Christmas Countdown: 100 Days Until Christmas

It's the time of year when I usually pull out my pre-Christmas books, Unplug the Christmas Machine and The Christmas Survival Book (also Celebrate the Wonder), to see what I can do this year to keep the holidays happy and sane. I'm sure it's going to be an odd Christmas this year, what with remaining COVID-19 restrictions. I can't see Black Friday happening, for instance—just too many people in one place at one time. And many people have been out of work, some for only a few months, right now for some people this is ongoing. So this has been seen online and it sounds like a nice gesture.

Some people have pointed out that December 24 seems too late to donate to a food pantry; that food for the holidays may have already been distributed. Why not start your collection on Thanksgiving? (You might locate your closest food pantry first—this is important; last year I had food to donate and the pantry I had intended to give it to, one operating out of a small church, had closed due to a declining congregation—and give them a call to find out if there is a specific date to donate before Christmas?) And, while you're at it, why not start another box on Hallowe'en night, so that you may treat someone before Thanksgiving?

There is no need to limit yourself to brand names. We eat any number of store brands in our home, and they are actually supplied by the same companies that furnish the "brand names" like Del Monte, Kelloggs, etc. We once asked a friend who worked in a meat packing plant what the difference was between Winn Dixie meat and Kroger meat. His answer: "The label."

You can also avail yourself of the pre-packaged bags you can buy at the grocery store for a donation of $5, $10, and $20, but I tend to avoid these as they supply a lot of processed food in these packages. I find I can afford food with better nutritional value from the shelves. You might buy foods with low salt or low sugar, as often people on limited incomes cannot find these in their local grocery stores (we have to go looking for them) and have health conditions where it would be preferable for them to eat reduced salt or sugar.

A Thanksgiving Feast With a Side of Owl

As for many years now, Thanksgiving Day began with the Macy's parade. I still remember fondly waking up upon Thanksgiving morning and rushing to get breakfast so I could park myself before the television and watch the parades on CBS. They had the "Thanksgiving Parade Jubilee," showing parts of the J.L. Hudson parade in Detroit (Hudson's is long gone, but one of their offspring survives: Target; the parade survives as "America's Parade," I discovered this year), Gimbel's parade in Philadelphia (Gimbel's is gone, but Philly still has a parade), the pre-recorded Eaton's Santa Claus Parade (which, as I read in a book about the parade, long confused Canadian broadcasters on why the Americans wanted a Christmas parade on Thanksgiving; Eaton's is also gone, but Toronto still holds the parade), and finally the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade usually coming in last to present Santa Claus. In the real "old days" it was hosted by Captain Kangaroo from the Treasure House, later William Conrad took over the host duties from a richly-appointed men's den, drinking a toast at the very end. Later they ditched the Hudson's parade and started showing a parade from Hawaii with Jack Lord as the host (who the dickens wanted to watch flowers on Thanksgiving? I wondered), and Gimbel's got tossed in favor of a Walt Disney parade. Now CBS also has Macy's coverage and I heard the CW has the parade from Philadelphia. Probably had I known the latter I might have changed channels. Macy's has turned into, amazingly, not a big ad for Macy's, but a big ad for a bunch of young singing stars. Most of them were good, but who really cares? The announcers spend too much time yapping and promoting upcoming NBC shows.

This year, it was the commercials that were amazing. First came a four-minute epic from Xfinity, about a distant traveler who comes home for the holidays. Next came a magical visit to "The Time Shop" (I want to visit there!) with echoes of Narnia. And finally a little girl gets to ask all those pressing things a kid wants to know from the oddest of sources.

In the meantime James was in the kitchen cooking up goodies for our Friendsgiving feast, corn casserole and brown-sugar-glazed carrots, plus we had some Belgian chocolate seashells to bring along. We set the National Dog Show to recording and skipped out about one o'clock to find the feast about to begin at the Lucyshyn house. We had turkey, duck, pot roast, spiral-sliced ham, a whole passel of vegetables, Ron's mashed potatoes, a relish tray, bread, and, after all that, two kinds of pies, blondies, the chocolates, and brown bread with raisins (Oreta had to give out the recipe for the latter because it was so popular). We spent the time chatting, enjoying, and digesting.

The apex of the day was just after the sun had set. A line of orange and yellow was still on the western horizon, brightening the gap between two houses behind the Lucyshyn back yard, but above it, it was beginning to get dark and a quarter moon with Venus dangling beneath it was hung in the deep blue western sky just above the orange streak. I only had my phone with me, but I thought I might try to take a picture of it. So I went outside and snapped several photos.

Clair had followed me outside and both of us heard an owl hoot several times. Clair suddenly said "There it is!" and  pointed out the tallest tree in the neighborhood, silhouetted black against the southwestern sky. There at the top of the tree was the owl—we could see it stretch out every time it hooted, showing its head and tail! And then a few minutes later a second owl flew up to the same tree, different branch, and they hooted back and forth at each other for a few minutes, sketched against the sky like an Arthur Rackham illustration. Magical!

We drove home after admiring yet again the neighborhood overachievers nearby (the house at the very entrance of the development across from Alex and Pat's development) who had the front of their house covered with lighted Christmas trees, a manger scene, Snoopy on his doghouse, light spheres hanging from the trees, and so much more. (As a friend of mine might say, it looked like something had barfed up Christmas all over the place.) When I got home I went to the Cornell Ornithology website to identify the hoots, and it seemed we had two Great Horned Owls up in that tree! Clair confirmed that it was probably mating season for them, and what we saw might have been an attempt at courtship.

Turkey for dinner, owls in the night sky, and budgie song when we got home: that's what I call a Thanksgiving Day!

Valentine's Day

There are romantic things I like. I love long skirts, for example. The wonderful swish makes me feel so feminine, and to my absolute disgust, I grew up in the 60s with those dreadful sacklike miniskirts. I hated them. Me, I wanted to come through a door looking like Loretta Young at the beginning of her famous television anthology show, with her beautiful skirt swirling as she entered. But I'm not much into the traditional romantic things. Diamonds leave me cold. Colored stones are preferable, but I really think it's a waste of money spending it on jewelry. (They were advertising a $2000 "tennis bracelet" on television once and I turned to James and said, "If you ever buy me anything that costs $2000, it better be in a big box with 'Dell' on the side.") I have costume jewelry that's just as pretty, and it comes with wonderful associations, because it was made by Trifari, where my mom and dad met, where Dad spent his career, and where I worked for one summer and then full time three and a half years. I still miss the people I worked with.

I'm not much on romance books, either. I have the ones my friend Laura wrote, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. Some of my cozy mysteries or fantasy books have romances in them; some I can take and leave. I'm tired of the whitebread gorgeous woman runs into the whitebread gorgeous guy trope. I'd really rather they not fall in love at all.

Ah, but I do have my media couples. That I will happily indulge in. Max and 99 from Get Smart were my first "'ship" ('ship as in "relationshipping," a fannish term). One of my favorite couples for almost 40 years has been Christina and Will from Flambards. And who didn't love Tom and Barbara from The Good Life (Good Neighbors)? Plus there was the 'ship that never got to port, thanks to those @$%!$! at AMC: Betty Roberts and Scott Sherwood of Remember WENN..

Our own Valentine's Day was much more traditional. James had to go into work, because it was not a rainy day (and thankfully he had no doctor's appointment). When he came home I had the shrimp prepped and we collaborated on a sauce, and for dinner we had shrimp scampi and a cucumber salad, with blueberry pie for dessert, and a new episode of The Orville to boot. It was a nice holiday.

An Uncommon Christmas

Ever since James has been able to telework, he's been volunteering to work Christmas. In past years he has gotten holiday pay, but with the reorganization, that isn't happening anymore. So with the mandate from right before Thanksgiving still in place—with him only working 24 hours a week—it was essential that he work anyway to assure three days' pay.

So we were in bed early Christmas Eve, and James was at his desk promptly at eight. He had no calls, not even a person who had called the wrong number and was looking for support for his new Lenovo laptop, which would have been transferred because James works with blade servers. We basked in the Christmas lights, listened to Christmas music, I watched The House Without a Christmas Tree, and a little after noon, started cooking a turkey.

Now previously when he's teleworked at Christmas, James had ended work at five, we would have already been dressed, and we would have headed to the Butlers for Christmas dinner. But Lin had been in the hospital over Thanksgiving, so Pat and Alex volunteered to do Christmas dinner instead. They live in Lawrenceville, nearly an hour's drive away. By the time we had gotten out of the house and there it would have been 6:30, enough time to gobble and run so James could be ready to work the next day. What use was going all that way to have to stuff your face quickly and not get to spend any time relaxing and chatting.

So we had already planned our dinner: we would buy turkey thighs, have them with potatoes. I found a package of huge thighs that would provide us with Christmas dinner and even enough leftovers to make a sandwich or two later on. This changed when we took a trip to Sam's Club and found an 11.5 pound turkey I dubbed "Clifton" (after Clifton Road where CDC headquarters is located). Okay, so James would monitor the phones and I would get my first turkey-cooking lesson.

Anyway, back up a few days. We went to Hair Day, and found out that Mel and Phyllis were not going to Christmas dinner either; they are in their 70s and driving that far in the dark was daunting. Mel was wondering if we wanted to go out somewhere to eat with them on Christmas evening. So impulsively I invited them to Christmas dinner and we changed the time to evening.

Yes, we had our Jewish friends over for Christmas.

It was very informal. We completely forgot to cook the carrots we added to the menu. I started the turkey early because even being in the refrigerator for three days it was still frozen. I started it uncovered and had to tent the wings after just an hour and the breast after two hours. It was basted and rebasted in wine. However, the oven came through again and the bird was thoroughly cooked and ready by the time our guests arrived. We ate on paper plates and had Christmas music on softly in the background, and were talking about the old days when we were in school. Tucker mooched food, and Snowy sang happily in the background.

After they left James put up the rest of the carcass and only then did we exchange gifts. Because money was short this year we only bought one thing for each other, and knew what we were getting. I bought James an organizer for his modeling desk. It's specially made for modelers and has a ruled workspace and places to put paintbrushes and other accessories. He gave me a Cricut lightbox (which, thankfully, was on sale at Michael's on Black Friday). I've been wanting a lightbox for some time now.

And so we wandered off to bed at the usual time, full of Christmas and friendship and lots of turkey.

"Christmas Eve is Here," an Old French Carol

Christmas Eve is here—see, the moon is waking!
Christmas Eve is here, clear and cold the night.
Trudging thro' the snow, go the quiet people;
Trudging thro' the snow, go the quiet people.
Christmas Eve is here, clear and cold the night.

People on the road carry lighted lanterns;
See their bobbing lights lead the way to church.
There they will keep watch 'til the hour of midnight;
There they will keep watch 'til the hour of midnight,
When the bells will ring joyous melodies.

Hear the ringing bells swinging far their music,
Hear the ringing bells playing merry chimes!
Christmas Day is here, day of joy and gladness;
Christmas Day is here, day of joy and gladness,
Bringing peace on earth, and goodwill to men.

Traditionally, the French people singing this song would then be joyfully going home to celebrate La Réveillon, a post-Mass feast featuring a beef roast wrapped in pastry, escargot, oysters, pate de foie gras, chestnuts, truffles, and of course a fine wine. Dessert will be a cake that resembles a Yule Log, the Bûche de Noël (usually chocolate, but can be any flavor).

Out and About on St. Andrew's Day

Sadly, the workload at James' job is so low that he is on 24-hour weeks until the end of the year. Sure has put a crimp in our budget, but we can still go out and enjoy things.

So this year he got to come to the Apple Annie craft show with me; craft shows really aren't "his thing," but we talked with lots of folks, saw some pretty crafts, and even ran into an old friend. This is held at the Catholic Church of St. Ann out on Roswell Road on the way to (what else?) Roswell, near the Merchant's Walk area which is at the intersection of Roswell and Johnson Ferry Roads. On the way we stopped at Trader Joe's to buy a few treats for Christmas and refill our fruit bar collection. James loves their fruit bars, and they are low sugar, so healthful for him with his diabetes. Well, they had none, which was majorly bizarre. They anticipate getting more in tomorrow; however, they also aren't making the cranberry version in November any longer, although we did get the pumpkin flavor last month. Alas, we will not get any gingerbread sticks this year, either, as the company that made them for Trader Joe's went out of business.

So it was on to Apple Annie. There were plenty of handicapped parking spaces and no policeman out front to tell us the lot was full as I've complained about in previous years. We went from room to room—this covers the whole church complex, including the meeting rooms and the school and the gym—enjoying the crafts and all the "kringly" decorations—once again, a lot of jewelry, but very lovely stuff, made from gemstones or interesting beads, also artwork, ceramics, dog neckerchiefs, essential oil sellers, soaps, pottery, clothing, carved crosses, glassware, suncatchers and other leaded glass things, purses, etc. (not as much cutesy stuff for grandchildren to wear this year)—and we ran into Claudia Barbour and her friend Gloria while coming out of the gym. Claudia is living in Toccoa now.

I noticed the "papyrus lady" did not show up this year and am thankful I had bought all the beautiful things I loved of hers previously. Another vendor who was missing was the Asian lady who paints the little birds so beautifully, and the vendor who made non-electric speakers out of wood—they looked like two trumpet bells fixed back to back—and beautifully carved and polished with African designs. I always wanted one, but even the smallest was beyond my budget. The artist made them of good woods: walnut, mahogany, etc.

We mostly bought little desserts from the bake shop, the sale which supports the school, picking up little bags of molasses crinkles, thumbprint cookies, tiny pumpkin loaves, white chocolate cranberry cookies, and some chocolate treats. I also got myself a small jar of a sugar scrub, since my hands get so dry in the winter. This one is made with coffee grounds, and smells delightful!

I usually stop in the sanctuary to say some prayers, but it was closed today while they did some work on the balcony, so I went into the chapel instead and bared my heart and finished in tears. It's been such a difficult year!

For lunch we stopped at Tin Lizzy's and had soft tacos for lunch. They have a couple of different kinds that I can eat if I get them made-to-order. Otherwise it was an ordinary lunch, and then on the way home we stopped at Publix to finish the shopping, and arrived home just in time, as it was starting to rain. We'll be housebound tomorrow due to the rain, so I can take the Thanksgiving things downstairs and start decanting the Christmas stuff.

Had leftover turkey soup for supper with leftover couscous in it, and oyster crackers, filling and yummy, and of course the usual complement of evening programs like the news, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy. Had the new season of America in Color on, but really wasn't watching because I was reading. I'll have to rewatch "The Wild West" again. Did lay off reading for Hawaii Five-O.

Our Autumn "Social Season" Begins

The first of our autumn events arrived today: the annual Yellow Daisy Festival. We arose early to eat a quick breakfast and so Tucker could have his dog walk before we set out on the 37 mile drive to Stone Mountain Park. Traffic, of course, was minimal for a Sunday morning, and we got there at nine o'clock with our early pass. It was nice and quiet for a while, but it was already warm and very sticky. I was perspiring profusely before we were halfway through. It was harder walking than DragonCon for me, and I almost missed one farmstand that we really wanted to buy from.

As always, the crafts are a mix of everything: cute kids' clothes, toys, lots of different types of jewelry (the person who I got the Doctor Who headband from had a Walking Dead headband this year), homemade clothing (one lady had beautiful hand-woven sweater/shawl type items I would have loved, but they were very expensive, and worth every penny of the work!), pottery, food items of all sorts (jams, maple syrups, soup and casserole mixes, nuts, sauces), tools to work with foods (barbecue forks, hand-carved wooden spoons, bread knives), metalwork items, the occasional furniture items, hammocks, textile crafts—well, name it, it's there. As usual, there are lovely things we'd like, but can't afford: weathervanes, yard decorations, hammocks...but we must pass them by. However, James did get a new leather wallet, and then we stocked up on food goodies for the rest of the year: Smack Yo' Mama barbecue sauce; MeadowCroft Farms sweet onion relish (we love this stuff on steak and pork and even lamb!) and also sweet pepper and onion relish for James and some blackberry jam for me (till we can get to Ellijay for the blackberry spread I love); First Sergeant products (bourbon pineapple and brandy cherry sauces for us, and medium hot salsa for his burritos); and the first of our two fudge dessert indulgences. I also bought another bar of dog soap.

I was exhausted when we got done and we'd only been there two hours. We are usually there longer, but I did not buy anything from Country Pick'ns this year. It made me a little melancholy, but I've kind of mined them out for my interests. I have Christmas, winter, fall, seashore, kitchen, and pet elements all over the house at various times of the year, and I made fall and Hallowe'en items into a Thanksgiving theme. Her other themes are camping (which I used for a wedding gift), beach, gardening, sewing, and cooking, and I don't do any of those. Would have loved to have seen them do art/painting, writing, etc. But it's sad to have to "abandon" them.

We came directly home, getting caught in a short shower which quit the minute we got the power chair in the house. Spent the afternoon enjoying the air conditioning. I even fell asleep.

James made pork chops for dinner with the bourbon pineapple sauce with a cucumber side, we caught up on Mad About You, and now we're watching stuff off the DVR. It's almost as "high" as the to-be-read piles.

Christmas in the Air

As I mentioned, James volunteered to work today so he wouldn't get drafted, especially on New Year's Day. Plus it was double time and would make up a little for his three doctor's appointments last week. So this Christmas morning James was up at seven to work. I got to sleep in a bit.

James was twiddling his thumbs when I got up and had breakfast. I was changing channels looking for something Christmasy, and stumbled over Come to the Stable on FXM. I wish I'd known it was on. I hadn't seen it in years. It's not really a Christmas movie, but begins in winter when two nuns arrive in New England to try to found a children's hospital. I'd forgotten how funny bits of it was, especially Sister Margaret driving the jeep.

Tucker was very patient and waited for me to finish with the movie to go out. It was very cold out, in the high 20s with a sharp wind snapping the St. Nicholas banner and the flag. It felt good! There were high clouds and bits of sky showing as we strolled the neighborhood. Someone down the street was having company for dinner. The cars filled their long driveway and spilled out to the street.

James took a break before lunch and then we had presents! O, what a haul! Four books and two DVDs, the books all from my Amazon wish list: World War II in Rhode Island, Rhode Island Radio (with a photo of Jack Comley, my favorite radio talk show host ever), Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Britcom FAQ.  The DVDs were both Rick Steves: his new episodes for 2017-2018, and all his specials (even the Easter special). I gave James two military nonfiction books, Andy Weir's new book Artemis, the second season of WKRP in Cincinnati, and a Jethro Tull concert DVD. And of course the chair he was sitting in! (We discovered Tucker sleeping in it last night, and it looked so sweet, the little dog curled up in the big red chair next to the Christmas tree.

Put on The House Without a Christmas Tree while we had lunch: our turkey leftovers from West Cobb Diner on Friday night, a clementine, and Terry's dark chocolate orange slices. Tried not to snack too much so we could save the calories for the feast at the Butlers!

While James waited for someone to call, I also washed some towels and unloaded and loaded the dishwasher and made the bed.

Spent the later afternoon watching The Homecoming and feeling very drowsy, so took a 45-minute nap (well, I tried to; I really didn't sleep much), then took Tucker for a walk, fixed him a special Christmas dinner with a little chicken broth and beef and carrot dog-food puree, got dressed and washed my face, brought James his shoes (otherwise he was ready to go) and a hairbrush, and put the gifts together.

At five o'clock James signed off having had nary a call, and we loaded up the car with presents and chocolate cake and were off to the Butlers to enjoy three hours of friends, food and fun. People had just sat down to dinner and we availed ourselves of apple cider basted turkey, spiral-sliced ham, pot roast, mashed potatoes, noodle kugel, sprouts, and carrots. Dessert was two homemade pies, fruitcake cookies, our chocolate cake and a coconut cake, and some Andes mints we also brought. Once the feasting was complete, we gathered in the living room for gifts. We got many lovely things, too numerous to list.

Journeyed home about eight, stopping at a housing plat along the way to see their decorations. One end definitely had a "glitter gulch"! Yet another lawn was covered with inflatables: two Mickey Mouses, a Minnie Mouse, a Minion, Olaf the snowman, Santa in an airplane, Santa with his sleigh, and about a dozen more.

Once home we watched the Call the Midwife Christmas special—very interesting story based around "the Big Freeze," the cold winter of 1962-1963. Will the actress who played Barbara not be in the new season? They have sent her and her husband the curate to another church for six months. I've always loved Barbara and will miss her.

Books and Christmas Lights in Our Hearts

It's almost as hard to sleep on Christmas Eve as it is to sleep on Christmas morning, which explains why we were up at eight o'clock this morning. James thought about making biscuits, but I scotched the idea. If you're going to be stuffing yourself on carbs soon, better save them for the one-time-a-year yummies, and that last word definitely describes Lin's pies and Ron's mashed potatoes!

But we were intending to go out and have a good time anyway.

First we had to start with the adult mundane stuff: that 32 percent off coupon at CVS (and a CVS gift card) made buying stuff we needed, like Band-Aids, Neosporin, and the like a good bargain. Once that was all taken care of, it was off to Acworth, enjoying Christmas displays in front of people's homes, as we go a back way through country roads. I needed one more gift, and there it was at Books-a-Million. James got a few magazines and a game, then we had hot peppermint cocoa to make the trip really worthwhile. 😉

We took a few minutes off to get James' truck some gasoline—why is gas 14¢ a gallon cheaper in Acworth?—and then had lunch at Panera. It wasn't raining, but it was a grey and damp day, so hot soup hit the spot!

Then it was on to Barnes & Noble. Perhaps everyone at the mall doing their last-minute Christmas shopping were in bad tempers, but at both bookstores everyone was full of good cheer. Used my second 20 percent off newstand purchase for a Christmas "Landscape" and a cross-stitch magazine and the "Writer's Digest" yearbook and bought James an aviation magazine.

Headed home in the gloom to find the television still playing Christmas music for Snowy. We sat and relaxed for a while, then when it started getting dark went out to look at Christmas lights. We used to do this after we ate dinner, and it would be like by the time we went out (around 7:30) half the houses would have their lights turned off already. Timers, people, timers! Even if you have to be out, your lights will be on! They don't cost that much!

We were listening to Christmas music from one of the local stations through most of the ride and had the windows down (we were bundled up and it was only 45). We just stayed in Smyrna; went up toward downtown and drove around there looking at the lights, then checked out some side streets. Went down Bank Street with all their delicious new Craftsman-style homes, and crossed Atlanta Road to check out the "Craftsman" units on "old" Spring Road and opposite the railroad tracks. Our final stop was the unusual development near the end of Old Concord Road: the homes are quite close to each other and all have double glass front doors.

Some people still didn't have all their lights on, as late as seven o'clock! Some lights came on just as we were driving by at 7:15! One of our favorite things wasn't there: one of the houses near downtown Smyrna has this swoopy star that looks like a comet, but it didn't seem to be up, let alone on. But we saw two pairs of the same figures: Yoda and Darth Vader next to each other. One set was made of lights and the other set was inflatable, on a tiny lawn filled with inflatables: they also had a Dory, the M&M guys, Santa in a helicopter, a snowman, and more.

Dinner was kinda small. We picked out some shrimp to have as shrimp scampi, with linguini, but we should have bought more shrimp. We were trying to keep costs down, so basically James had nine shrimp and I had eight. This would have been fine if they were jumbo shrimp, but they weren't. I was hoping we had some clam chowder left in the larder, but almost all the clam chowder went away in the Great Sodium Purge, and the one can we did have amazingly seemed to have come from the old house! Neither of us wanted to eat that! We did find some vegetable orzo soup and shared that, and had gingerbread sticks for dessert.

During dinner we watched the Christmas episode of Remember WENN ("Christmas in the Airwaves"). Noticed the costume designer seemed to work it out that when Scott and Betty are next to each other they are mostly in red and green. :-)

For the last story of the night, I played The Little Drummer Boy. I still have my VHS version because the DVD is missing bits of the soundtrack, and it looks terrible to boot ("restored" version my foot). But as always the story is luminous.

Rainy, With a Chance of Kringly

The forecast of rain precluded us going to Chattanooga today, so we had an alternate idea: we'd go up to Books-a-Million for a hot cocoa and a look at the calendars, and come back by MicroCenter to return something we'd bought that we didn't need. Well, the weather report seemed to indicate the rain would start at noon and end right after three, and we didn't want to rush, so we put off the book trip. Since we don't have to cook for Christmas Eve (much), we can go up there tomorrow.

Instead, after breakfast we returned the item to MicroCenter, then, because we were halfway there, made a quick trip to Trader Joe's for a tea James liked, got a little more peppermint bark (the Peppermint JoJos were completely gone), and then headed for Ollie's Bargain Outlet, as James was looking for new bungee cords to hold the tarp on the power chair. We picked up a gadget that is supposed to air fry in the oven (and if it doesn't it's only $10 wasted) and I found the same three-calendar set as I did last year, so I can have a small calendar near the computer. It has become so hard to find calendars smaller than 7x7 anymore. There used to be several sources: Michaels, Kmart... We got home right as a few specks of rain tapped the truck window.

Had lunch to M*A*S*H Christmas episodes, then did a spate of vacuuming while James was making more breakfast burritos. This will get him past Twelfth Night before he has to do any more. Once he finished, did two more M*A*S*H episodes, and finally The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, after which we left for supper, timing it just as the mailman arrived, with another Christmas card from a friend, and two Christmas packages from two different friends. And the rain? The few specks of rain went away until about one, we had about a half hour of hard rain, and then, whoosh, it was gone. We even saw a brief gleam of sun until the clouds closed up again.

Oh, well, I can't say I wanted to drive up to Chattanooga two days before Christmas...

Supper was at Fried Tomato Buffet (it's barbecue rib night) and we came home by Kennesaw Avenue to see the decorations on all the big old houses, and then went past our old neighborhood to see if they still do luminaria in Dunleith. If they do, it wasn't tonight. We did go past one of my favorite houses; among all those modern designs, there is a house that looks like a colonial saltbox, complete with a period door, etc. They still just use plain white candles and plain green wreaths and red bows, although the white electric lights on the big pine tree out front kinda ruins the period effect. 😃

More Christmas specials tonight: Father Christmas, The Snowman, The Night Before Christmas, "Christmas at Plum Creek" from Little House on the Prairie, and finally The Best of the Andy Williams Christmas Specials. Snowy sang blithely to all of them!

The only sobering part of today is waiting to hear about James' mom. She and his sister went to visit his sister's daughter and husband and their little boy up in New Jersey, and Mom was not feeling good, so they went to the emergency room. She is not critically ill, but she's stuck in the hospital while they are doing tests to see what is causing her shortness of breath, and who wants to be in the hospital at Christmas, even if it's the best hospital in the world?

Third Sunday of Advent: Hygge and Hard Drives

Our original plan for today: go to McKay's in Chattanooga and then eat at City Café. I love going up to McKay's before Christmas; they have the Christmas CDs and Christmas books right out and easy to find. And City Café has a brilliant chicken soup that they put broken-up spaghetti in instead of noodles. Every Italian kid remembers his mother doing this for a quick supper. It's like suddenly going back in time: to grandparents and great-aunts and -uncles speaking Italian (I miss people speaking Italian), and torrone squares in with the Christmas cookies, which weren't sugar cookies with thick colored frosting or gingerbread boys, but almond bars and molasses bars and wine biscuits and pizelle, and even hard fruit-flavored Italian candies in the candy dishes, and always a dish of nuts in the shell.

But it was supposed to start raining in Chattanooga by 10 a.m. and in Atlanta by two. The power chair isn't supposed to travel in the rain, and you can't carry cardboard Xerox paper boxes in a pickup truck's truck bed in the rain. Life happens and rain happens. I've driven home from Chattanooga in the rain, chair or no chair. It's not pretty.

We spent part of the morning swearing because yesterday we'd pretty much had to wedge the new hard drive into James' old computer (everything is riveted in) and since it didn't work, we now had to take the new hard drive out, and the old hard drive, too, to get the files off it. It took James about a half hour, and I had to use a wrench to bang part of the strip of housing that was holding the enclosure with the hard drives in it so it would come out (and he still had trouble). But he got the old drive out, put it into the enclosure, and prepared to copy the files off.

The old disk was completely blank. The update hadn't corrupted Windows, it had wiped everything!

James had done a backup of his main drive to a portable disk in June, so we were able to extract his Eudora mailboxes from that. I turned on the Christmas tree and the Christmas village and put more Christmas cassettes on and we had Christmas hygge as he loaded Eudora and WordPerfect and Paint Shop Pro and other necessary programs, and we restored his mailboxes. We even cleaned out the spinner full of program discs on the top shelf of his computer desk. We found some relics up there, including some disc that could be booted in DOS and a WindowsXP operating disc! He threw out old stuff, kept discs of images, e-books, and manuscripts, and kept any games he was still interested in. The next step will be to see if all the games (mostly military, a few fantasy and some arcade) still open in Win10, and if they don't, if compatibility mode will make them work.

For supper we had half of the four-pound pork loin I found at Kroger, slow cooked in barbecue sauce, with a cucumber salad chaser. It was delicious, and there's leftovers for lunch for both of us.

To finish out the night, we watched the live performance of the Broadway play version of A Christmas Story. It was super, especially the little boy—Andy Walken—who played Ralphie. What a voice on that child! He made it all real. Interesting bits added to the story, like about Schwartz being Jewish (he isn't in the movie and apparently the Hanukkah scene was written for the television production), Miss Shields having OCD, etc. I loved how they worked adult Ralphie, played by Matthew Broderick, and his narration into the action, and really adored the songs "Counting Down to Christmas" and "Just Like That" (also nodded vigorously to "What a Mother Does"!). But what brought down the house for me was the ending narration provided by Broderick, about how sometimes parents didn't say they loved you, but they worked for you and nagged you and kept you safe, which was the same thing. It made me cry. Thinking about it still makes me cry.

And the Bumpus hounds were played by rescue dogs to boot!

Second Sunday of Advent: A Christmas Miscellaney

This snow storm unexpectedly delivered to us on Friday has been novel in many ways. It pretty much almost set a record for Atlanta snows, depending on where you were. The record is 8.3 inches from 1940, and if it hadn't rained I think we would have made it or gone over. We had 7 inches on our deck on Sunday morning. Furthermore, today we still have snow on the ground—not some small bits of white stuff in perpetually shady places, but snow still on lawns and bushes. It commonly snows one day and then goes up to 60℉ the next.

So it's been a nice Christmas-y coda to the weekend (except for the poor folks who are still without electrical power). It sure was beautiful on Friday. I'll not soon forget crunching on the new fallen snow, watching the streetlights and the Christmas lights come on, the unearthly silence that a mantle of snow throws over the landscape, the beauty of the clearing sky the next morning with the stark white against brilliant blue.

James started the day in lovely fashion by making biscuits. This cleaned out our Bisquik. Since apparently we can't go to the grocery store without forgetting something—this time it was onions—there was another item for our grocery list.

Our most pressing need was getting James a new hard drive. So our first stop today was MicroCenter. He got a hard drive and a hard drive enclosure so he could get his files and his Eudora mailboxes off the old hard drive (then perhaps he can reformat it and use it as a second drive). They had Fitbits on sale, so for Christmas I bought him a Fitbit Alta with a heart monitor. When he does cardio rehab he has a certain heart rate he is not supposed to go over; I want him to find out what that is so he can do exercises at home during bad weather or other times he can't attend. The doctor gave him stretching exercises to do at home, and he has weights he lifts. He can use the Fitbit to monitor his heartbeat.

So we stopped by Publix to get onions and Bisquik and a little more yogurt, and picked up a few more things like always. We had a fun time in dairy: they always put my yogurt on the top shelf and being a shrimp I can only reach so far. This time they were so far back I couldn't even get them with James' cane. So a lady with a schoolage son helped us, and he was quite chuffed about the whole thing. And then we went by Mink's, where I had to once again go on a search through the dark corners of the store to find a bottle of hearty burgundy (all I ever find is Gallo Brothers, so it's not like I even have a choice) so I can make cookies.

And now for the fun portion of the afternoon, it was our annual attendance at "An Atlanta Christmas." Last year they did all our favorites; this year they did mostly new scripts. My favorite this year was "The Role of a Lifetime," a previously-performed story written by Brad Strickland about a down-on-his-luck actor playing Santa Claus at a 1950 department store who is stunned by a little girl's Christmas request and what he does about it. It's very sweet and very reminiscent of stories written by Thomas Fuller, who wrote the original "Atlanta Christmas" sequence of tales. Kelley Ceccato did a new story this year, "The Sleigh of Unbroken Dreams" (or it may have been a typo in the program book and it's "Unspoken"), about a trio of elves at the North Pole who dream about giving a different type of toy to children rather than the commercial standards, just like another elf did long ago. With the help of a retired reindeer, they work on making their own dreams come true. I really, really enjoyed this one, and think it would make a fantastic children's book! I was listening to it envisioning the characters as illustrations and wishing I could draw the way I saw the pictures in my head! "Rory Rammer" was "A Visit from St. Rex," a perennial favorite.

We picked up Chinese food on the way home and ate by the light of the Christmas tree. Watched Alaska: the Last Frontier, which ended on a tragic note with Shane having fallen off the roof of their new house (it was finished a week earlier) and broken his back.

On the Third--and Fifth--Day of Christmas

I've been out this week twice stocking up on crafting supplies. What with James' problems taking up most of the first seven months of this year, I had gotten out of the habit of using the Michaels and JoAnn coupons. I need to take this up again. What I gather can be use for gifts, and when money starts getting tight in the future, that will be useful.

Tuesday I went to Town Center because I had two good JoAnn coupons, a fifty and a forty. Town Center is great because four hobby/craft shows are right near each other, in walking distance, really, if you are in good shape. I skipped Hobbytown because they're mostly models, trains, and puzzles, and started at Hobby Lobby, where they were industriously putting up Valentine decor, having scrunched Christmas into as few aisles as they could. I checked out the leftovers, but mostly ugly stuff was left. I was getting an urgent call of nature, so I left without picking up anything else.

First checked out the bathroom at JoAnn, then the merchandise. Storage was already on sale, so I finally got a case for my drawing pencils. With the other two coupons I got a start on a Christmas gift (actually parts for a couple). Then next door at Michaels I picked up something that will become another Christmas gift, plus a bag of little pieces of wood. I have an idea for them that isn't quite formed yet.

From Craft City I went to Book City to check out the clearance table at Barnes & Noble. No goodies today, sadly. Checked for new books and gave the magazines a once-over, then went to Publix in the hopes of finding a baguette. I did, as well as some low-sodium beef soups for James, plus they had Sterlite storage boxes on BOGO, so I bought two.

I came home through the battlefield park and down Kennesaw Avenue past the beautiful old homes with their long aprons of lawn and sweeping sidewalks, which are more traditionally dressed in greens and red bows. I like to slow down and look at the homes, but always there's someone behind me and I can't linger too long to check out the beautiful gingerbread trim and the columned porches. A couple of people even have wire fences like the one that used to be in front of my grandfather's house, not your garden variety chain link, but like the wire in the photo at right (click to see details). They make me ten kinds of nostalgic.

I got home just in time to see the flurry of posts on Facebook about Carrie Fisher's death. Damn. I hate 2016 more each day. I sat down, got fidgety, and pulled out my drawing pencils and sketched Artoo-Detoo saying farewell to his princess in hologram. Yeah, cliche and corny, but who cares? (Damn. She was younger than me.) And then, oh, yeah, the exterminator showed up.

Casually skipping over yesterday and later Tuesday night, which is covered elsewhere, I woke up having had a sort-of decent sleep. After breakfast and puppy perambulation and enjoying listening to Dana and Mugs, I headed for Lowe's to see what was left of their Christmas stuff. They had strings of C-9 clear bulbs and I decided to try once again to provide some light out in the back yard, while the tattered remnants of the last string still hang broken from the deck. I have to take them down and put the new string up properly; I think it broke because I just swagged it from some floral wire; it shouldn't dangle. (Of course there's a chance the stupid squirrels chewed it, too.) I also bought clear and white C-7 bulbs, and checked out the LED bulbs again. I also looked for winter banners, as ours is shredded. They had some, but only in small sizes. Eeek! I've had to order one online. Hope I don't get skunked.

Now, Michaels had a two-day after-Christmas coupon: 40 percent off all jewelry-making supplies. This seemed too good not to take advantage of. I originally started for the Hiram store, but changed course to go back to Town Center because I still had two more JoAnn coupons. I was able to pick up some really good pieces in Michaels, either under the coupon or on clearance, and found some dimensional Modge-Podge to use with their 50 percent off coupon. JoAnn was just as profitable; I bought some permanent colored pens, a holder for James to use for his medications, and a few more sale items.

I told Snowy I would try to be home around noon, but missed it by an hour. Once again I came home through the park. The parking lot near the park headquarters was crammed with cars and dozens of people (and many dogs) were walking on this beautiful sunny day with temps in the 50s, tempered by a pretty brisk wind which kept a steady stream of dead leaves swirling around any area they had accumulated. At one point leaves came dancing in front of my car like tiny ballerinas skipping across a stage. Once again I logged on to Facebook to discover that someone has passed away: this time it was Debbie Reynolds. She had what they thought was a stroke yesterday after commenting on daughter Carrie's death. ::sigh:: Now mother and daughter are reunited again.

For the rest of the afternoon, I had a leftover pork chop for lunch, put some of the most egregious mess away, updated blog entries, played Christmas music and more Christmas specials stacked up on the DVR (Perry Como in Austria and Bing Crosby joined by Mary Costa and Robert Goulet, plus the second half of a Pearl Harbor special that I unfortunately missed the first hour of, talking about how Admiral Kimmel was screwed by military intelligence and warned too late due to multiple blunders.

James and I had the rest of the pork-recipe beef pot roast for supper with scalloped potatoes, slices of a Terry's chocolate orange for dessert, and I have been watching specials about Switzerland: a tour of Swiss Christmas markets and now a train ride through Switzerland.

Boxing Day Blues and Greens

It was 61°F when we went to bed. Even with both fans in the window, we both slept badly. James got up at seven to telework, but I hung on another hour, having been woken up being warm, again being itchy, again because my leg hurt—it became a litany. Woke up to find it grey, gloomy and grizzly. So I dressed, walked Tucker, ate a quick breakfast, and left James staring at his computer (he had no calls all day dealing with what he's supposed to support at all; any calls he took were from people who couldn't log onto their laptops).

I hadn't gone to Walgreens at all during Advent, and based on the leftovers there today, I needn't have wasted my time then or now. However, I had a 30 percent off total purchase for CVS, so that was my next destination. BreatheRights were on sale so I couldn't get them, but I stocked up on PeptoBismol, some disposable shower caps, wide headbands to use in the car with the window open, and a few other toiletries. Next it was over the railroad bridge and past the leftover Christmas trees to Bed, Bath & Beyond, but had to stop at Barnes & Noble first. I wanted to see if they had the clearance items out, but...nope. Just like CVS, they were still in the process of marking them down. So I used the bathroom and skedaddled.

James had asked me to get him a 10" saute pan at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I picked that up (it turns out what he needed was a 8" saute pan, so now I need to swap it), plus a fold-up stepstool for the laundry room, and a gadget to scrub out the shower. Even when I kneel down I cannot reach the back of the shower compartment. This thing has an extension pole on it and has a rotating scrubber. I hope it will cut down the pain to my back. I found one of those "star shower" things (the brand that's red, green, and blue) half price and got one for James, and also some balsam and cedar Yankee candle tea lights.

Next I stopped at Costco, as we were out of both milk and Skinny Pop. I bought something for us to take to Bill and Caran's annual New Year's Eve bash, and picked up the "Time" salute to John Glenn as well.

My last stop was Michael's, where I indeed did pick up two Christmas clearance items, but mainly grabbed a few small things to use a 30 percent off total purchase coupon which is only good today. I am looking for a container for my drawing pencils, but everything is too big! I want something the size of a pencil case, and it's all huge.

Got home just in time to dodge the rain and have lunch with James (leftover shells with pork from Friday's supper) and then sat down to watch some Christmas things, starting with The Little Match Girl. The only resemblance to the Andersen story is that there's a little girl selling matches; in this go-round she's an angel in disguise, trying to help a fragmented family in a 1920s era Philadelphia-clone city. Keshia Knight Pulliam plays Molly the angel with a sweet combination of innocence and roguish knowledge, and William Daniels is perfectly stuffy as the wealthy businessman who doesn't realize he's being played by a crooked police chief.

The rest of the afternoon was reserved for assorted unusual Christmas specials I've recorded over the years: first The Greatest Tree on Earth, a fascinating British program about the history and traditions of the Christmas tree, following a Tokyo family, a Lappish family, and a Brooklyn family with their Christmas prep, intercut with historical insights and the workings of a Christmas tree farm. The most bizarre segment showed German propaganda films from World War II, made to convince the population that everything was fine. There was a huge tree hung with Hitler ornaments and glass acorns with swastikas on them, topped with a star, under a big swastika. Talk about unsettling! Then Christmas and the Civil War. Using re-enactments, it showed how Christmas went from a small religious holiday to a national celebration, following the lives of Thomas Nast, Louisa May Alcott, a plantation owner's wife, and a slave who was originally a Christmas gift to his master's wife. Next Christmas Lights, simple  footage shot in different places, no narrative, just some background music: the skating rink at Rockefeller Center, a writer's cabin in Alaska being decorated with lights and ornaments with a bonfire held outside afterwards, Washington DC and the display around the National Christmas tree and other public buildings, the coast of Maine where children and adults decorated a tree with lights and goodies like apples, popcorn, corn, seed-covered peanut butter pinecones, and even herring for the local wild animals, and finally the streets and decorations and then the Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg. Dreamy, lyrical and simply beautiful.

Finally there was another re-enactment special, The Christmas Truce, that included an appearance by the daughter of Bruce Bairnsfather, a famous cartoonist who served in World War II.

We had Italian wedding soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper, watched Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune, and now I'm on the Christmas specials I still have stacked up on the DVR: two Merv Griffin Show segments to start with. One was in black and white when Arthur Treacher was still Merv's sidekick: he was dressed up as Santa Claus and sang two songs. The other was a color episode which featured William Shatner —all excited about a project he was working on with inner city kids—and Mel Torme, who sang "The Christmas Song," of course, and did an acappella duet with Merv of Christmas songs. Smashing!

(Guess what! What James wanted was an 8" saute pan. He said ten. So back we will have to go to BB&B.)

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.

"It's So Tinsel!"

Finally, it was time! I slept until 8:30, ate breakfast and walked the dog, and commenced to tree assembly and then decoration. Snowy played supervisor as I stacked the tiers of the tree and plugged each in, sighed in relief when each lighted, snaked an extension cord down the "trunk" of the tree so I could plug in the star, and then started to apply decorations, old in the back, large everywhere first, to be filled in with smaller ones. This year I did not put the Hallmark "twelve days of Christmas" ornaments on the tree. We have half of them now, and I bought the metal display tree a couple of years back. We have one more bird to go, the swans a'swimming, and then I will note with interest when we leave the birds and start with the humans. This set has made the number five not "rings" as in the kind you wear on your fingers but as ringneck pheasants; this is a theory about the song is that the "five golden rings" were golden ringneck pheasants, which were known as "rings" in the era the song was conceived. (It's not, as some people say, about the Bible. It's a song to be sung at a game, back from the days when that was part of the Christmas celebration, not watching football on TV or playing on your iPad.)

The tinsel, as always, took the longest. I always want to get that perfect waterfall effect, like ice flowing down the tree. It's made harder by the fine icicles that they make today. The version through the late 60s (when they replaced lead foil tinsel with the mylar stuff) through the 1990s was thick enough that I could remove it after Christmas and keep about three quarters of it. The new stuff is almost as fine as angel hair, and if you remember that awful stuff, you also remember how it was prone to static electricity. At least it was cold today! The temperature was down in the 20s this morning. Last year it was so warm when I decorated the tree that I had to wear a glove to hold the tinsel because it was sodden with perspiration from my hand.

Once the manger figures were under the tree, I was done! "It's so tinsel!" as Lanny and Wayne the Christmas elves would say. I changed clothes quickly and took four of the five packages we need to mail (one has a missing part) to the post office to get them off. Remarkably, this only took about fifteen minutes. I'm going to quit going to the PO when it opens!

I'd only eaten oatmeal, yogurt, a piece of bread and three glasses of milk all day, so Uncle Maddio's Pizza was a welcome supper! Then we went to Sprouts and then to Publix. We just need milk and eggs and "plastic cheese"—which we can get at Costco tomorrow.

So nice to blog by the glow of the tree...

Twas the Day Before Thanksgiving...

It has been a busy, busy morning here. JoAnn decided to start their Black Friday sale on Wednesday, so I had gotten up not soon after James, dressed, had a little milk and grabbed a packet of peanuts, and headed to Kennesaw. A fluorescent light James used in his modeling had died, so we recycled the old one last Saturday and I picked up a new Ottlight for him as a Christmas gift, and bought myself a watercolor pad with a coupon. I would like to come back on Friday, though.

Since it was still before nine, I stopped at the nearby Office Max to see what might be interesting there tomorrow and bought a desk calendar for work, since apparently no one sent me a message that they were ordering calendars this year. I got a very interesting coupon on the receipt: 30 percent off a chairmat, which we both really need.

What I needed now was breakfast. Alas, Chick-Fil-A has discontinued my favorite breakfast, the #8, oatmeal and a fruit cup. Thanks...the only low-cal entry they had and they killed it. So I went to Panera and had "power almond quinoa oatmeal," which was okay, but a little too sweet for me. I also didn't think much of the "power." I was hungry again by 10:30.

Stopped by Barnes & Noble to see if there were any new books out (nada for now and didn't buy anything because there's a coupon for the weekend and all the magazines are 30 percent off), then stopped at the post office to get Christmas stamps before heading to Publix to pick up lunch. They had a James favorite, chicken and wild rice soup, so I got two for supper and picked up a baguette to make a sandwich when I got home. A quick stop at Staples to see if there's anything of interest for Friday, and then I made one final stop at Office Max, since I couldn't find a mailing tube at the post office. And now I have another coupon for another chair mat to boot.

It wasn't lunchtime quite yet, though, because I'd gotten a call from James saying he had forgotten his insulin this morning. I stopped at home quick enough to refrigerate the soup and played Mercury with the insulin.

I had some preserves and baguette for lunch with a milk chaser and spent the afternoon watching Lassie episodes on YouTube.

Incidentally, one of the things I found at Publix was the Thanksgiving newspaper. Now I don't have to go to the QT before the Macy's Parade tomorrow. Something else to give thanks for.

(Later on: supper, a special on the 90th anniversary of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and then some pre-recorded specials, including The Thanksgiving Treasure.)

In the meantime, I've had a good read with this new book:
 
Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience, Melanie Kirkpatrick

It's always nice to find a Thanksgiving book for adults out that is not a cookbook. This one is a history of the holiday written after the author visited a high school where most of the students are immigrants. She wanted to examine all the aspects of the holiday, not just the tired Pilgrim-and-Indians story that's trotted out every year (and believe it or not, a story that no one outside of Plymouth, MA, knew about until the mid 1800s). That is a part of the holiday, but not all of it; for a long time it was the holiday that substituted for Christmas in New England, since the strict Puritans and their successors did not celebrate it.

Kirkpatrick touches on all aspects of Thanksgiving, including an entire chapter on football, which has been a Thanksgiving tradition for almost 150 years (and it's possible a form of football might even been played at that classic "first Thanksgiving"). She also delves into the unique Plymouth holiday Forefather's Day, and the Native American Day of Mourning—and of course the 1930s controversy over "Franksgiving," when FDR dared to move the holiday up one week to improve Christmas sales in the Depression.

The final third of the book are different Thanksgiving readings from authors from George Washington to Laura Ingalls Wilder, Abraham Lincoln to Billy Graham, and then some vintage recipes from Thanksgivings gone by. I wish they'd included a Marlborough pie recipe as they kept mentioning this vintage dessert throughout the book. (Recipe from "New England Today.") Possibly one of the best things about this volume are the little watercolor-and-ink spot drawings as chapter headers and between sections of chapters which are also used on the endpapers. It lends a special touch to this neat little volume.

Looking for Christmas

It's been a rather sobering Advent this year with the death of Juanita's mom and then Willow getting sick. Every day has become an emotional struggle, and I woke up this morning feeling very down. But there were things to do.

After breakfast I dressed so I could finally take Nicki's gift to the post office to mail. I've had to delay mailing it because I had not finished a little something I wanted to include in the package. I had finished that last night and wrapped and addressed the parcel. I also got an airmail stamp to send what will be a very belated Christmas card. I wanted to bake cookies when I got back, and I didn't think we had enough flour or sugar, so I stopped at Food Depot to pick them up, then "fed" the car.

On my way home I thought I'd stop by Lowes to see if they had any more solar lights. The direct route was through the "Covered Bridge" neighborhood which includes a 19th century mill site and, of course, the titular covered bridge. The bridge has to have an I-beam barrier on each approach because, despite numerous signs saying that the clearance for the bridge is only seven feet high, big delivery trucks continue to drive up to and smash into the I-beam. Sure enough, as I was exiting the bridge, here came another idiot truck driver without the sense God gave a goat, heading for the bridge.

Anyway, the solar lights were all gone; oh, well. I was in a pretty morose mood at the time and looked wistfully at the abandoned Borders store across the parking lot, wishing I could just walk through those doors and back in time. The weather wasn't helping; it was overcast and getting warmer by the minute. Tomorrow, the day of the winter solstice, it's supposed to be a horrible 70°F. Ugh.

When I got home I remembered James saying he didn't feel like putting up any more Christmas lights, but I suggested we might want to just put up the Moravian star. I wanted to do something to cheer him up, and we all need a star to see by, so I dragged out the ladder—this was the hardest part because I am acrophobic and can't go over the second step—and hung up the star, plugged it into the extension cords, and set up the timer. I also stripped the old blue LED light set (tell me again how LED lights are long-lasting; every string of LED lights we've bought either have at least a dozen lights out, or half the string is out) off the little tree on the porch and put on another set, so when we came home tonight the Moravian star was softly glowing blue and the tree was doing the electric blue slide. (The poor solar lights, though, were looking very puny due to the cloud cover all day.) I also put out the greens basket (which partially covers up the big timer and the extension cords), and hung the Christmas decorations on the porch railings. They should have gone up after we put up the lights, but then we didn't do lights.

Once in the house, I did a last-ditch effort to get the lights on the airplane tree to work. I replaced what looked like two burned-out bulbs (but there are at least two more) and tried to replace the fuse, but I couldn't get either out. Needless to say, it didn't work, and this is why I didn't start baking the wine biscuits until 2:30. Besides the fact that I had to dispose of what flour was already in the canister, the baking went flawlessly. I made two batches of wine biscuits which were almost done when James arrived home—by the time I changed clothes and printed out coupons, they were finished.

We had supper at Giovanni's, which tasted really good since I never did have lunch. I splurged and had lobster ravioli. We then braved the stores around Barrett Parkway to go to REI and finish a gift. I'm thinking this is the last one. I won't know until I start wrapping. Oy.

We also stopped at Barnes & Noble with 25 percent off coupons. James found a new Harry Turtledove novel and I bought a collection of Christmas mysteries. Also found a new "Best of British" and picked up a cross-stitch magazine.

Twelfth Night

So I did a little bit of cleaning each day, and in the end that worked out fine. Downstairs was easiest, of course, even though I washed the floors. Finally there was a place for everything, even in the refrigerator, and that led us to Friday night. We had supper at Ken's Grill, then went to Costco for party food: barbecue chicken wings, meatballs, mini egg rolls, and meat-and-cheese spirals. Glad we went Friday night, as I think I spent all day today vacuuming. :-) (And I'd already started the vacuuming earlier in the week.)

At one point James went out to get some sodas. I kept cleaning. But I was done by 2:30, having finally "done the frog" (vacuuming the stairs), and took a shower. Then it was time to put stuff out! We finished just as Anne and Clay arrived.

Had a great night, even if the Costco meatballs were a big disappointment (very highly spiced). Anne and Clay brought a delicious ham and John and Betty brought fruit and there were cupcakes. We had chatter and chow, and the Georgia football game for a while. Charles had not been here before, so he got the nickel tour. Willow finally quit barking and started schmoozing, only to disgrace herself on the carpet and get locked in her crate for a while. Schuyler didn't seem to be happy about having a "flock" tonight, so I took her to the spare room and put on the television, but she started with the calling chirp, which meant she wanted to go back to her place. So I took her back.

We were able to get everything cleared up, vacuumed (again...LOL), and tidied in time to relax and watch some HGTV. (Really, there was nothing else good on. 500 stations and still nothing to watch.)

And so another Twelfth Night party is over.

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.