Right Jolly Old Elves

Our celebration for this day started with getting into our fanciest duds for an important meeting with with the Head Elf:

We ate well and enjoyed jolly company.

And then...

We elfed ourselves.

Happy December 3

Only 22 more days until Christmas!



"Hope is the thing with feathers..."

Today I put out my newest angel, Hope. I'm not sure she's strictly a Christmas angel so you may see her around at other times, too. Something about this scene reminds me of the Island of Misfit Toys. Probably Hope's hair. And her eyes. And her hands.

Rudolph is the definitive Holiday Classic of my childhood. The Burl Ives snowman is conflated in my mind with my paternal grandfather. Sometimes my memories of GranDad talking about sports or the news are voiced by Burl Ives. Weird, I know, but I'll bet you have interesting mashups in your head, too. 

If you are observant, you may notice cut paper snowflakes in the top center and right of Hope's photo. Those are decorations lovingly and laboriously created with great patience and an eye for detail by my Baby Girl a few years back. I saved the red reindeer container for future use, and I also saved the snowflakes. 

The future is now. 

The snowflakes are suspended all over our ceiling and they really dress the place up. Thank you, Baby Girl.

The title of this post comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson.

Happy December 2

Only 23 days until Christmas!

An Advent Calendar of Sorts

Happy Anticipation Month! 

Each day in December I will post a little Christmas cheer to celebrate the season and heighten the joy. Today's celebration was potting a little Christmas cactus in the red reindeer container I saved from last year. I do not recall what the container originally held, and I did not save it specifically for holding a Christmas cactus.

Hi, I'm Julie. And I have a container-saving problem.

But it's not really a problem, is it, if you find a way to put your saved container to good (and beautiful, if I do say so my self) use?

The cute little fellas flanking the Christmas cactus were obtained about a month ago from Marshall's. They are very much my style, and have given me pleasure just knowing they were waiting in the wings for their moment to shine. I have not yet named them, but they could easily end up being Rudolph and ChrisMouse, unless you suggest something better.

Happy December 1

Only 24 more days until Christmas! 

In the Shape of a Can

Lest you think all we did was tree-trimming, rest assured that we did in fact enjoy the traditional Baked Pumpkin French Toast with whipped cream for breakfast on Turkey Day. Later there was the traditional Roast Bird with Bread Stuffing and traditional Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. Not to forget the traditional sliced Cranberry Jelly in The Shape of a Can. It was delicious and we polished off the leftovers just this evening.

But it is true that we spent much of the long weekend outdoors building up an appetite. Mr. Last relocated some posts and wire fencing here (White Dog approves -- disregard the tongue sticking out):

And I braved the wilds of the Great Wall of Vine-ah to excavate this buried treasure:

This hand-crafted copper sprinkler had been toppled and strangled. I was slightly worried there might be skeletons buried within the yard-eating vine wall, but now I'm encouraged to dig for more buried treasure:

We had so much to do that we missed Black Friday altogether. No worries. After our chores were finished on Saturday...

...we wandered out to a neighboring county and accidentally found our Christmas presents for each other, which of course required a celebratory lunch at Wildflower Cafe:

This afternoon I squeezed in a little hit'n'run visit to hug GrandGril who now practices the affirmation, "I did it!" after every accomplishment. I think I'll adopt her sparkly little declaration.

This blog post is over now.

I did it!

Olive You

This is my new favorite tool:

I know most folks spent the last few days eating and shopping and watching TV --  we did some of that, too -- but my big accomplishment was putting this bad boy to work...

...at giving this beauty a haircut to reveal her amazing bone structure:

Perhaps not so impressive without "before" pictures, but I did not take any. How about another "after" view?



To put it in perspective, she is about half of her former self, and there is an awesome hideout in the backyard built from a portion of her trimmed branches.

No pictures of the hideout just yet. Perhaps never. Depends on what kind of classification the Kids and GrandKids agree to confer on the location. For now it's Top Secret.

Knitting Weather

Jelly made? Check.
Meet Me in St. Louis viewed? Check.
Yardwork and laundry done? Check and check.
A wee bit 'o' Christmas shopping completed? Check.
More boxes from the garage unpacked? Check.

And it's a good thing we got it all accomplished yesterday when the sun was shining, because today dawned thick and wet.

Perfect knittin' weather, says I.

I found a Very Important unfinished project in one of the garage boxes I unpacked yesterday. So this day's weather kindly and fortuitously accommodated my great need to snuggle up and let the finishing begin.

But I had to stop and snap a glamour shot when I realized how the Project coordinates so beautifully with these chrysanthemums I picked up at the jelly-supply store yesterday. Enjoy:

Weekend Fun Comin' Right Up!

Another batch or two of pomegranate jelly.

A date with Judy Garland. "

"Meet Me in St. Louis" is our Netflix movie this weekend. We put it in our queue last December when I, along with every other Netflix subscriber, thought it would be great to watch at Christmastime which created something like a 14-week wait list. So we strategically planned to beat the rush this year and we got lucky this week when the red envelope came in the mail. 

I know, DVDs are so old-fashioned. One day maybe we'll stream our movies over the Internet, but for now it is more fun to delay gratification and look forward to a little bit of happy mail now and then.

Tomorrow we could get up early to see the WhamoBass Balloon Rally at Coaling Station A, but we probably won't. Maybe next year. Again with the delayed gratification.

We are due for a photo shoot and I think this year's edition may feature a Grant Wood "American Gothic" theme. 

Perhaps we'll make a quick hit'n'run to see GrandGril just for kicks.

And I expect we'll round out the weekend with a little laundry and some yard work before we head into the Gobble, Gobble, Oink, Snooze of next week.

Maybe my weekend fun is a little tame for some folks, but it makes me happy. Get some happy for yourself this weekend. You've got 48 hours. Go!