First Sunday of Advent

There's a rule here: no Christmas decorations before the First Sunday of Advent.

However, today all the gloves are off!

So I hit the ground running: walked the dog a mile, then put him on a leash on the grass while I took down the Thanksgiving items and put up the wreath on the door, the Santa Claus moon flag, the mailbox cover with the goofy moose on it, and the Christmas greens basket. At this point I let Tucker go inside and then started on the real work: the lights. I managed to get through this practically unscathed.

Decided I wanted to go back to the blue lights this year. Now Saturday at Lowe's I bought six strings of 100 blue lights on discount, but we still had blue lights, so I put those out instead. Thinking I should have put the Lowes lights on instead; some of these are badly faded and the blues don't even match. When I took a photo one string even looked green! Maybe I'll redo. Also put up the Christmas tree with the multicolor lights and the wreath, which has the multicolor seed lights on it. I could probably go out and get a new blue set for the tree, but I prefer the wreath in colors, and don't think I'll find them in blue anyway.

I didn't have a terrible time with the lights, but I do understand why my dad always swore while he did this!

Our neighbor Ashley came out while I was working on this, to take out little Diesel (he's some kind of Lhasa Apso or shih-tzu mix) and Nala, who's some type of Rottweiler cross, and we were chatting for a while. It was just her birthday and she'd been to Colorado as a birthday gift. They had snow and everything. She kept asking me if I needed help. Maybe I was just looking particularly decrepit this morning? I know I didn't feel decrepit; when I put up Christmas decorations I feel about fifteen (except my back didn't hurt this dang bad when I was fifteen).

A year or two ago James bought this set of four LED snowflakes that were on clearance for $7. I put them behind the three log deer as kind of a fun display. Didn't use any of the lighting effects, though; maybe will try them out later. You can twinkle and flash and make them chase, eight different effects in all.

Before dark I had also put all of the candoliers in the windows (blue lights as well; frosted for the upstairs and clear for the library downstairs), the multicolor changing bulb candle in the kitchen window, and the two flickering candles in James' "man cave." These eat up four AA batteries, but they will last through Epiphany, even though the flicker will be minimal by then!

My last step was to turn on the two flickering candles at 5:30 (they have timers and will keep them on for five hours) and put the batteries in the seed lights (this also has a timer that will turn on the same time every night and go off six hours later). And all is lit.

Also did my usual Sunday chores (towels washed, master bath cleaned, meds sorted for the week) and managed to sit and listen to some Christmas music and work on a story. It ended on a sniffle, so I think I achieved my goal. 😀

The Battle of the Christmas Lights

Anyway, if you've read this blog you may remember this account from last year when I put up the Christmas tree:

Except I had to fuss over the lights. Again. Last year the Lightkeeper Pro gadget saved my bacon. I had one half of the middle section of the tree lights out and about three pulls on the Pro reconnected the circuits. This year, no dice. I tried the other method, which is something like using a stud finder for the Pro to find where the broken circuit is, but nothing would revive the string. I even tried replacing all the burned out bulbs, until I ran out of replacement bulbs and that didn't work. Almost every bulb in the string must be burned out; no wonder it won't light.

Now I did have extra strings of fifty lights that I bought for the miniatures tree. I had to finagle it, using the extension cord I use for the star at the top of the tree, which is dropped down the trunk. I fastened the string in place and, well, it worked: the middle of the tree doesn't have a dark spot.

So, this meant I had to do something about it after Christmas, and dutifully I bought several sets of replacement bulbs, some from Walmart, some from Amazon, and, when I put away all the other Christmas things, I left the blacked-out section of the tree out in a corner of the library. I also left the library tree there because it had a big section of lights out as well—I'd been swapping lighted bulbs from the "back" of the tree to replace burned out lights at the front for several years now. I should have heeded the admonition on the Lightkeeper Pro instructions, which told me that every bulb that burned out reduced the light string's efficiency, and too many bulbs out led to whole strings burning out.

There it sat, and every four weeks in my planner journal was the reminder: fix the Christmas lights. Sometimes it appeared on one of the weekly pages: fix the Christmas lights. As summer wended its way into fall, the reminders I gave myself were insistent: fix the Christmas lights. And there was always an excuse. Until October 3, it was too hot. Back in January and February, it was too cold. Or today I had to...

So there it was, right after Thanksgiving, and had I fixed the lights?

You bet my best procrastinator's trophy with the diamond embellishments on it I hadn't. Somewhere up there I saw my mother looking down at me with "that look" and her hands on her hips.

So I girded my loins and December 2 (!!!) I marched back down into the library to start the job, to be flummoxed first thing. Since so many lights were burned out, and since those branches of the tree wouldn't light up again until a certain number of bulbs had been replaced—I found out later there had to be less than eight burnt out lights in each particular string—how would I keep track of what I fixed and what I didn't? I cursed the socket of the overhead light, which is nonfunctional since a light bulb broke inside it several years ago; we even tried turning the current off and prying the metal parts of the bulb out of the socket with a pliers, but it just broke into tiny pieces. We have three bright lights down there that make it easy to find the books, but not for detail work like that. I had to bring a flashlight to see which bulbs had the burnt-out marks (and you couldn't see them in the blue and green bulbs), and to keep track of which branches were finished I found bright orange embroidery thread.

So on each of the branches that were out, I had to count how many bulbs were on that particular branch and what color they were. The lower set of four branches had seven lights, with two repeating colors, the upper set only six lights, with one repeating color. One at a time I pulled the bulbs, determined which color it was, in the case of the blues and the greens tested them to see if they were burnt out (the big black mark in the middle of the lighter colored bulbs was a dead—no pun intended—giveaway) on the Lightkeeper Pro bulb testing gadget, and replaced them with one of the same color. When I finished replacing all the bulbs, I tied a short length of the bright orange floss around the branch, to indicate it was complete.

While I was down there I listened to a podcast I had found, "Can't Wait for Christmas," done by comedian Tim Babb. This is a goofy podcast, but I enjoyed it and it really killed the three hours I spent down there. Tim's podcast features "Five Golden Things" (five notable things to do with Christmas), a feature about some aspect to do with Christmas, an ongoing contest about which version of a certain Christmas carol is the best, and other odd things.

And, of course, at the end of three hours, I was done!

Well, not exactly. Because even though I had bought what seemed like a lot of Christmas bulbs, some from Lowe's at the end of 2018, and some that I'd ordered on Amazon in January of 2019. I was out of bulbs for several colors and not finished replacing them yet.

All together now: Arrrrrrrgh!

Tossed on some clothes and went to Lowe's. They had no multicolor packets, so I got five of each individual color. It still wasn't enough, so I went to Walmart and found a different brand of replacement bulbs; got as many multicolors as I could and then some extra clear bulbs. The project continued next day, and it was a great moment when I got to the last few bulbs and the rest of the Christmas tree lit up! At that point it was only a few more minutes before the rest were replaced and the tree was fully lit.

Well, almost. There were still a half dozen bulbs that had to be replaced elsewhere on the tree, but that was done quickly.

I discovered an interesting thing: the two different brands, GE from Lowe's and Lightkeeper Pro bulbs from Walmart, actually had two different colors for blue and yellow. The GE blue was a light blue and their yellow was more an amber color. The Lightkeeper bulbs had a dark velvety blue and a bright clear yellow. So when I got on to replacing the bulbs on the library tree (a less strenuous task), I found myself swapping out lemon yellow bulbs so they alternated with amber, and the sky blue so it alternated with the dark. Since I completely ran out of pink/purple bulbs by the time I was halfway through, the library tree ended up dotted with a few clear white bulbs, one that I made sure would be over the Nativity ornament, and another that would go behind the bookstore ornament to best show it off.

I used up all but about eighteen of the newer batch of bulbs, and it was a good thing I had gone out on December second, because by Friday all the replacement bulbs were gone from Lowe's and only a few remained at Walmart. By waiting so long I had just squeaked by.

In the end it was a long tedious process. But the Christmas tree, indeed both the big tree and the library tree, looked lovely, and checking them out every day quite made up for being crouched up on the footrest in the library, shining a flashlight into bulbs to see if they were green or blue.

But never, never again.

[Later: I went out and bought all the replacement bulbs I could find after Christmas.]

The Christmas Tree Distraction

Well, it certainly was an interesting day. Not in the Chinese sense, just...different.

The original plan for today was that James would go off to his club meeting Christmas party, and I would have my annual orgy decorating the tree. Well, Atlanta had about eight inches (at least) of snow yesterday. This is nothing in New England and Michigan and Minnesota and up in the "great white north" over the border in Canada. But the folks up there have snow tires, snow plows, snow shovels, snow blowers, plentiful sand trucks, and enough snow yearly that they know how to drive in it. (Well, judging by the accidents on the news, at least they should!) Your average Atlantan has no experience with snow. He may have all-weather tires but no snow experience. Plus the ground always starts as warm, so there is always ice under the snow. I don't know about you, but my car is not Sonia Heine or Michelle Kwan, and neither is any other vehicle in the metro area.

So we had been snowed in yesterday and it snowed more during the night, and we woke up to a beautiful white world. It had snowed so much the bird feeders were blocked with snow and there were 7 1/2 inches of snow on the deck. James' party was canceled. Instead he continued working on his computer, which died in the middle of a Windows update. It's just...stuck. So I set up an account for him on my computer, in case he needed it.

My project began when James and I cleared the rocking chair and other things out of the corner, I vacuumed, and then I commenced bringing the four parts of the Christmas tree upstairs. After a brief gaffe when I put the wrong part into the stand assembly, I got the tree together and plugged it in.

Arggh! Half the string in the center section was out! Now what would I do? This is our practically brand new tree, the one we got at Kmart in 2014. It didn't look terribly awful, but there was a dark spot around the "waist" of the tree, and this has never been an overly bright tree. I supposed I could have tried putting light colored ornaments (the white and pink satin balls, for example, the snowman ornament, the unicorn in a stocking, etc.) on that dark section, but I was pretty upset.

In the meantime James noticed he was down to six of his homemade burritos. He had meat and beans, but needed wraps and cheese.

By this time it was noon, the sky had cleared and turned a brilliant blue, and the snow was melting rapidly in the streets and was falling in blobs from tree branches and other tall structures. People were out walking. We called Hobby Lobby to see if they had a gadget called a Lightkeeper Pro; they did, and we had them hold it for us. Then we got in the truck and drove there via the main roads, which were pretty clear. There wasn't a ton of traffic, but what there was was brisk.

We picked it up and then went to Publix, where we did the shopping, including ingredients for the burritos and the twofers. We were starving by the time we got home because it was wayyyy after two, but I only cut off a little of the loaf of French bread before I girded my courage and tried the Lightkeeper Pro.

I've been hearing about this gadget for years in various Christmas groups, and most of the time it's positive. It looks like a plastic gun with several parts, runs on included batteries, and has a couple of different ways of correcting Christmas light string (only miniature lights) problems, the most common being the "quick fix trigger method." There is a socket connector at the front of the LP. You pick out any light socket in the part of a light string that does not work, pull out the light bulb, and plug the LP into that empty socket, then you press the trigger. It works by overriding a burned-out filament and fixing the shunt that make electricity flow through the string. If it doesn't work after thirty presses, there is an alternative method called an audible voltage detector, which reads like voodoo to me.

And it worked! It needed only about three pulls of the trigger to fix the string. There were also two burned-out bulbs which I moved to the back of the tree.

I spent the rest of late afternoon decorating the tree, interrupted by some supper between the ornaments and the tinsel. I watched Christmas Is, The City That Forgot About Christmas, For Better or For Worse: the Bestest Present, For Better or For Worse:The Christmas Angel, It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special, and finally, Raggedy Ann and Andy in the Great Santa Claus Caper. And then about four or five episodes of Rehab Addict during the tinseling.

The tinsel took forever. I hope I never have to put icicles on a tree at night again. Even with the lamps on it was hard to see to layer the branches and the static electricity was appalling. It's bad enough that these modern icicles are so thin. They kept whipping around and attaching themselves to everything but the tree.

But finally it was time for the final touch: the manger scene under the tree.

It became immediately apparent that we were going to have no more luck keeping Tucker's tail away from the tinsel than in previous years, so the baby gate is back up in front of the tree.

As a reward for creating colorful sparkle, there was gingerbread with whipped cream for dessert and a viewing of Mercy Mission: the Rescue of Flight 771, followed by a John Denver and the Muppets chaser.

First Sunday of Advent: Never Enough Time

I've loved Christmas seemingly forever, from the days when I made my own ornaments out of cardboard and the foil saved from chocolate Easter eggs and gum wrappers, and painstakingly broke apart walnuts and glued the empty shells back together, gilding them with Testor's gold and silver enamel paint and sprinkling them with different colors of glitter. (All of these ornaments are still on my feather tree.) I still look forward to decorating with anticipation, although it seems each year the boxes get heavier!

What makes me sad is that each year it's a race to get everything done. There are cards to be sent and gifts to be mailed and decorations to go up, and no matter how early I begin, I never catch up. I want to do everything. It's not a chore, but that clock keeps chasing me. This year I am behind because of a ridiculous cold.

I think what bothers me most is that I also like to do "Christmas-y" things at Christmastime: visit the stores in downtown Marietta, go to see "An Atlanta Christmas" as done by the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company, drive up to Chattanooga to see what's going on at McKay's Books (and to have some yummy chicken soup from City Cafe), attend the Apple Annie Craft Show at the Catholic Church of Saint Anne. I keep wanting to do other things, too: perhaps go to the Botanical Garden, or back to the History Center, or drive through Madison, GA, which is a picture-perfect antebellum town that puts on the dog for the holidays. But, like the decorating and the mailing and the cards, all these things have to be done before Christmas. Well, okay, a craft show pretty much has to be held before Christmas...but it frets me that I can no longer do some of the things, like the Christmas walk around the city, or the McKay's trip, or going to Madison or the monastery, in the week between Christmas and New Year's. I know that no one's done the Twelve Days of Christmas properly for years, but I remember things being slower to turn around "way back when."  Sure, there were sales galore on December 26, but all the Christmas decorations stayed up until New Year's, with black-and-silver and black-and-gold New Year's Eve decorations dotting the still festive streets and store aisles. There was still one week left to enjoy the Christmas season, another week to savor the leftovers and enjoy the presents and admire the outdoor decorations and the colorful lights.

Now by the time afternoon comes on December 26, everything's ripped up, put in a corner and marked "clearance," and everything has turned pink, heart-shaped, and chocolate. (Next thing we know there are "if you love her you will buy her expensive jewelry" commercials.) We're chivvied, rushed, and left bereft as Christmas just clicks off like a light switch at midnight. Good grief, can't we at least get past New Year's Day without hearing from Valentine's Day? I miss the Aste Spumonte ads and the displays of party hats and noisemakers and paper horns and blowouts, and the reports on the news about resolutions.

It's one place where the "slow movement" and "mindfulness" should come back. Till then I'll have to retreat into my leftover Christmas magazines and reread my Christmas books and enjoy my own lights—everything here stays up until Epiphany!

Trim Up The Tree...

...but not quite yet!

As I'd reported in my main blog, on the first Sunday of Advent I managed to get the Christmas candles up in the front window, the door wreaths up, and the wreath, little blue tree, the Santas in the chairs, and the Father Christmas flag up on the porch, and draped the net lights over the bushes out front. The other lights would have to wait. I had taken Monday and Tuesday off, and this helped greatly. I spent Monday morning divesting Thanksgiving and dusting off things, and putting out the Christmas stakes (reindeer, candy cane, and jingle bell) outside and the mailbox cover. Plus Woody and Holly, the log reindeer. I'd planned to have the foyer all decorated when James got home, but the string of lights on the mini-ornament tree failed and I wasn't going out during rush hour. Instead I toted all the boxes that needed to come upstairs upstairs (I even managed to get the village upstairs; it's not heavy, just awkward.)

Tuesday morning I had to run to Michaels. All they had were LED strings in sets of fifty. I used them, but the tree now looks garish. Sigh. The kids today will grow up thinking LEDs are normal and pretty, but they will never know how soft and sweetly lovely incandescent lights were, comforting and gentle rather than garish. Anyway, I was able to finish up the foyer, and then I put up the library tree and the decorations dotting the library shelves and the couple of things in the downstairs bath.

Wednesday I had to go back into work; got my telework training done for another year and sent a file on for approval. Unfortunately I think the chicken salad in my sandwich was starting to spoil. I got very queasy after lunch and finally came home. I logged on to work via my computer in case something needed immediate attention, but it was all quiet and I swigged some Pepto Bismol and finally had a short nap. James was late so I roused up and busied myself putting greenery in the china cabinet and cleaning off things in prep for decorations.

Thursday was a telework day, but I got a bunch done during lunch and after work: put up the ceppo on the china cabinet, the feather tree with the vintage ornaments and the gilded walnuts I made as a teenager (so I guess they're now vintage, too!), and finally the table, which had to be cleaned off first (I swear, horizontal surfaces in this house gather so much junk). I did everything but the "1910 tree" because there wasn't time, but did get to the gingerbread and candy cane decorations in the kitchen. This was all possible because James came home late because he was picking up his new glasses. They are pewter colored and look super with his beard. I even had the Christmas village up on the mantelpiece before he walked in the door.

Friday morning the decorating continued—the "1910 tree" becoming the centerpiece on the table, the Rudolph tree going up in the hall. I had to dust and polish my entire bureau before I could put the little Italian and Scottish decorations up our bedroom. I absolutely don't understand how the bedroom gets so dusty. I could probably leave the spare room without dusting for a year and it wouldn't accumulate as much as it does in our bedroom in a week.

All I had left was the woodland tree, but it was time for me to get dressed and head to the Apple Annie Craft Show at the Catholic Church of St. Ann off Roswell Road. I don't even know anymore how many years I have been going to this event. I like this church; it's a pity it's such a long drive away. There were a lot of jewelry vendors this year. I stopped to talk to the first one, who was a man who made his own links (jump rings) out of wire and then he makes chain-mail bracelets from them. If "chain mail" sounds big and awkward, these weren't; they were fine and beautiful. He does the chain work and his wife the beadwork. I felt old; I mentioned Trifari to him and he had never heard of it. ☹  It was such a part of my life growing up that it's hard to believe that no one remembers any longer except for some jewelry collectors.

Well, I had two surprises, one sad and one good. The sad one was that they are remodeling the meditation garden, so I couldn't have my usual peaceful visit. I was a bit unhappy at first, because they have torn out all the plants and the pond and the statues and they're putting in granite. But it turns out that they are building a columbarium, a place to inter ashes, like the place at the Church of All Saints where Amy Rutledge is, and a prayer garden. It was supposed to be done by Christmas. I know when it is done it will be very nice but I was sorry that the rustic look of it is going away.

The happy surprise is that I ran into Claudia Barbour. We chatted a few minutes and I invited her to the Twelfth Night party.

Most of the things I would have liked to buy were very expensive: solid wood lazy Susans with beautiful blocky designs, natural wood "no electric" speakers (I actually would have bought one of these but we had nowhere to display them properly) with beautiful geometric decorations, solid wood crosses hand-carved. Not a lot of cute clothing for grandchildren this year, either.

Did stop in the sanctuary to say some prayers before I left. I always pray for James and Tucker and Snowy to be healthy and for me to be a better person, but mostly I prayed for all this political hatred to end. Reading Facebook has become a chore and the vitrol from both sides is frightening.

I stopped at Michaels on the way home to get some Sharpie markers, Trader Joe's to stock up on Christmas goodies, and finally at Kaiser at Town Center to pick up my levothroid. I was thirsty and feeling a bit cranky, but then the phone rang in the purse of the lady ahead of me, playing the Boston Pops' "Sleigh Ride." It cheered me up no end.

I got the woodland tree up tonight before settling in to watch Christmas specials tonight: John Denver and the Muppets, A Muppet Family Christmas, "Santa Claustrophobia" from Hill Street Blues, and Christmas Past.

 
Christmas on the American Frontier 1800-1900, John E. Baur
I got this at the library book sale, having taken it out at least once. Taken directly from diaries, journals, and histories by the people who lived the experience, chapters address different aspects of the American pioneer experience, starting from the founding of the country and the customs brought from Great Britain, France, and Spain and introduced to the native inhabitants, some who took great enjoyment from the holiday, but sadly, mainly due to alcohol. Some inspiring stories tell about settlers, cattlemen, explorers, and trappers making the best of what they had and sharing what little they had with others, or riotous dances at distant ranches, but more often the tales are bleak: people lost in blizzards just feet from the homes they were heading for, groups on short rations enduring another hungry day, cowboys spending the day tending cattle and wishing for some camaraderie, rough-and-tumble miners breaking from hardscrabble life for one day, and even British immigrants learning to endure the wild Western weather. Other customs are learned as Spanish customs like farolitoes and La Posadas catch the eye of visitors.

This book is from 1961 so the text may not be as softened as it might be at the present time, but the main draw here are the actual words of the pioneers. Coloring-book type illustrations break up the text. Slightly dry, but with some surprises (for instance, the word "hop" as a synonym for a dance; it sounds like a 1950s term, but goes back at least one hundred years earlier).

Tree Dreams

Getting the tree up yesterday was almost an anticlimax!

Monday night I got the glider rocker out of the way, moved James' end table over about three inches, and vacuumed the space. Why I'll never know, because once James toted the tree upstairs, there were artificial "needles" everywhere.

Yesterday was my birthday and I took the day off. After sleeping late until eight and having breakfast, Operation Tree commenced! I had been dismayed when I first plugged in the tree because, once again, part of a string of lights was out. However, as I ate breakfast, it came back on. Have no idea why.

Put on some of my Christmas cassettes and spent about an hour fluffing and refastening lights to branches. Then I unloaded the wooden box that used to be the stand for the tree when we had "Sara," who was a shorter tree. I put the boxed ornament sets on one side, the unique glass ornaments in the middle, and the plastic/cloth/resin ornaments (this includes the Hallmark and the Carleton ornaments) at the right. I started with the sets because most of them are the older ornaments. I put them to the back of the tree, facing the foyer. They glimmer as brightly, and it's hard to see from down there that they are faded. A few of the sets are new, like the four chickadee ornaments and the six bright silver holly balls, and those go at the front, along with the satin balls. Next I started putting on the larger glass ornaments, like the 1930s car with the wreath on it, the sailboat, the parrot, etc., then the medium-sized ones, like the pine cones. Each time I found a small one, I would put it aside as a filler ornament. Finally I placed the ones made of other materials than glass. Again, any small ones were set aside. The "wrapped gifts" were scattered mostly to one side, the pine cones one to either side, and others dotted around. Finally the small ornaments were fitted into small holes.

After about three cassettes I remembered that, hey, it is my birthday and I can break into the birthday gift I bought myself. On Black Friday, the Sullivan Entertainment site had the remastered, widescreen version of Anne of Green Gables and the remastered sequel on sale for half price (I wasn't interested in The Continuing Story, which Kevin Sullivan made up whole cloth—it was Anne and Gilbert's children who were young adults during World War I, not Anne and Gilbert!—nor the New Beginning, which turned Anne's backstory in the original book into a lie). Half of $30 each was certainly a good savings, although the postage nearly made my hair turn white. So I put Anne on and it was really splendid, especially the scenes of Prince Edward Island countryside! Cried in several places, stopped to eat, then girded my loins and began to tinsel. Once silver was spilling down the back of the tree, I pushed it inch by inch into the corner, then finished the front. It's like a lovely silver waterfall down the height of the tree.

I cleaned up as I went, so there was little to vacuum up, and then I set the manger down, lovingly piece by piece, between the V of branches I made at the bottom of the tree and lined with appropriate ornaments: the lion and the lamb, two different Hallmark shepherd boys, stable animals surrounding the baby, a lamb, and St. Nicholas. (St. Francis I left up near the bird ornaments.)

I was already hurting anyway, so before and after James coming home and eating supper, I finally vacuumed the rest of the main floor, since it wasn't worth vacuuming until James got the tree upstairs, and then those everlasting stairs. I also swept the downstairs hall, put the stools back in place, vacuumed out the "Christmas closet," and put the last few boxes put back, and vacuumed out the laundry room.

Before bed, to make sure Willow didn't go near the tree, I brought out all the presents and surrounded it.

Let's say my back wasn't happy when I finished, and, boy, when I had a chance for a nap today, despite it being in the 40s out, I fell asleep happily under my blanket until the alarm went off (heck, I went immediately into REM sleep, dreaming about a blackout at the house, and my rear-view mirror falling off).

Kringle, Kringle, Kringle

Woke up with aching shoulders and arms from trying to keep warm last night without flipping the comforter over me. Couldn't stop for that nonsense; had things to do and places to go. Ate breakfast, then was off to the house of "the Prim Lady," who is retiring from the business and selling off everything this weekend. There was quite a little clot of ladies there, all telling her how much they will miss her. Her husband was outside talking to some of the customers and showing off their backyard, which overlooks the Indian Hills Country Club golf course. They have a swell house: the part where she sells out of is a covered, outdoor patio and a little downstairs room with a bath, and also the garage. She was also selling off some antique furniture. Nowhere to put it, and what I wanted most was the old icebox like my grandpa had in his cellar, but that wasn't for sale anyway.

I got a few things for me, and a few things for gifts, and told her I'd miss her and showed her the picture of the little tree I got out of her bargain bin a few years ago which I have decorated with pipe-cleaner wreaths and circles, and discount ornaments, and it looks really cute at work.

Next I needed to post my Christmas cards and half of my packages (the others weren't packaged yet), but I also needed a "pit stop." Cobb County public building across the street to the rescue! Gee, if I had to go to the tag office [license plates], I'd come here. There were two people in line, instead of the line out the door at the office on South Cobb Drive.

Got through the post office pretty painlessly, although it hacks me off that you can't buy stamps in any quantity less than twenty anymore. I wanted to buy just four Hanukkah stamps, but they wouldn't let me.

Checked out a [mumble] store for a gift, then stopped by Trader Joe's to replenish chicken salad and chicken sausage, and also bought a variety of Christmas treats for desserts that should last us through December. No more almond bark, though! And no pumpkin tarts! {Tried just one of the honey mints tonight; three ingredients: mint-flavored honey centers covered in dark chocolate. Oh...my! Very subtle mint taste at first, with no grainy sugary mint feel, and a nice mint aftertaste.)

Was going to stop at a hardware store or a Walmart on the way home for replacement Christmas light bulbs, but the roads were choked with Christmas shoppers, so I ended up just stopping at Walgreens and buying a new string. The library tree has at least seven lights out, most of them blue for some strange reason!

I got home and had a bit of something for lunch, then went downstairs. In just a little while I had the silver airplane tree up and decorated, placing the heavier, larger planes on the top of the bookcase next to the tree. Then I attacked the problem of the new tree. Yes, we have a new tree. It's four feet tall, black and prelighted with white bulbs and is what we are supposed to use for our new "space" tree (fiction and fact). Except there's no space for the space tree. I toyed with putting it in the spare room, but...no.

What I did think of was doing it as a wall tree (or espalier tree, whatever). So I decanted it and moved the all the branches to one side and...you know, I could do this. I took down the Ken Jenkins print in front of the laundry room and hoisted the black tree up using two sets of tinsel cord, using the mounts for the print. Then I decorated it with all our spacecraft and space-related ornaments, the larger ones like Freedom 7 and the moon buggy first, and then the smaller ones like Spock and Robby the Robot, and finally the small ones like the spaceship miniatures that used to be on the foyer tree. Then I added the silver star "drops" I bought at Garden Ridge, added the tinsel star that is usually hung over the airplane tree (replaced the star with the small wreath that was on the laundry room door, replacing that one with an even smaller red-and-green wreath I'd bought at Garden Ridge) at the top, and then took a wide strip of some gold wrapping paper and cut icicle-like triangles at the bottom edge. This I wound around the big plastic lump at the base of the tree where the tree-stand feet would have gone, to simulate flames. I finished just as James came home and told him to come in through the garage.

I think he likes it. And he got the "flames" right away, so I did it right. :-)

China Palace had stuck a delivery menu in our mailbox, so we tried them for supper. Rather bland, I thought.

Then, with determination and the new string of lights in hand, I went downstairs and denuded the library tree of lights and applied the new. Now, on my list of things I love to do, putting lights on a Christmas tree is right down there with watching baseball and scrubbing out the shower compartment. But this pretty much went on correctly the first time. By the time James came down to keep me company, I was on my way to overloading the poor tree with all our literary-related ornaments, from the specific Hallmark (and other) ornaments like Bonnie Blue and Rhett Butler and Dorothy Gale and Harry Potter to animals and people representing books taken from bins of figures at Michaels or Richard's Variety Store: Robin Hood and Long John Silver and Merlin and Black Beauty and Lassie and Pongo, and more. Even Hazel from Watership Down. :-) Last went on the bead garlands.

Then I vacuumed up the library and came upstairs. I'm going to put the woodland tree in the spare room.

But meantime I wrapped the other three gifts that needed to go out. I was remiss this year and forgot to save Amazon boxes, with the result that one of my gifts will need to be shipped in two parts. What fun. But that's all ready to go to the post awful tomorrow.

It wasn't until eleven o'clock that I sat down to do my annual December 7 viewing of The Waltons' Pearl Harbor episode, "Day of Infamy." When Grandma hears that first radio report about the attack, the hair on my arms still stands up.

We Interrupt This Decorating...

I was at work all day yesterday, so nothing much Kringly happened during the day. However, James and I brought the box with the village  upstairs last night, and I had a good time placing the houses and businesses, and then the trees and little figures.

I have some new lights this year. Previously I had four single light strings tied together on one side, and three on the other. It made quite a wad of cord behind the houses, which is why I have so many trees, to cover the cords. This year, as I bought a replacement single cord from one of the fall houses I keep on the mantelpiece the rest of the year, I noticed they had strings of three lights and of six lights using one cord, and ordered them as well.

The clips don't work as well as the plastic ones that came with the houses; I had to fiddle with them to get them to stay in the light holes. But, oh, so much better having just one cord back there! I had also planned to replace the white bulbs with the yellow ones I had bought. But to my surprise, the "white" bulbs actually have a tinge of yellow in them, so when they light up they look just like incandescent light bulbs as they would have had in buildings of the 1940s. All-in-all, very satisfactory.

Today I teleworked and was pretty busy, finalizing plans for the vaccine storage order and starting four new orders. At lunch time I did open the box with the Rudolph tree and put up the little decorations that go on the CD bookshelf: Jim Shore angels, sheep, two "new house" ornaments from 2006, and other odds and ends ornaments. Cleaned off the secretary next to Schuyler's cage (when she eats fruit she tends to toss bits of it everywhere) and put up the musical ornaments.Also decanted the box with the stuffed Rudolph toys (CVS put out a dozen of them one year and my best friend bought them all for me), which go on the hearth, and joined the new Linus piece up with the "Peanuts" wireless band, which goes in front of the television. Also put decorations up in the spare room and our Italian and Scottish decorations in our bedroom.

Started to put up the Rudolph tree itself after supper, but instead had a prolonged bathroom sojourn. Did finally have a chance to put up the bathroom decorations, though.

On the Second Day of Decorating...

I'm taking a little break. I was up at 7:30, and the first thing I did was iron the runner for the dining room table and finish that. I decided to put what I call "the 1910 tree" in the middle of the table. This is dicey because, while the ornaments are secure, the bead garland falls off if you breathe funny. Will just need to be careful.

Have the divider items and "Schuyler's things" and the console table in the hall packed up, the console cleaned and ready for the Rudolph tree, and the divider decorated, with the snow garland and "Bandit's angels" and the stockings hung.

I'm taking the break because I took the entry carpet out and beat it, then washed the foyer floor after I started a load of towels. It's positively tropical out and at that point it was only 10:45. Wish Florida would keep its freepin' weather to itself!

I'm feeling headachy and groggy today because it was so warm last night I had trouble falling asleep. I finally had to pull the comforter back and use the light fleece instead, and then later I got cold, but just around my shoulders. I guess after the dreams I had Sunday night about the reorganization at work—I would have preferred dreams about killer zombies; it would have been less scary—I wasn't in a hurry to fall asleep.

While the floor dries I'll glean ideas for the Christmas letter to go in the cards. They're all written out. Knock on wood, when I go to the Prim Lady's sale on Friday, if I can get the letter written and printed, I can mail the cards. But there's still the packages... ::weeps::

Probably need to change into tank top and shorts to continue the decorating, though.


The Gift of Christmas, edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Amy Newmark
Yes, as you can tell from the editors' names, it's a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book of brief, inspirational Christmas stories, the newest one.

I consider these perfect books for bedtime. You can read a story or two, or half a dozen to a dozen if you are so inclined, and fall asleep feeling good about people. Not every story has a happy ending—Mom or Dad die of cancer, life goes on with its inevitable conclusions, but people are still uplifted by faith and it's comforting. My favorite story in this volume is about the adorable little boy who wanted "soft sheets" like his Mom's; yes, his best Christmas gift that year was high-thread-count sheets! It really stood out among the children wanting more conventional gifts like dolls and trucks!

Humorous stories are mixed amongst the more sentimental fare, so the sweetness level is tempered.

If you're a "Chicken Soup" type person, you'll enjoy this.



(Later: Didn't get a whole lot more done. The library was very dusty and I would not put the shelf decorations up without dusting them first. Did get the foyer decorated and also put the lighthouse vignette up, put the lights and lighthouse in the bathroom, and ironed all the surface covers. I started to put up the library tree, but at least seven lights are out. I either need to break down and get a new set of lights or get replacement bulbs. The shelf for the village is upstairs, but it was suppertime by then and I was just too wiped out.)

Decorating, Ho!

The first day of Christmas decorating always goes by slowly because before Christmas goes up, Thanksgiving has to come down. I guess I should have started earlier, but I really felt guilty starting before Advent.

Ticked because my alarm did not sound this morning. My timer app has quit working after working perfectly last week. And I really wanted to wake up, because I was having a horrible dream about the reorganization at work.

So, what I got done today:
     •• The ceppo is up (drat, doesn't fit on the new shelving, so don't know what I'm going to do with the little feather tree);
     •• Santas are up, so the new shelving is decorated;
     •• Kitchen is decorated;
     •• Console leading into the dining room is done;
     •• Mantel is cleared off;
     •• Decoration on landing is done;
     •• Porch is finished;
     •• Lights are in the windows downstairs.

All Thanksgiving is put away.

And the Christmas cards are written out. I just have to put together the newsletter.

[Later: Okay, I put up the prims on the pass-through and decorated the feather tree. I'd do the table but I need to pull out the iron to press the table runner. I'm not doing that at 8:30 at night!]

Listened to First Sunday of Advent choral Evensong on BBC Radio 3 today, from St. John's Chapel in Cambridge. So lovely!

 
Ruth & Skitch Henderson's Christmas in the Country, Judith Blahnick
I don't usually buy Christmas books with so many recipes in them, but this volume was picked up used and I couldn't resist the beautiful photos of the Hendersons' Hunt Hill Farm, which still exists as a trust. I remembered Henderson as Johnny Carson's bandleader; he worked with many Broadway stars and singers, a few of who are shown in photographs. But the best thing about this book are the glorious color photographs, some of the Hendersons' feasts, but most of the snowy farm in Connecticut where they founded a cooking school. There are commentaries for each Sunday of Advent and St. Nicholas Day, and even of the German customs that Ruth Henderson brought from her family, all the way through Epiphany. For the cooks in the crowd, a great variety of recipes, some from other countries, but mostly all-American treats. Most appealing to lovers of the country, cooking aficionados, and nostalgia freaks who remember The Tonight Show's orchestra leader.

Pumpkin Grinch

We didn't do trick or treat this year.

My initial reaction was like Dark Willow: "Bored now."

Really. Even in costume it's no fun sitting on the stairs for two hours waiting to give out candy while the rest of the household is in comfy chairs upstairs getting to watch a real television while I'm stuck with bits and pieces on a laptop. (The only place I'm comfy in costume is at science fiction conventions.) This delayed end of Daylight Wasting Time has made it even worse. On Eastern Standard Time it's dark by six o'clock, and you're done with everything by eight. Now it doesn't get dark until 6:45. Who was the wretched idiot in DC who thought up this nonsense? (Oh, wait. Wretched idiot. Washington, DC. That describes 98.2 percent of the population.)

I love seeing the little kids come by. They are always adorable. I love the ones who are too little or too awed to speak, especially at the lady with the spider in her hair (me, last year). I like even the larger ones, in costume. Too many "Scream" masks for my taste, but at least they make the effort.

What I don't like is what my mom used to call "the big horses," the older kids and teens who slouch around, no costume, with a grocery store bag for treats. If you want a treat, at least work a little for it, okay? Put on a leisure suit from granddad's closet or even a basic set of Groucho glasses. And, really, if you're six feet tall, trick or treating? Really?

What I don't like is when you run out of candy, shut the lights, and people continue to ring the doorbell. Last year we had kids pounding on the door at 9:30! Heck, some of our older neighbors go to bed at 9:30.

So this year I said the hell with it. I had things to do at work right until we left on vacation and no time to decorate for Hallowe'en at lunchtime (I didn't even take lunch the day before we left; I had a Microslop Word document that was scarier than any zombie out there). I wasn't going to decorate Sunday or Monday while coping with three loads of laundry and airing out suitcases. And by yesterday, who cared? Not to mention that I was unable to leave work early today like I wanted to—traffic is alway horrendous on Hallowe'en—and it took me nearly 90 minutes to get home.

I turned out every light at the front of the house when I got there, including Mom's horse lamp in the foyer, which is always on, and we had only one light on in the living room besides the television, and I never turned on the lights on the porch. Despite that, half a dozen doorbells rang, including one going off when I wasn't three mouthfuls into my supper.

To you who had big yard displays, dressed in costume, took your kids out door to door, I hope you had a blast! For the first time since 1995 I had a nice Hallowe'en: I spent the evening with my husband, our bird, and our dog. I didn't have to gulp my dinner and get indigestion afterwards. I sat happily watching Jeopardy and then It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown; the For Better or For Worse Hallowe'en special "The Good-for-Nothing," and the remarkably cheesy television movie from the 1970s, Midnight Offerings, with "sweet little Mary Ingalls of Little House on the Prairie," Melissa Sue Anderson, as a bitch of a teenage witch (her innocent counterpart was Mary Beth McDonough, Erin of The Waltons).

In the spirit of the evening, then, Happy Hallowe'en!

A Seasonal Shift

I spent my lunch hour today doing "the big change," collecting the winter things in their boxes and putting back the autumn decor that is usually up, plus the seasonal spring decorations. This did not take as long as I expected, thankfully, so I could finish today; it was just a busy hour of packing and running up and down the stairs—a great workout. There are only one large container and two smaller containers of winter things, plus a Hallmark bag with the two "snow baskets," the winter bouquet, and the pine cone garland. The spring decorations are even less: two "sweater boxes." The vase of cattails and Chinese lanterns is back on the hearth, the pretty "friends" plaque and the Country Pickins shadowbox back up in the dining room, and my cute little lamb figurine that I bought at Hobby Lobby now sits smiling in front of a bouquet of spring flowers on the table.

I was kicked into action to do this by realizing yesterday that it was a week to St. Joseph's Day and I still didn't have my St. Joseph's altar up yet! This is on the china cabinet and replaced my winter village.

I had the things on the porch down over a week ago, disgusted by our warm weather, having taken them down in a fit of pique, but they were still lying in a depressing heap in the foyer. So they're all away, and James will put the boxes up some day this week, and that will be that.

Now if I could just get all the Christmas presents off the hearth...

Eighty degrees for the rest of the week! Aieeeeee!

Beauty, Brightly Burning

I was still tidying up from this year's Christmas clean-up this morning. After breakfast I brought the vase with its vivid autumn leaves and flowers back upstairs to put in the hallway (where the Rudolph tree is at Christmas) and arranged the other little things around it: the little tray Andy Stokes brought me back from Italy on which I keep Mother's rosary, another little dish where I keep disposable batteries, a china sheep which holds fall picks, a little Norman Rockwell book, and a resin fall basket on which perches a chickadee. Then I brought up the box that has been holding the mantel items since late November: the fall angels in sepia tones, the Lord and Lady mugs James bought so long ago at the Ren Faire, a little autumn plaque I made and a maple leaf with a verse from the Bible, Mother's clock in the center, and on each side, a little fall house from Lemax's autumn collection, the Maple Sugar Shack, with boys raking and the dog popping its head from the leaf pile in front, and a deer lurking beside the well, under the autumn trees in the rear, and what I think is Pine Lodge (I can't find it on Lemax's page). I love it because you can look in the front window and see a fireplace and furnishings, and there's quilts hung outside on the rail and an owl on the roof. This one has a mailbox, dad raking, and son loading pumpkins into an old pickup, with a cardinal in the rear sitting on the axe near the woodpile. The basket of leaves is back in front of the fireplace as well, and Rusty the deer has his autumn collar back on. There is a winter basket on the opposite side, and winter decorations hanging from under the mantel, where it looks a little bare without the Christmas cards hung up.

When I got through I decided I wanted to check out the Blu-Ray version of Rick Steves' European Christmas that James got me for Christmas. I didn't think anything could be better than the widescreen DVD, but...wow. Deeper, richer, much more lovely. I put the television color on "dynamic" and just enjoyed the beautiful vistas, the lovely blue light of the twilight Austrian sleigh ride and the mountain return to Gimmelwald, the bright candles everywhere, and the multicolor decorations of all the cities.

I Need a Little Christmas

I've been feeling a little blue lately.

When I woke up this morning I was eager to decorate the Christmas tree, but feeling a bit down at the same time. I'm not sure what it is. I got dressed—and because I knew I'd be moving around a lot, despite the fact it was in the 30s out, I put on a t-shirt and shorts!—then I had breakfast, then got set up. I cleared off the coffee table, pushed it back against the couch, and put the two tray tables next to the table. Then I took all of the bags and boxes of ornaments out of the ornament box (which used to be the tree stand when we had a smaller tree) and laid them out on the coffee table, tray tables, and sofa. This lets me see all that I have, so I don't forget anything. Before I started, I remembered to go downstairs to get the ornaments we got at Bronner's, and there were two other ornaments on the secretary, Tintin and Snowy and the reindeer with the pull-cord (it moves his legs).

First I fluffed the tree, and, because it is pushed in a corner in the closet the rest of the year, this takes a while: the portion of the tree in the corner is always flat! Plus when James brings it upstairs at least a dozen lights get pulled off the branches, if not more, so I have to refit those.

Once that was over, it was time to start. I put on the two Benji and Waldo specials, Christmas Is and The City That Forgot About Christmas. These are from the 1970s, with limited animation, but I like the sentiment. Then I switched to black and white Lassie Christmas episodes, from the 1958 "Christmas Story" where Lassie is hit by a car to the 1963 "Lassie's Gift of Love," where Timmy and Lassie, unknowingly, meet Santa Claus (or, as he puts it, "one of his helpers"). I love these things—they make it all soft and warm and cozy. Home. Felt better immediately, even if my back was already aching.

James got home a bit early and made me a sandwich, as I had not eaten any lunch except for some grapes. I didn't want to eat too much, since it was almost dinner time. I finished watching "Lassie's Gift of Love" and then started on the tinsel. Someone asked me how I tinsel...well, it's a lot more difficult since I was a kid, let me tell you, not just because of my creaky knees, but because tinsel is cut so damn fine now. It used to be twice as wide, the same size as the old lead-foil tinsel they used to use until it was banned. The new tinsel is made of mylar, and cut very fine as it is, static electricity makes it cling to everything, including my clothes, the wall, the table next to the tree...toss in the fact that my hands are sweaty...gah.

But it's not a real Christmas tree without the tinsel. I have garlands on the smaller trees, bead garlands on the smallest ones, and I hate 'em. They never drape properly for me—as far as I'm concerned, garland is on the same ring of Hell that the Christmas lights are.

So, the tinsel. You take it out of the box and grab it around "the middle." Now this newfangled tinsel isn't even cut at either end; it's more like one big long piece with perforations. And you know, "perforations make the paper stronger." Not quite as bad with mylar, but you have to run your fingers through it like you run it through your hair to try to at least break part of them. Then you use thumb and forefinger to grab about five or six strands—no, I don't put it on one strand at a time as James jokes—to put them on the branch. I start at the back, at the bottom of the tree, working back and forth so that each set of strands drapes properly over the strands under it. You put a lot on the bottom branches so that it makes a "skirt" that drapes to the floor. When it's done it looks like there is ice spilling down the tree from top to toe.

The nice thing about the mylar icicles versus the lead-foil ones pre-1960s is the same thing that some people say they don't like about them: they move. You can't really have a modern-tinseled tree near an open window: any good breeze and they blow and tangle. However, we have a little clear plastic "scoop" diverter over the heat vent, so little hard airflow reaches the tree. Instead, little currents of air stir the tinsel minimally so it flutters in millimeters, and the tree looks like it's breathing.

I kept cleaning after myself with the vacuum cleaner throughout the process, so there were few fallen "needles" and tinsel remains that needed cleaning up when I was finished (a process interrupted by supper—yum, pizza!). Then comes the hard part. I can't decorate the back of the tree with it backed into the corner, so it's pulled out enough for me to get behind. But once it's done, it has to go into the corner—and I can't put my hand into the tree and push it back that way once it's fully decorated and tinseled. Previously James got down on the floor and pushed it inch by inch into the corner by the three feet at the bottom of the trunk, but I found last year I could do it myself: just lie on my tummy and push a bit at the time. Always scares me, but the tree is pretty stable.

And then the finishing touch: unwrapping and placing out, figure by figure, the manger scene, which was my parents and mine growing up. Some of these little plaster figurines go back to the 1950s—Mary has a scrawled "15" (as in cents) under her. A little older shepherd says "35." You used to get them from bins in Woolworths and Grants...a shepherd here, a new Virgin Mary there. The oldest figures are either some type of plaster or hollow rubber; all the camels and one sheep and one sheepdog are rubber, with old newspaper bits stuffed inside them to keep them upright. A couple of the final figures we bought (the camel driver, a new sheepdog, the goat) are plastic. We also have a figure of a man showing the Christ child eggs, and a man playing the pipes. Last year I got lucky and found another figure of a similar vintage to add to the scene, but that store has closed. :-( When I was a kid Mom would put down a foil "floor" for the set, but I just place them on the carpet (having ditched the tree skirt two years ago; I never really liked it, and I haven't found one I liked since). The stable building is lit with the type of light you use in a Christmas village building; much better than the gadget my mom used to light it: a single candle lamp with the top broken off!

Down and Up

I had done most of our regular shopping yesterday, running into the mob that I hoped I might miss: nope, everyone was stocking up in case it snowed Sunday night. So when we went to Publix today it was only for incidentals: K cereal since it was on twofer, "spots" Bandaids because I haven't yet found a pair of glasses that doesn't hurt my nose, our favorite trail mix we keep in the vehicles, and a few other things. Then we crossed Macland Road so James could get gasoline at Kroger (I had filled up at BJs when they still had gas) and I ran in to get a paper and more birdseed since it was on sale.

A funny: we brought our reusable bags in with us, but at the Publix checkout counter I told the guy I wanted plastic. Why? Well, because while James wears ankle-high boots to support his ankles all the time, all I have are leather Reeboks. No boots. However, plastic grocery bags over shoes will do in a pinch.

We also stopped at Lowes. I had no illusion that we could find an actual snow shovel; they don't sell them regularly around here, and if there were any, they disappeared yesterday. However, we did find a flat-edged shovel rather than the spade we had. Again, will do in a pinch. Also got two sale bags of bows.

Back at home, I went out on the porch to take any cloth or wood Christmas decorations down. Otherwise they would get wet in the snow/freezing rain and take days to dry. But James followed me out, so we ended up taking down everything, the lights, the wreath, the Moravian star, etc., and putting it all away. Then he got the winter boxes down, so by three o'clock the porch was redecorated for winter: snowmen, snowflakes, a mini-sled and -shovel, and a pine wreath with silvery leaves and a blue-silver bow. I also pulled the candoliers from the front windows and replaced them with hospitality candles.

Then we finished the cleanup from the Twelfth Night party last night: James loaded the dishwasher and wiped down the counters and put the boards away, and I cleared off and wiped the table down and moved it back into place, and vacuumed the upstairs again, and cleared off the coffee table. I also sorted the bows: I save the gold, red, and green ones for Christmas and use the other colors on birthday/other gifts.

By the time this was finished (we had squeezed a short lunch in there), it was nearly time for dinner. I sat and read a couple of mystery short stories, then went out to refill the bird feeders (one was nearly emptied after being refilled at 1 p.m. this afternoon—the birds were definitely stocking up on food against the cold!), and James started dinner going (plain rice and a Hormel dinner).

22 Days Before Christmas

Thursday was mostly devoted to work, and I was quite happy to get two orders done on the new Virtual Desktop. We couldn't do it previously because macros were not enabled in Word. I was told by IT to enable all macros because it was a secure environment; previously we had been forbidden to do so due to viruses. So, yay!

During lunch I got the foyer decorated; at least the lights on the miniatures tree worked this year! Later on I was able to decorate the divider that separates the upper story from the foyer.

Just before we went to bed, James brought up the board that goes over the mantel shelf and I brought up the box with the village. That was for today, but it was done very late in the afternoon.

I started out by trying to print the labels for the Christmas card envelopes. This was a terrible mess. The cartridge in my printer was shot, so I tried to print them on James' printer. James' printer has never been the same since he tried to print some decals and got the paper wrapped around the drum and we had to peel it off. They eventually did print, but half of them were bad.

I did, however, finally get the yearly newsletter printed out neatly.

About eleven I left for the Apple Annie Craft Show at St. Anne's Church off Roswell Road. On the way there I stopped at Publix for cash and the post awful for stamps.

The show was fun, although the vendors I wanted to be there weren't (the woman who makes the bottle straps and the person who sold the dog soap). I got only three small things, two of them gifts.

On the way back I stopped at Borders. Found some neat little photo-history books like this, the 1900s, 1910s, and 1930s, for only $2 each. Also bought a "Period Living" and a book (which it turned out we had—I thought we only had the DVD).

On the way out I saw a new hardback called Christmas 1945. Wow! Looks great!

Stopped at Trader Joe's for some bread for lunch and also some proscuitto, but I didn't look at the label carefully enough. It's smoked. Ugh. But I was hungry, so ate it anyway.

Then stopped at Target to buy the glider rocker I have picked out to replace the papasan chair. It turned out the box was too big for the back of my car, so I told them we would come back tonight. I did get a new toner cartridge for my printer before coming home. I got the Samsung original (the price merely made me scream silently) instead of the Office Depot refurb, which is what I got last time. It made nice black copies for a short while and then scattered toner all over the inside of the printer and has given me nothing but pale grey copies for months.

It was only after I'd nursed a sinus headache and taken the dog out that I got to work on the village. Luckily I put everything in the same place each year, so it was easy to place the seven buildings and then arrange the now-well known figures around them: the returning soldier greeting his girl, the nuns singing to the family while Father O'Malley reads his scripture out back, the kid with his tongue stuck to the flagpole, the boy with the plane model, the shoppers exiting Woolworth's, and the policemen just having left "the Buttery" (which is downstairs from radio station WENN, of course).

We had supper at Ken's Grill again, then went back to Target to fetch the rocker and to Borders to return the book (I found its sequel and got that instead). James got me the Christmas 1945 book for Christmas! On the way home we spotted Christmas lights at every quarter, including the house that has a big trumpeting angel on each gatepost of their house.

We received our first Christmas card today, which was enough incentive for me to sit down and finish all the signatures, stick the missives in certain envelopes and label them, and then sticker and stamp them, which I finished up during Tonight.

24 Days Before Christmas

I'd like to say "decorating is going apace," but work takes priority; still, there is lunchtime and after work hours. I started with the kitchen and the dining room, but ran into a snag immediately: the top shelf of the ceppo had come unglued—no idea how. So I had to fix that up and start something else. So both rooms are done, feather trees, sparkly bits, reindeer, and lots and lots of gingerbread, despite having to wrangle with the bead garlands on those feather trees. I think a bit of the reason that we don't have a Christmas tree with garlands—besides the fact that I love tinsel icicles so—is that hanging the fool things to me are like wrestling with Spanish inquisitors.

After supper I also got the Rudolph tree up, and placed decorations in the guest room, and Schuyler also has her decorations (they all play music, natch).

During lunch I also played one of Rick Steves' Christmas-oriented "Travels" podcasts. Since I've just discovered them, there is a backlog of about four years' worth. I'm trying to ration them to last through the season. Since the downloads aren't dated, I'm not certain which year I listened to, but it was Rick chatting with friends about Christmas in Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sicily, Australia, and Paris. The chat about Hungary reminded me of the marvelous chapter about "Mikulas" in The Good Master. In the Dutch segment, the young woman sang and translated the little song the Dutch girl sings in Miracle on 34th Street; the words basically ask "Sinter Klaas" to drop a gift into her shoes. I had to laugh at the Sicilian portion, when the men were talking about being "mama's boys" and wives competing with their mothers-in-law! They mentioned a fascinating old Sicilian custom: children didn't get toys at Christmas, they used to get them on All Saints Day! Now that is something I never knew.

Sirius turned on XM Holiday Pops today, so I had that for background music most of the time.

Later:


Christmas Forever, edited by David G. Hartwell
This is the second (I think) in Hartwell's string of Christmas sci-fi/fantasy short stories. As always in anthologies, there are some you like, some you don't—and with fantasy, sometimes a couple you don't understand.

In general, I liked this book. The first story, about a youngster who wants to make a Christmas on an alien planet, sets the stage for the remainder of the stories well. I particularly enjoyed "My Favorite Christmas," about a teenager spending Christmas with a legendary uncle; "Prince of the Powers of This World," about a child waiting for a Christmas birth; "The Cockatrice Boys," about a fight against monsters who have invaded Earth; the sentimental "Pal O'Mine," "A Present for Santa," set in a future where the Government decides whether you live or die; the humorous "We Three Kings," featuring three Christmas monsters; "Christmas Wingding," even a very odd story where Scrooge becomes the film noir gumshoe in a Maltese Falcon world. Several were...very strange. "A Present for Hanna" was just plain creepy.

The story that most affected me was "And When They Appear." It was a very imaginative story of a poor society revolting against the rich from the POV of a small boy who lives in a house designed to protect him. But the last two pages were just so terribly creepy I cannot get the story out of my mind, and I wish it would go away.

Recommended if you don't have problems with stories staying with you (otherwise just skip that one).

Treats, No Tricks

I finished putting up the Hallowe'en decorations about 9:15 p.m..

No, I don't have that many Hallowe'en decorations! LOL.

The day began mundanely with a trip to Kroger. We went for my bread and bananas and milk. Many dollars later...and all that, we arrived home. The fall edition of the Smyrna Jonquil Festival was this weekend, but we really didn't need anything and to tell the truth, I felt kinda guilty about wandering the booths, sampling the dips and the jelly samples, and then not buying anything. So we didn't go. Instead I had lunch and read the paper, then cleaned the hall bathroom, washed the towels, and then put the fall decorations in the foyer aside and decorated the area for Hallowe'en: craggy tree and mini-decorations, pseudo-30s ornaments, big glass pumpkin, black cats, a wizard owl, the stacking pumpkins I bought at the Apple Festival, skeletons and others.

However, the porch was drenched in sunshine, so I didn't go out and put up the porch decorations until about 8:45, when it was dark and cool.

To complete the effect, I changed out the blue bulbs in the two candles that burn in the front windows for orange bulbs.

I really don't bother decorating the rest of the house anymore. Hallowe'en just doesn't "float my boat," and I'm not going to fight it. It's something to get through on the way to better things: Thanksgiving and Christmas. The porch looks neat and the foyer matches. Otherwise it's just delight-fall. :-)

Gingerbread Weather Indeed!

My favorite kind of day: cloudy, breezy, mid-fifties!

I finally finished decorating the porch for fall—yes, I'm late, I know! The main decorations have been out there: the fall banner, the basket of artificial leaves and gourds, and the autumn leaf wreath. But I had not put out the rest of the things. First it was too warm, then when it got cool I didn't have time, and then it got warm again.

But it was a perfect day for it. I put scarecrows in both rocking chairs and then garnished the chairs with a artificial pumpkin and leaf garlands, then put the signs along the rails.

The autumn basket was partially in bad shape. The leaves and berries were fine, but the Georgia sun had done a number on the pumpkins/gourds, which are just painted styrofoam. They had split so that big white gaps were showing in their "rinds." Michaels had their artificial pumpkins on sale 60 percent off, so I picked out four different colors (a plain orange, a reddish, and a brownish, plus an orange one with a curved stem). I then pulled out the cracked ones, which were fastened into the foam at the bottom of the baskets with sticks. I cut the sticks off, then used the sharp tip of a small scissors to make a hole in the bottom of each of the new pumpkins and put a stick in each one. Then I put the new pumpkins back in the old basket and rearranged the leaves and berries around them. I wasn't sure if I had the proper sizes, but it seems to have worked fine.

I also have the garland around the arch that goes to the hall and the bedrooms, and around the door to the deck. Just have to hang the leaf garland up.

Enjoy the Fall!

Yesterday I took great joy in ripping down those summer flowers in my cubicle and taking down the summer bouquet and vase of flowers 4and all the summer pictures, and putting up fall photos (the photos and pictures are all from old calendars), the fall bouquet, the fall vase of leaves, and the leaf garland. The cubicle is so tranquil now (well, as tranquil as you can be with those wretched fluorescent lights shining in it). I played George Winston, "Autumn" and "Plains," as I worked.