Merry Christmas to One and All!

^"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 

peace and goodwill towards men."

"...And that's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

 

 "A Charlie Brown Christmas" 

Thankful Sunday, December 23, 2018

I am thankful for childhood 
Christmas memories.

Our Christmas socks hung on our steps
 since we didn't have a fireplace.

As we have been going through some of the Christmas decorations from my mother's house, I've been thinking about Christmastime when I was a child. Christmas was a magical then. The anticipation of Christmas was very exciting and the whole idea of Santa was so grand it was almost more than I could handle.

The excitement of the Christmas season began after Thanksgiving when the stores started to decorate and the Sears Wish Book came in the mail. I would study the catalog thinking about what I would ask Santa for. Santa was very busy so he didn't always make it to my town, but I would write him letters. When I did get to talk to him, I really did believe that his reindeer were parked behind the store although I never saw them.

Each year, I watched the evening news on Christmas Eve because they would report a strange object on their
radar that looked like a sled being pulled by flying reindeer. I did this every year even long after I knew the truth about Santa because that blip on the radar still held its enchantment.

After watching the news and knowing that Santa was on his way, my sisters and I would start preparing for bed. We would take the toaster and bread and butter with us upstairs so we could have breakfast in the morning without going down to the kitchen. We were not allowed downstairs, where the tree was, until my aunt and uncle arrived. As soon as we caught the first glance of their car, we would rush downstairs to see what Santa had brought. He always left one unwrapped present for each of us.

There is so much more to tell you about my childhood traditions and the wonderment of Christmas, but I don't have time for that now. But I will say that even though Christmas celebrations have changed over the years and my excitement has mellowed, I can still remember how I felt when I was six years old. And for that, I am thankful.

Christmas This and That

I wrapped most of these and I couldn't tell you what is in half of them. 

BTW, we don't put our presents under the tree until Christmas Eve. 

A practice that started with small children and curious cats.
The kids have grown up, but the cats are still curious and like to rip paper.

Christmas preparations are going well. Meaning, I'm not worrying about the details too much. For instance, I usually keep a careful list of of the gifts I have gotten and wrapped for people and try to make sure that the gifts are somewhat balanced between my kids. Not this year. I know I've gotten each of them a couple of things they needed, but I can't remember exactly what they were or if one is getting more than the other. It doesn't really matter, and since I wrapped them weeks ago, Christmas morning will be a lot more fun as I try to guess what's in the packages from me.

Also, I've opted for the easy things to cook and take to the different Christmas parties. Some brownies, red and green sprinkles, and some cupcake papers and we're good to go. Christmas dinner will be a little more complicated, but I'm still holding out for maybe going to the store to get some of it pre-made.





Our decorations are usually pretty simple. Here are a few of them.

We got this wreath for our front door last year and plan to use it for many years to come.  It's big enough, that it makes a statement from the street and it lights up.

Are any of you out there old enough to remember the reflectors that you had to put around the Christmas tree lights? We found a few in my mother's things and my sisters and I each took a couple for old times sake. Growing up, we spent a lot of time unscrewing light bulbs, putting on the reflectors, and then screwing the bulbs back in.

This little tree belonged to my grandmother and she used it for her Christmas tree many years.  I've always liked it as have my sisters. This year it lives at my house.

This little tree didn't belong to my parents, grandmother, or any other special person. I got the wooden ornaments on it last year on clearance and got the tree to hang them on this year on sale. The tree lights up and adds a nice touch to the living room. The picture doesn't capture it's charm.

We have some felt mice and a cat that we put on our tree every year that the kids made when they were little. We tell stories with them and they move around. This year we added two dogs that have my parents name on them that came from my mother's Christmas things. 

I hope all of you out there are having a little holiday fun with some This and That however big or small that is.

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday, December 16, 2018

I am thankful for my 

stainless steel mixing bowls.

We got a set of stainless steel mixing bowls for a wedding gift many years ago. They are still as good as new, and we use them daily. I was thankful when I got them, and I am even more thankful for them now.

Do you have something simple like my mixing bowls that is invaluable to you in the kitchen?

It shouldn't have been so hard

Note: This post is a little long. If you want the short version, here it is.  Our Christmas letter took longer to produce this year than normal. Read on if you are curious about details of this first world saga.

I have written a Christmas letter every year for the last 20 years and this year was no exception.
However, what should have a been a fairly simple process, did not turn out that way.

Sending out the letter is one of the early things we do for the Christmas season so I start thinking about it in November.  My thoughts are usually something like, "I need to work on the letter," but sometimes I come up with a clever idea for it. This wasn't one of those years, but I got it written all the same. And I got family pictures to include. So far, so good.

Then I checked around and found the best prices for making copies using stationery that I got on clearance last year after Christmas.  I got the letters copied and I was good to go. (BTW, I have found the local UPS store has the best copy prices in my area.)

And then the trouble began. First, I switched to address labels last year and had no problems printing them. But this year, for the first several tries, the addresses were everywhere but on the labels. Very frustrating, but eventually solved, when I found one more drop down menu that had a setting that I needed to change.The money I saved on the paper, I think disappeared with the address label fiasco.

But I powered on. I sat down with the printed letters to write personal notes to each person we were sending them to. About a dozen or two into them, I read the letter one more time to see what I had said and what I might want to say on that friend's note and found out that somewhere along the way a paragraph disappeared from the letter. ##$&*! I was not happy. I had already sealed the envelopes, so I just wrote on the back of them saying, "Alert: Copy error inside. #7 is missing. Oops!" I was tired and that was all I was willing to do.

I showed it to Ward the next day and he gently suggested, that since it was early, maybe we could fix it and recopy them. He was right. A few friends would have enjoyed the mistake, but most people would just be confused. So I started over.

I had various batches of leftover stationery from other years, so I decided I would print some of the letters at home. I fixed the mistake in the letter, adjusted the margins and after tests and samples, I started the printing. But things did not go well. The printer was acting up and so was I because of that. Ward came to help and even with his calm and knowledgeable advice, things were still a mess.  Because of hardware, software, and user errors only 4 out of 16 pages we were working on were good to use. I was ready to give up.

But I didn't. I began again looking for more holiday paper. That was easier said than done. Holiday letters are a dying breed, so many places that used to carry stationery for them don't anymore. However, I eventually found some. We adjusted the letter to the new paper, had it printed, and I began again getting them ready to mail. The notes were not as long as the first time and got smaller and smaller as I went along. But I finished.

In hindsight, perhaps we should not  have been trying to work on them when I was so tired and Ward was barely a day out from a surgery he had had.  He was on good pain meds and was still in the window where they tell you to not make any important decisions or sign any important papers. Who knew that could mean Christmas letters?

Anyway, they're all in the mail now and I've moved onto other things. But, golly. it shouldn't have been so hard.

Thankful Sunday, December 09, 2018

I am thankful sunrises.

Sunrises show up on my blog then and again, so you may have already figured out I enjoy them. This time of year, the sun rises around 6:30 am and I'm usually up to see it. The first thing I do each morning is look out the window to see what show the sky has for me. It's a routine, I'm really enjoying. So for the colorful sky each morning, I am thankful.

First light, yesterday

10 minutes later

Christmas Smiles

My mother, last Christmas

Tears flow easily these days. I miss my mother. I have always heard that the holidays are especially hard when you have lost someone, but I've never really experienced it like this. It's taken me by surprise because in my logical mind, I thought that I would be thinking about all of the special Christmas times I had with her and be sad. But logic is not necessarily at work here. It's not the Christmases I miss. I miss the emotional connection.

My mother had dementia and slowly left us over the years in many ways. It was discouraging and sad to watch, but no matter what her outward appearance was, I always felt a connection between us during my visits. Towards the end, she was usually quiet, often with a distant stare. But then I'd say something and there would be a little glint in her eye or a slight smile and I knew that she was communicating in the way that was available to her at that point in her life.  We were connecting and it made me happy. Before I experienced the last couple of years with my mother, I never would have thought that those difficult times would be the ones I missed the most. But for now, they are.

However life goes on no matter what the circumstances and this grief is not consuming my life. It's just a part of it. I am happily preparing for Christmas. I am ahead this year in many things and feeling more relaxed than normal. I am enjoying the Christmas lights and the Christmas music. I am having good times with my sisters and friends. Ward and I are having long talks and making fun plans.

With all of those things, I'm trying to live what my mother taught me up until the end of her life. She kept living even when it seemed to the outside world life wasn't worth it. So as I think of her little smiles, I smile, too. Through the tears.

A Fun Trip

The outside is covered in a mirror mosaic.

This weekend is a weekend at home. Yea! It seems since August, I have been gone at least every other weekend. Too much for me. It's hard to get traction on the things that need to get done at home when we're gone.

With that being said, here's one of the places we went recently with my father-in-law and his girlfriend, The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. We have visited here before, but I never get tired of going. It is a totally fascinating (some would say quirky) place. All of the works are by untrained artists who are doing the work more for the process than the product. We particularly wanted my FIL to go because he has made several things very similar to works we saw there. The dream would be to get some of his things exhibited. But that's a big project for another time.

To make things simpler, we did all the driving. A lot driving, but some of the best conversations happen in the car. :) As hoped everyone enjoyed the museum, especially my FIL, who by the end, was relating to some of the artists because he could tell they probably enjoyed making their creations as much as he does making his.

Here are a few pictures from the day. No flash allowed, so some of the pictures are kind of dark.

This is Fifi, the mascot of the museum. She goes to a lot of parades.

This entire wall was filled with quilt "squares" made from neckties.

This was in the OCD room where everything had a lot of detail. 
This room was my favorite.

If you look closely, you can see that this mosaic was done with Maxwell House coffee cans. Also notice the cafe coffee station in the background.

This is in the main lobby.

Don't remember the details of this one, but it was interesting to me.

They had a display of mostly wooden mechanical toys. Ward and his father were especially happy that the insides were exposed so they could study how they worked.

There was everything in this dino sculpture except the kitchen sink.
 It reminded me of an eye spy book.

A closer look at the above picture.

This sculpture outside the museum was moving all of the time.

You can walk through this creation.

So many more things to show, but I think this was enough to give you an idea of the fun we had at that day.

Note: If you go to the link above to a previous post about this museum, you'll get a little better idea of the philosophy of it.

And Then There Were Two *

Last Friday, our cat, Lucky, died. It was time. He lived a good 18 years.

We got Lucky. with his sister Lucy, as a young kitten from one of Theo's classmates. When Lucky, a black** kitten, was a few weeks old, he followed his mother out a door that closed on him before he was all of the way through. His family thought the slamming door had killed him, but no, Lucky had other ideas. When he came to us a few weeks later, he was a healthy, playful kitten that we named Lucky because of the good luck he had already had in his young life.

It was soon evident that he was the dominant cat over his litter mate Lucy, a sweet gentle girl. Three years later he remained the top cat when the other two cats, Leo and Annie, came into the house. Despite constant challenges from Annie, Lucky remained in charge. No need for swats or growls to keep the others in line. A stern look from him was all that it took.

As part of his leadership role, he was a leader in the food department. He was the one who got to eat first and the one who opened the food bag for the others. He could tear a hole in a new bag of food in no time flat. Then the others got to enjoy the spoils of his efforts. We tried to put the food away as soon as we got it, but he was amazingly fast at this trick.

He also got first crack at the prey that ventured into our house. He didn't bring the dead mouse or mole to us as many cats do, he hid them under one particular rug in the basement. The same rug that he did his trick of laying on his side and running around the edge of it. We don't know what all of that meant in cat behavior, but I guess he did.

Lucky was also a relaxed cat who enjoyed a good lap to purr on and a pat from anyone--stranger or not. Even the vet. That was until he had some medical problems that needed invasive procedures. After that, the the vet was not his friend. In fact, sometimes it took two or three of the most experienced people at the vet's to help Lucky with what he needed. Can't say that I blamed him. I wouldn't have been very happy with the people who poked and prodded me for no good reason that I could understand. But he and I survived as well as the other cats whom he hissed at for several days after they had been to the vet.

He was also our adventure kitty. All of our cats were indoor cats. They were curious about the outside, but happy to watch the show from a window. A door left open by mistake might get a cat creeping outside, but never a dash. So we couldn't figure out how and why we would occasionally find Lucky outside meowing at a window to come back in. He seemed happy, just ready to come inside for a little warmth. Sometimes he had been out all night and we didn't even know he was out there. He helped us figure out one time that we had a torn screen (maybe he tore it), but other times we never figured out how he made it out. But he always came back.

I have 18 years of stories to tell about Lucky, too numerous to tell all of them here. Let me just say that there is an emptiness in our house now that wasn't there last week. Lucky had a good long life that we are very grateful for and he will be missed.

*We now have two cats, Annie and Leo.

**On first glance, Lucky was a black cat. But a further look revealed more. Each one of his hairs was black tipped, but the rest of it was light grey often giving him a curious look. The vet called him a tabby because of the stripes on his tail and officially a Domestic Short Hair. We called him Lucky.

Post I Never Got Around To

I sometimes have an idea for post or take a picture for one that never quite makes it to the blog. It seems I get distracted by something and forget about my idea and move on.  Then while looking for something else, I run onto them. I find it hard to find the time to develop them all, so I thought I'd do some abbreviated versions before I forget about them again. Here is my first post in the Posts I Never Got Around To series. (I plan more, but we'll see.)

A Few Pictures From Around the Yard Over the Last Month, A Second Look so to speak.

You saw another picture of these cosmos in my last post, but I wanted to elaborate on one of the comments I made there. The local Girl Scout troop did a project on bees and one of the points they made was to plant plants that attract bees. To encourage that, they made bee bombs which were soil balls embedded with seeds. I wasn't sure what was in them, but this is what came up from my bombs. I think this would be a fun project for other kids. 

Stinkhorn fungi. I found these for the first time last year in another location in the yard. They come from little white puffballs in the ground. It will be interesting to see where they pop up next year.

I got two, small, inexpensive ($1.77 each) mums from Aldi's last year that came back quite nicely this year. I especially like their round form. 

We have yellow mums in the back that were there when we moved in.

They have continued to spread and fill quite a large spot. I want to do some more with this bed, but hate to disturb the mums because they are really happy in this location.

I was going to take more pictures to go with each one of these, but, well, you know.

Until next time... :)

Harpers Ferry

Last weekend, Ward and I wanted to get out of the house. We weren't in very good moods and thought a distraction was needed. After several considerations, we headed for Harpers Ferry, WV, which was about an hour or so from our house.

Harpers Ferry is a small historic town that is perhaps most famous for John Brown's Raid in 1859. Brown was an abolitionist and attacked a federal armory there hoping to start a liberation movement among the slaves. Things went badly for him and he was eventually hanged for treason.

However, there is more to see than the spot where Brown's raid took place. The town has many of the original houses that have been turned into museums. But this visit, we didn't go to study the civil war or way of life 150 years ago, we went to see a collapsible boat designed by Merriweather Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame. We have visited Harpers Ferry a few times over the years and had never heard of this boat. We saw it online and we were curious.

Harpers Ferry is a National Park and as national parks are so good at, they had a bus service to take us into town. The day was a little cold and windy (or refreshing as Ward would say) so I didn't take many pictures because my hands were in my pockets most of the time.  However, below are a few of them.

Harpers Ferry is interesting geographically. It is at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and is where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. We were not at a good angle for a shot, but this is where the two rivers meet.

The Appalachian Trail goes through the town, so Ward has visited the area more than I have on backpacking trips. Notice the railroad bridge in the background. There is a close up of it in the next picture.

There was a nice footbridge across the river next to the railroad tracks that we crossed to the other side to explore. However, something happened along the way back. I remembered I was afraid of heights and decided the best idea was to get back to solid ground as soon as possible. That's me hightailing it in the blue. Ward took his time examining how the bridge was built. He said the only thing that would have made it better was if a train had crossed while he was on it.

However, we did see three different trains throughout the afternoon. I enjoyed them along with Ward when I was on terra fima.

This is where John Brown's raid took place. Have you noticed that we're meandering a bit on our way to find the collapsible boat?

Not only did Lewis build his boat here, he secured other supplies for his trip.

The boat was to be carried with the other equipment and used in inaccessible areas where the wooden boats wouldn't go. The details of the boat did not photograph well, but you can get an idea of how big it was from Ward at the edge of the picture. The original boat was never found, but this replica was built from Lewis's notes.

The collapsible iron frame was covered with animal skins and sealed with pine tar. It did well in tests on the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry.  However, the exploration party didn't need to use the boat until Montana where there were no pine trees for tar to seal the seams. The other things they tried as sealants didn't work, so down it went. I was disappointed to hear that it didn't work, but probably not as much as Lewis and Clark and the others on the exposition. 

We came home in a better mood and did a little of our own exploring in our yard where we found these cosmos that seemed to have gown a foot overnight.

Thankful Sunday, October 28, 2018

I am thankful for later sunrises.

This was at official sunrise time, 7:32 am, this morning. However, the first light was peaking from the clouds about 45 minutes before that.

It seems no matter what I do, most nights I fall asleep at approximately the same time.  But I wake up according to the sun. As soon as the first light creeps from the sky into our bedroom, I'm awake. That means in the summer when sunrise is 5:30 am or so, I'm sleep deprived. But this time of year when sunrise is an hour or two later, I get more sleep. That makes for a happier me and a better day for all of those around me. So for a later sunrise, I am thankful.

One Last Day

Maine Trip, Day 7, Monday

We had one last day in Maine before we were heading home. We decided we would visit another must see for a Maine visit--a light house. Our destination was the Pemiquid Light House. We had been there before and wanted to go back because of the interesting rocky shore. Our goal was to go in the morning before it was supposed to start raining in the afternoon. We made it and left as the clouds and a tour bus rolled in.

The Pemaquid Lighthouse was built in 1835 and became automated in 1934. You might recognize it because it is featured on the Maine state quarter.

The shore is rocky and an interesting place to climb around or sit and watch the waves.

The rocks are also interesting to study. The metamorphic gneiss rock has been intruded by igneous rocks to make some interesting formations.

The actual lighthouse was closed for the day, but the museum in the keeper's house was open. I asked for a tour and this man delighted in showing us items and telling stories about them. 

We saw several monarchs here. We also saw a few at Salisbury Beach earlier in the week. Not sure if these are stragglers or they haven't started their migration yet.

After the lighthouse visit, we headed toward Damariscotta for lunch and at stop at Reny's, a Maine discount store. That was where we had the unexpected pleasure of seeing the decorated pumpkins. By the time we left, it was raining steadily, but Ward wanted to go a little out of the way to try to find Lie-Nielson that we had passed on our way to Bar Harbor. Lie-Nielson makes high end woodworking tools that Ward had read about but never seen.

Lie-Nielson is known for its high quality hand woodworking tools. They are sold all around the world, but this is where they are all made.

Ward enjoyed examining and trying out the tools in the showroom.

I asked the woman in the showroom if they gave tours and she said that there was enough time to take us on one right then. It pays to ask because that was the second time that day we got an unscheduled tour. Here our tour guide is telling us about some plane caps that are in progress.

These men were polishing plane irons. Ward was fascinated with the processes and was in seventh heaven during the whole visit. I appreciated the tour even though I didn't understand everything they were working on.

We were getting tired, so it was time to go back to my sister's house and pack our things for tomorrow's departure. However, on the way, we stopped at another Maine tradition, Moody's Diner.

Moody's has been around since 1927 and is a good, old fashioned, family-owned diner. They are famous for the many different kinds of pies they make. So what did we have? Pie, of course. Blueberry for Ward and apple for me. :)

The next day it was back to reality when we arrived home after a bumpy, but uneventful flight. I can definitely say that a good time was had by all on our trip to Maine. :)