wow! Anyway, we snacked on Lin's piecrust pastries and apple and cheese and a relish tray until it was time for dinner, which was turkey, steak, pot roast and ham, with mashed potatoes, biscuits and butter, carrots, and our beans and corn. Later there were two pies and our oranges for dessert (they were lovely; I had three helpings). Once again, we did not see Sylvester the new kitten (who is now an adolescent cat), but we understand he's already fond of climbing the Christmas tree. They get him down by turning on the Death Star tree topper that Phyllis gave them. Later on we exchanged gifts. James got a nice warm throw and movie tickets, and I had two Doctor Who adult coloring books with pencils and a mug. We headed home around eight, full of food and friendship, and snuggled by the tree (as we couldn't very well snuggle by the fire, as it was 70 bloody degrees out; I'd walked in the door earlier and called "Happy Easter!") until bedtime.

A Weekend of Christmas and Toast

Despite the grey sky and the cold wind yesterday, it was a warm day: we drove down to Warner Robins to spend Christmas with the family. We grabbed breakfast from Chick-Fil-A—yay, oatmeal and fruit!—and had a uneventful ride. Traffic was brisk, but not backed-up; lots of Floridians heading home from Christmas festivities.

Had a great time at Mom's house. We sat and chatted, then went out to lunch at Cheddar's. We had a good time, but the server was rather sulky and I have to admit I didn't like the food. The "beef" I ate looked more like pork and was greasy; so were the tortilla chips. I was feeling queasy when we finished.

After lunch we exchanged gifts and then sat about having a nice chat until the sun started to lower in the sky. We literally did "ride off into the sunset." I tried to drive the whole way home, but had to give up by the time we got to the Tanger Outlets. Just after James took over, we ran into traffic. Gah. It was a "mystery jam," and cleared up completely just before the freeway split off into two parts.

We were home around nine o'clock, relieved at being off the freeway, as there was just as much traffic going north as south. Jen logged on to chat for a little while, but she had just gotten back to Norfolk and had duty the next day. Later Emma came on.

Despite wanting to be up early, we were both slugabeds this morning, I more than James. I was having low-level stomach cramps all morning and was pretty grumpy most of the day. We didn't go out until after noon. We were heading to Discover Mills to check out their annual calendar store.

Surprise! When we got there, we found out two things: the mall has been renamed Sugarloaf Mills (it's off Sugarloaf Parkway) and the Johnny Rockets we usually eat as is gone. (Has the chain gone out of business? All the others in the area are closed, too.) So we had to eat at one of the mall-quality restaurants. Eh.

The place has actually gotten dull. Just like the mall, lots more clothing and shoe places, fewer unique shops like the furniture places that used to be there. The Christian store is gone, too. We did go into Bass Pro Shops and get a few things, checked out the Lego store, bought a couple of things at the Disney Store, did find the calendar store only to find out they were out of the calendar James wanted (but I did cop the last small Susan Branch calendar) and finally ended up in Books-a-Million to check out the volumes and have a hot chocolate.

On the way home we stopped at Aldi for a few groceries, and Publix for a few more. We were planning to nosh for supper, but we found some chicken legs in Aldi and cooked them up, a nice easy meal. While the chicken was cooking, we made toast.

I have to explain: ever since I read A Discovery of Witches last year, I've been jonesing on toast. I swear the book bewitched me. Aldi had wheat bread really cheap. I bought a loaf and we had toast before our chicken legs. :-)

The Christmas episode of Call the Midwife aired on GPB tonight as part of another endless fundraising segment; however, they didn't  interrupt it. It was a sweet story about two women who had lost children, as well as Chummy's efforts to direct a Nativity pageant.

Over the River And Through the Woods (and the Stores)

It's been an eventful two days!

We usually spend Thanksgiving with our "friends who have become family," but this year my mother-in-law and sister-in-law invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them. Accordingly, we were up at eight o'clock to get dressed and walk and feed Willow. I shouldn't have done it, but I gave Schuyler a break on her medicine this morning. I figured she needed something to be thankful for, too. We left the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on for her and commenced to traveling.

Before leaving, we stopped at the new Race Trac gas station on Spring Road. This is a huge gas station that has just been opened for a few months. It's not quite as big as the "travel stations" on the freeway and  has no showers, but it's got a huge selection of food. I was Bad with a Capital B: got a pack of Hostess chocolate cupcakes for breakfast. I haven't had them in, literally, years! Also got a big container of sliced Granny Smith apples to share with James, and both papers, the Atlanta and the Marietta, and perused the sales ads for tomorrow for about half the ride down to Warner Robins, when I took over driving.

We hit town about 11:30. Wow, the city limit is almost to the freeway now. The city already had their Christmas decorations up, and when we drove past the stores at the edge of town, we saw people camping out for Black Friday (and "Grey Thursday," as they are calling the Thanksgiving night openings) in front of Best Buy even there!

Finally got to bring Mom her birthday and Mother's Day gift, as we hadn't been there since last Christmas: James was either working over the weekend or something else came up or we were away or they were busy. I made this with grapevine wreath with yellow forsythia wound in it with a hint of purple flowers, with a purple ribbon and some purple butterflies for trim.

We had a nice relaxing afternoon. The end of the parade was just scrolling by and we watched the National Dog Show and then football. We had dinner about 2:30 or so. Sadly, Sabra and her fiance were unable to join us as she wasn't feeling well. And, like my dad before me, I dozed off on the sofa. :-) Later we had dessert, but my stupid digestion picked that time to be a brat, even though I ate only a very small portion of turkey breast, James' biscuit stuffing, and some more olives along with some milk. I could barely eat a sliver of pumpkin pie and apple pie.

With a beautiful sunset on the horizon, we left for home. Neither of us slept well, and James was getting so fatigued on the way up that I took over driving at Locust Grove. I had sorted out the sale papers when we got to the house, and now I cut out the things I wanted to look into today and placed the name of the store and the opening hour on them. I cut a couple of Wally World and Best Buy items, even though both stores were opening tonight and I didn't expect to find the items left over.

James was off today and when I first asked him if he wanted to go with me he demurred in favor of sleeping late; however, he was awake when my alarm rang and was close after me. I gulped down some yogurt as James walked the dog and then I grabbed two Atkins bars, one for each of us.

I was headed for Sam's Club, which had Brave on Blu-Ray for $10. (Almost thirty regular price!) We were early, so we stopped at Walmart, which also was selling the same Blu-Ray. We couldn't find it, but we did find Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows. It wasn't on sale anymore, though, but it was still pretty cheap for a Blu-Ray, so I bought it. It was a fortuitous stop, because James' One-Touch diabetes testing gadget was throwing error messages, and Walmart had one for $10.

BTW, this Walmart was nearly empty! Opening last night sure cut down on the crowd this morning. I don't think there were a dozen cars there.

So we got in line at Sam's, where people were turning back in droves because they were out of cell phones and large-screen televisions. We did get Brave and I picked up something else that I can't mention because it will hint at another gift. I also picked up James' Christmas gift.

Just for the heck of it, we did go down to Best Buy, and, again, because it opened last night, there was hardly anyone there at 7:30. To our surprise, they had season five of The Big Bang Theory still in stock, only for $9 (they wanted $30 at Sam's and $35 full price at Best Buy!), and I found Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows on Blu-Ray in a bargain bin for $4! So I bought it anyway and later took the Walmart copy back.

Meanwhile, we went across the street to Office Depot. James was looking into getting a new laser printer. His printer, the color one, messed up some time ago when he was trying to print out some decals. They stuck to the roller and made a god-awful stink and it hasn't printed well since, plus ink doesn't stick to labels (yes, laser labels!). I've dreamed of printing Christmas labels on it, but it just flakes off them. Then we discovered that by the time he bought color cartridges for it, he would have spent enough to buy a new printer. So he found a nice Brother, but it wasn't in stock; we're having it shipped to the store.

I got another gift, a spare wireless mouse, some Christmas labels, and a desk blotter for work.

By this time, we were ravenous and went to the IHOP for breakfast (another place that wasn't crowded). James can now eat off the senior menu, too, so he had the sampler and I had the senior French toast. The drinks (his cola, my milk, and the two orange juices) nearly cost as much as the meals! Played on the wifi while there.

Then we headed for Cost Plus World Market. This year they are giving away Life of Pi tiger ornaments—and more free movie tickets! Also got something to finish up a gift basket.

By now it was going on time to head for the hobby shop. Today and tomorrow are the last two days they will be open (ironically they're going out of business on Small Business Saturday). (On the way we stopped at MicroCenter and I was able to pick up another gift.) The shop was very crowded (gee, if the crowd had been this big when they were doing regular business, they wouldn't be going out of business) and I sat and read as always as James made his last purchases.

If you thought it was time to head for home, well, not quite yet. We went back to Sam's to check on something, and while we were there I got more Chex and James some chips for his lunchbox, and James got me a copy of Call the Midwife for Christmas, then we bought gasoline for the car, and returned the DVD to Walmart. On the way home we stopped at Publix to get some lunch and picked up some turkey wings for dinner (that's all they had in dark meat). Even after all that turkey yesterday, we were still in the mood for more today!

James wondered if I felt like going out again. You see, we've both been having problems with our cell phones. Mine has had trouble getting a GPS signal and the speakerphone is not working properly on James'. He had an interview a month or so ago that I think was negatively impacted by the fact that the speakerphone did not work properly. So we went to the Verizon store, casting covetous eyes on the new Galaxy S III. But those were $200 each, so we went instead with the Galaxy Nexus instead, which had a complete price rebate. Of course we had to give up our unlimited data plan to get new phones, but we rarely go much over 2GB a month, so we could get a very small plan. It took a while because their (Windows) computers were working improperly, but everything was eventually transferred over and we could come home.

So now it's just a matter of re-downloading everything.and setting things up. Fortunately, these units also come with changeable batteries! I was hoping not to have to get a phone without that feature, remembering all the people at DragonCon scurrying to plug their iPhones in at every meeting room I was in! And the 4G is mighty quick; in fact, it's faster than the T1 line at work!

Exhausted when we got home, but did cook up the turkey wings—really the "drumettes" from two turkey wings—which we had with gravy and James' leftover stuffing, and a thin slice of Entemann's chocolate loaf cake each for dessert. Watched the news and Jeopardy and the repeat of the dog show, and I finally put on a couple of Lassie Christmas episodes to relax to.

Over the River and Through the Woods

We did go to Grandmother's house (well, Schuyler and Willow's grandmother), but our sleigh looked more like a PT Cruiser. Felt like it, too. :-)

We were up at nine, James walked Willow, we packed up the desserts we were taking, I gave Schuyler some millet and Willow some cookies to find. Ordinarily we take the truck down to Warner Robins, but since we had a big box of gifts we didn't want them rattling in the bed of the truck, even if we covered it up with a trash bag. So the gifts went into the back, the desserts in the back seat, and off we went, listening to Christmas carols via my Droid.

Traffic was light except for a mystery jam just north of the I-475 cutoff. We arrived about 12:15 and went out to eat at Olive Garden a few minutes later. There was James' mom, his sister Candy, her daughter Nicki down from New Jersey for the holiday, his youngest sister Sabra, and her fella Lee. We had a great lunch, with a very overworked waiter, and then returned to the house to talk more, open gifts, have the dessert we brought with us (two pies and some Mexican brownies), watch the football games (since apparently the network changed horses in the middle of a stream), and chuckle over the dogs, except for poor Trouble, whose rear legs are now badly askew from arthritis. And he's a few months younger than Willow.

We left just about sunset. I had downloaded a Christmas episode of "The Splendid Table" and of "Travel With Rick Steves," and we listened to those on the way home. We were both tired by then, and it was a long, dark drive with not a ton of traffic, but more than we expected, but thankfully uneventful. Unfortunately it wasn't uneventful for someone headed southbound just as I-85 joined the downtown connector; there was an accident there that blocked the entire six lanes. I hope no one was seriously hurt.

We came home and had something to eat (soup in my case, sandwich in James'), gathered the critters around us, and watched Mercy Mission with Scott Bakula and Robert Loggia. The film, about the pilot of a small plane lost over the Pacific and helped by the captain and crew of an Air New Zealand flight, takes place on Christmas Eve and we usually watch it before Christmas. Now I am enjoying one of my two favorite Christmas movies, The House Without a Christmas Tree. I love this story—if not the DVD release (they tried to ramp up the color and there are faint reddish streaks over many of the scenes). It all seems so real, and the background reminds me of relatives' homes from my childhood. I do notice one anachronism, though: the drugstore Christmas tree has miniature bulbs, which weren't introduced into the US until the 1950s and this takes place in 1946. (I do like the way they subtly indicate that Gloria Cott is a "poor kid," in three days of school scenes, Addie and her classmates have three changes of clothing, and Gloria wears the same outfit all three days.)

A Happy, Happy Christmas Eve

Well, not when the alarm went off, though. Ah, well. :-)

This year I had a list, so we had everything when we got in the truck at 9 a.m. At least everything after I looked at the list and ran back upstairs for the couple of things we had forgotten. We were off to Warner Robins to see James' mom and sister and niece, both very wary of the Christmas Eve shoppers, enough that we circumvented Cumberland Mall altogether—and then, surprisingly, saw little traffic on Cobb Parkway where it got near Best Buy.

We went through Macon this time so we could go into Warner Robins through the "front" (via route 247 in front of Robins Air Force Base) so we could stop at the cemetery first. I had bought James' dad a cute little poinsettia (this one was really cute; I am absolutely immune to plants and this one was trying to talk me into keeping it) which we left on the gravestone.

We had a nice afternoon with Mom, Candy, and Nicki. We exchanged gifts first—actually, James got to open his gift first, because I got him a small camera that he can take to model shows and air shows and it will fit in his pocket. He in return got me a Flip video camera. Wow! James got The Pacific as well as some World War II DVDs, and I got five stuffed birds, each which sings its own particular song: a goldfinch, robin, chickadee, bluebird, and cardinal, and some cutouts for crafting. We filled James' mom up with DVDs and some books, and gave Candy an Eeyore nightgown and a little purse, and Nicki some lotions and other pretties in a storage box; each also got a belated birthday gift: a heart-shaped glass box with a necklace inside, and Mom had belated birthday and Mother's Day gifts as well, since we have not been down there since last Christmas!

For lunch we had fried chicken with sides and the corn casserole James made. This is a new recipe, more like a savory custard, with eggs, onions, butter, etc.

We also met Mom's new dog. Her name is Jenny, and is part some type of terrier and part Maltese, a little thing about Willow's size who is a pretty cream color with long hair, floppy ears, and a simply long, long tail! She's shy, but friendly, and very sweet.

We left just as the sun was setting. Traffic was remarkably light! We stopped about halfway to "use the facilities" and I drove the rest of the way home, propped on my pillow (I can't drive the truck without it; if I pulled the seat up as far as I needed, James would have his knees tucked under his chin).

Willow greeted us happily (certainly partially because she needed to go out...LOL), and then we put things up, I sat down at the computer, downloaded e-mail, and got one that struck like a thunderbolt...a good thunderbolt, but, oh, my ears and whiskers! What news; what happy, splendid, joyful news! It was enough to send me dancing figuratively and literally for the rest of the night. I don't think I've been quite so happy in a long time, and can say honestly: Best Christmas gift ever! Of course it's not fair not to say what it is, but all the particulars are not known to certain people who need to know before others, so right now I'm happily keeping mum—although it's hard not to shout it from the housetops!

Watched The Homecoming tonight, as always on Christmas Eve, and also The Small One (which always reduces me to tears) and Mickey's Christmas Carol, then finished watching the news—they're still saying we might have a dusting of snow for Christmas!—and then Midnight Mass from the Vatican. After midnight we had gifts, and I feel quite spoiled, although I think James bought almost everything on Borders Bucks and Really Good Coupons and club discounts: Christmas 1945, Theodore Rex, Something Old Something New, and the collection of Harry Dresden short stories, Side Jobs, plus an autographed Owly print, and a T-shirt that says "Bibliovore," plus the Webkinz Signature fox (which I am tempted to name "Mulder"). I'd put my budget mostly in the camera (and the memory card), but I also gave James the DVD of Animal House and some World War II B-movies, plus the Webkinz ice dragon. Wil chomped on bacon-flavored dog snacks and I will give Schuyler a special something tomorrow: some mandarin orange, perhaps, or apple.

Will go to bed smiling tonight...

Pussy Willows

We love trotting through Trader Joe's, seeing the different varieties of food, sampling whatever is in the back, having a cold sip of water from the cooler. The cashiers are more relaxed than at a grocery store, and lining the windows in front of the store are seasonal plants.

Today they had a short line of three pussy willow plants in the window. Coupled with the first day of spring, it was enough of a nudge into the past. I petted one of the little silver-and-grey catkins, having done it dozens of years and dozens of times in the past.

One of the first signs of spring when I was a kid was of my Uncle Guido showing up at the back door with a big bunch of pussy willows in his hand. They were for my mother, ever the plant lover, with the philodendron plant in a ceramic dish in the living room carefully nursed year after year, the rose bush ruthlessly pruned back every winter always to resurrect in crimson blooms in June, the "bridal veil bush" which bloomed in tiny white flowers and gave us flower petal "snow" when the blooms were blown, and Mother's azaleas, huge bushes on each side of the front steps, which blossomed vivid pink right around Mother's Day.

Mom would take the pussy willow stems and put them in a big glass vase reserved usually just for them. I was allergic to anything that bloomed and the pussy willows were the only thing that didn't make me sneeze. When Dad bought Mom roses for Mother's Day, they had to stay out on the back porch. But the pussy willows I could enjoy, and pet as if they were tiny grey kittens.

Uncle Guido spent his whole life with plants. For years he was a landscaper at the Alpine Country Club. When he wasn't making his living with botanical items, he was tending a big vegetable garden in the rear of his house, and every year as long as he was well, he would buy marigolds and argeratums (the "fuzzy purple flowers," I called them) and red salvias and pansies and plant them in the dormant beds in front of our house for Mom to baby and tend and water for the rest of the summer. Unlike me, he was unafraid of earthworms and the creepy-crawlies in the dirt, and, as he knelt in the soft grass that edged the flower beds, his calloused hands would take up each tender little plant from its tiny cup and lovingly set it into the soil, tamping it around the stem so it remained upright, facing the sun.

Uncle Guido left to work in another Garden last May, at the age of 91, but the sight of pussy willows will always remind me of him.

C is for Christmas Convocations (Continued)

We spent the rest of New Year's Day relaxing. I finished all my Christmas magazines—Victorian Homes was beautiful as always (and lots of simple decorating ideas) as well as Early American Life Christmas; the British Country Living was also quite nice, with articles about people who have Christmas-oriented businesses, like Christmas tree farms, and I even picked up the British Country Homes which had some very simple, pleasant decorations, like using red-and-white towels (no Christmas designs needed) to emphasize the Christmas theme; Cottages and Bungalows looked nice, but was a bit disappointing, with too many pale things; oh, and I bought O Magazine because Ellen made such a fuss to get on the cover, but sad to say I found it a little dull, with too much fashion—and we watched various things we'd recorded, like Conquest.

[Re O—when I was in Barnes & Noble the other day, I saw a British magazine called Women and Home. I have one of these from the 1980s, and have kept it because of the fascinating British-life articles, including a story about a woman who was an embroiderer who did robes for the Archbishop of Canterbury, with photos of a beautiful Pentecost robe with the "flaming tongues." I was so disappointed when I looked at the newest version: slick, glossy, like Cosmo and O, with lots of ads and articles about makeup and makeovers and fashion and clothing—ugh...nothing unique about it at all. How sad.]

Today we went down to Warner Robins to visit James' mom and sisters, and also his youngest sister and her husband, who were visiting from South Carolina. Between James' work schedule and Mom's work schedule, this was the first day we could get together; we even had to miss James' niece Nicki, who had to go home earlier in the week.

It was a nice, sunny day, but also very cold for Georgia: when we left it was in the 20s but with the wind chill making it feel like the teens. We made a slight detour to go by the hobby shop and bring Rusty a Christmas gift: a Confederate calendar with artwork done by Mort Kuntsler, who started out doing art on model boxes. Then we got on the freeway and headed south. Despite the new "Super Speeder" law, many people were just zipping along at the speed of light. Many "snowbirds" going down to the Kingdom of the Mouse, we assume, including a New York van that was simply encrusted with salt from top to tire. Once I was out of Virginia I would have run that thing through a car wash. My dad tried to get his car washed every week during snow season; the salt is terribly corrosive.

We stopped in Jonesboro at the complex where BJs/Books-a-Million is, to hit Wendys for something to eat. Well, yeah, we also went into the bookstore. I found the January Country Extra (more snow photos!)—no more until fall now—and a Robert Fulghum book I didn't even know existed from the $3 last chance shelf. Haven't read any Fulghum in ages.

Arrived at Mom's a little after noon. Instead of making dinner, we had little finger foods—chicken wings, veggie and fruit tray items, the peanut pork rolls James made, pigs-in-blankets, little meatballs, etc.—and watched NCIS while waiting for James' younger sister and her husband all afternoon (they just moved and their clothes dryer wasn't working properly). I've seen NCIS before—it was a show my mom liked and reruns were a godsend the six weeks I was up there in May 2005 (along with the various permutations of CSI) since she had no cable and I absolutely loathe reality shows—but I think that's the most I've ever watched of the series at one time. I love Abby! And of course "Ducky" (heck, I remember when all the girls swooned over David McCallum back when he was in The Man From UNCLE).

We headed home about 7:30 and didn't get home until wayyyyyyyy after ten because of 20 stupid miles between the Tanger Outlets and the split to I-675. It was stupid because there were no more cars on the road as there had been south of Tanger, but there it was the speed limit and whap! at Tanger it was stop-and-go until a half mile before the split. A lot of traffic went off right to the split, but in reality it looked like "poof!"—block gone! What a pain!

So home again and chatting...

On the Sixth Day of Christmas...

...a trip to see the family, with a quick trip to the library first to do our last donation of the year.

Traffic was absolutely loathsome, bumper-to-bumper between around Southlake Mall to south of the Tanger Outlet Mall. On the way down it looked like there had been a bad accident, but the clog on the way back seemed to have no earthly excuse. It vanished after we passed the exit for I-675, but it appeared that only a dozen cars actually exited there. Too bizarre.

So we relaxed with the folks, had presents—got a lovely white sweatshirt with a snowflake done in blue and silver metallic trimming on it and two cross-stitch kits—and spaghetti for lunch and watched some of the coverage for President Ford and also the movie The Fifth Element, which was almost as bizarre as the traffic on the freeway. :-)

Returned home to a foggy Atlanta. James is watching his Christmas gift, One Six Right.

Holiday Excursions Once Again

We had a busy, busy day yesterday. First we drove down to Warner Robins (120 miles) to exchange gifts with James' mom and sister (his niece is in Michigan visiting a friend, and youngest sister was out). We stopped at Books a Million on the way down where I found the winter issues of Country and Birds and Blooms. The latter has the cutest photo of a chickadee on a holly branch as the centerfold. I cannot resist chickadees; they are so cute!

Then we called Ann and Clay, our friends in WR, and visited them and did "pesents." They have a third dachshund now, a longhaired mini named Chloe, who they adopted after her owner died. The three of 'em kept things lively, and we also saw Spot, James' grey tabby cat that he had to leave behind when he moved to Atlanta. Spot is eighteen years old now, but she still recognized James—after she ate her dinner she wandered over and sat on his chest and demanded to be petted.

We left early and were able to go by Alice and Ken's house for about 90 minutes to exchange gifts with them and chat with the friends they had at the house. At 8:30 we drove across town to Bill and Caran's annual party and were there until well after midnight. Saw many people we only see a few times a year, like Marilyn and Robert Teague and Marilyn's son Chris, and got to talk with Sue Phillips, who we hadn't seen in a dog's age.

We headed home about 12:30-12:45 and tumbled into bed soon after wishing Pidge and Willow a happy new year and also offering the same greetings to some folks on chat. Boy, I was tired: slept until almost eleven...

Are Gifts What Christmas is Made Of?

Handling the 'Gimme' Season

I understood from a very early age that (a) Santa Claus doesn't have everything and (b) Daddy works in a factory and we don't have a lot of money. It wasn't presented as anything horrible, but it was a fact of life. I remember several nice Christmas presents when I was small: Patty Ann, my walking doll; some great stuffed dogs; a baby carriage, but mostly I remember coloring books and a new box of crayons and small gifts. And then there were the bigger gifts as I got older: my 12-inch black and white TV (so Dad wouldn't have the fantods every time I wanted to watch Lost in Space—he loathed Dr. Smith), my first cassette recorder, and my wonderful manual typewriter (part of which I had to pay for myself, but I didn't care).

But my fond Christmas memories are about visiting the relatives and playing Po-ke-no in Papa's cellar and driving around to see the decorations and lights, and baking wine biscuits and molasses cookies and almond bars and butterballs with Mom, and lying under the Christmas tree to look up through the branches or writing stories by its lights, and finding just the right thing for my mom and dad or best friend, and going to Mass and the big creche scene near the altar. The gifts received were only incidental; the best part was the celebration with people you loved.