601! And My Yule Tree

Wow, I just looked at my blog post listing and saw it said 600 posts on this blog! Hard to believe I could come up with that much to say over the past few years! I should have done something for the big event, but I don't think my readers are the kind who'd want to enter some contest or something. So, hey, send a congrats if you feel like it. It would warm my heart, which needs it, due to the fact that it is SNOWING outside. That's right. OK, more like SLEETING. Still, it was over 70 earlier today!

So, I was actually going to write about our lovely Yule, or Christmas, if you wish, tree. It is really different this year. We got a nice big tree thanks to generous Home Depot gift card wedding presents. It's a sort of strange tree, because its leaves have not opened up or anything. I guess it's uptight.

So, we can't find the ornaments, or the tree topper. Just a few of the things have showed up, so I decided to make things. We got bright new multicolored lights, which are a departure from the golden and purple ones I have favored in the past (I always have had slightly odd trees). Anyway, I found a bunch of the purple ball ornaments from last year, and covered them with the squares of cloth and tulle we'd used on our pansy favors from the wedding, tying them up with the left over curling ribbon. They look sort of quaint and rustic. I also (as seen in top picture) covered some shiny gold ornaments with just the red or gold tulle. They look nice, too. I added ribbon left over from the wedding, and Lee and the kids keep saying how nice the lights look shining off it. Not what I'd normally do, but it looks fine.

In this picture you also see an ornament sent to me by an email friend, which she made. It's a little glass container full of shiny beads, with beaded cord around it, and cute li'l shrinky dinks with nice sayings on them. It is really shiny. And sweet. She also sent an ornament made from felted sweaters and some llama roving. Very soft.


This picture shows the ornament we got at Yule Fest on Sunday. It's a Christmas spider, which is based on some German legend about a spider that spins a web that turns gold for Christmas. We thought it was a nice story and a really pretty spider, too. It's not very itsy bitsy. Below that is a fish ornament, which came from the set of bride's ornaments that Parker gave us for our wedding gift. We put the fertility bunny in the back, 'cause we really could do without any babies in the near future. Ho ho ho. All the ornaments are really cute, and each one symbolizes something about married life. I like the lovely rose and the big heart with the wedding rings on it the best. They are the only shiny ornaments I put on, at least so far.

So, here is what the tree looks like.

To me it is a little sparse, but I tend to over-decorate. Lee and the boys seem quite taken by it, so I will leave it like it is this year. Like Lee says, I need to try to make some new traditions for our new family and such. I'll have to. No kids with us this Christmas, so it WILL be different. We have a very happy lit-up redbud tree in the front yard (we are the only people on the street with colored lights, not to mention jumpy blinky ones).

I have a bit of a sad note. You may remember all the things that have been going wrong with my corgi, Gwynneth. She went blind two years ago, and a few months ago began having trouble with her back legs. Tonight she seems a lot worse. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep her. If she can't walk, she won't have any quality to her life, and that will make me sad--she is the first dog I've ever had from puppyhood to old age. A number of my friends have lost pets recently. It is never an easy time.

Morning Surprise

I was reading email and looking out the window, when I saw something in the tree. As I checked to see what the "cute li'l squirrel" was doing, I realized it did not have a fluffy tail. It was a pretty durned big rat. Not as big as the Florida swamp rats, but big enough, thanks. I hope THAT is not what we sometimes hear in the attic.

On a happier note, we got a Christmas tree yesterday, so it smells good in here. The tree is taking its time to "relax," but we will light it up anyway this afternoon. I will put wedding ribbon on it, I think. I may make something out of our left-over cloth squares from the wedding, too, and of course, we'll put our wedding ornaments on it!

We also got Lee a planer saw thing with our Lowe's gift certs. He really wanted one. We tried to get blinds at Home Depot, but could not get waited on. We will have to try again.

And here's another wedding photo, of me and my sister. Nicer than a photo of a rat, I'd say.

A Nice Lull

I am happy to report that there isn't much going on right now. It's a lull. I have Yule gifts for the family all picked out, and that is about all I am doing gift-wise. I am all out of discretionary spending after throwing that big party/wedding last week! So, all my friends got the gift of a potluck then! I may throw in a couple of family surprises, but not too much. You know, the economy and all. I'll make Lee's dad a pair of socks pretty soon, because I know he will want some.

The week has been good and calm, mostly involving saying, "Yes, I AM happy," and looking at wedding pictures. Speaking of which, here is a link to some of the better ones taken by a professional-level friend. This is a good link, because from it you can buy prints, or if you wish, coffee mugs, aprons and such with Lee, me, or one of our attendants emblazoned on them. Sure, you want to do that...anyway, the hilariously Photoshopped photo of us and the cake came from that batch. I was bored, OK?

I have been enjoying watching the Canadian political stuff, and enjoying not having to have an opinion on it, too. Just seems vaguely "bad." And otherwise, I am sending vibes for people with sick family members and pets. Ahh, how nice. I guess this weekend we will get one more good vacuuming out of the borrowed cleaner, then give it back to Tina. Then we'll get a tree and decorate it. Maybe with a LOT of red and gold ribbon, since I have so much left over from the wedding. Gosh, maybe I can make something out of red and gold plates and paper napkins (having so many people who planned to come get sick or have traffic issues, means lots of leftover stuff--still, we can use it all). For some reason, I feel like making things. Stop me before I craft again!!

Have a good weekend, and I will be back to more regular posting as soon as things rev back up to normal speed!

Church Christmas Pageant

Church Christmas Pageant
Originally uploaded by sunasak

OK, two posts in one day, but it's the holidays! This morning we survived the Christmas pageant, which was Christmas-y as only a UU church can make it. I ended up actually having a lot of fun, mainly because I got to dress up all Bethlehem-y (actually looking like Ms. Bhutto from Pakistan, see below) and read a cute story, with lots of acting and hamming it up. Beccano drew a charming illustration for it, too, with his left hand--people loved it. The singing went OK and the kids did pretty well for small children. Beccano ended up having to be the Camel (that is him just to the left of the angels) because the original camel didn't show. He was tall, more like a giraffe, but was very good for leading the wise men around. They needed help! For some reason, this event really put the spirit of the season in me--all the weepy parents watching their kids, all the hard-working pageant leaders, the confused but pleasant kids. !

Our choir song was not too bad (picture below--sorry they aren't in very good order). All the quirky choir members in their individual ideas of appropriate attire were rather motley, but looked pretty seasonal. Well, we did all make an effort, which counted

Afterwards, I even got a nice gift from Saranda--a very cool calendar with dia de los muertes dudes doing all sorts of activities--really interesting art, in a very neat stand. I may take it to work, when I have a work to take it to. The November picture was off a guitarist skeleton, and I think I'll cut that one out and use it for something. Plus she gave me candy AND a re-usable fabric gift bag. I really want to do more of those myself. Getting a holiday gift really cheers me up for some reason, especially one not expected. So, hooray for friends.

Feel free to check out the rest of the pageant photos on Flickr, and I hope you get to do something fun over the next few days that brings you cheer and reminds you of the joy of giving and receiving.

We did a little family shopping after church, and we sure enjoyed the kids and their humor. This afternoon I do a chat with my long-term email friends who are exchanging their Yule gifts. That will be fun, even if I didn't participate this year. It's nice to enjoy their fun, even second hand!

Yule Greetings

Candles all lit
Originally uploaded by sunasak

We celebrated Yule last night as a family--the previous Yule Lee and I spent alone, and it was really special, but this was special in another really nice way. The photo is of the altar with the candles all lit.

Both kids had asked to "do something" for Yule, so I tried to make it special for them. WE had the usual 4 corner candles plus a bonus one in the south, and I put a Waterford glass with water from St. Brighid's holy well in Ireland on the west. The north had a pentacle and the east the athame a friend gave me. We had a reindeer standing in for the god as he goes from holly king to ivy king, and a white goddess statue. Around the candles were holly and ivy, along with white stones and nuts (pecans and acorns--these represented seeds holding potential for future growth). The full moon was represented by the altar cloth, which had moons on it.

In the ritual, we talked about our memories of Yule, then mentioned a struggle we were dealing with. Then we chose a nut, dipped it in the water and stated our intention to plant a seed of change in ourselves. We will keep the nuts to remind us. After that we each did a three-card tarot spread followed by a Yule message card. Mine was funny, because I got an anxiety chest pain as I was shuffling and thought to myself, "I bet I draw the three of swords," then I did, as my message (that card depicts a heart with three swords in it). Very amusing to me. Everyone interpreted their cards and enjoyed that part.

Finally I talked about how we used to exhange gifts in our family at Yule (one each), but that gifts didn't need to be tangible. And we then gave the person on the left of us an intangible gift, a trait of skill we hope they will grow to have. These were really wonderful to hear, and Tuba Boy even gave Lee a bonus--said he wanted him to be more transparent, because he can never tell when he's angry at him. Sweet.

After the ritual, we had cakes and ale (wine/soda and ginger cookies), and you can see that I was very happy with our holiday at that point (had not had wine prior to that, honest) and I did a longer tarot reading for Tuba Boy. It was overflowing with cups and love. Hmmm.

I will write more after the exciting church Christmas pageant, at which we will wear our ritual robes, but pretend they are Jesus-land outfits.

(There are more Yule photos on Flickr--feel free to go check them out)

Holiday Musings

So, this is how the kids wanted to be remembered this holiday time. The Older Boy was still asleep, while the Younger Boy was "charged up" a bit. I also have a picture of me in my festive holiday outfit, complete with antlers, that everyone commented, "How natural those look on you!" I'll stick that one at the end of this entry.

So, the boys got lots of presents, though less than usual, since each got one big item (a video camera for Younger Boy and a Wii which does not yet exist for the Older Boy). You would expect them to be bonding with their gifts, right? Imagine my mirth when the Younger Boy came up to me, all serious, holding a very large branch he'd found on a hike with his dad, declaring, "Mom, I want to do some whittling on my staff." OK, I guess all he needed was a sharp knife this year. Of course, can I find the lovely wood carving kit he inherited from his grandfather? No. I'll have to look--I have seen it around.

It was a better holiday than I had feared. RM was in an extra good mood and really seemed to enjoy the day. He loved the 2 gig of RAM I got for his new laptop! And my sister loved the fancy-ass printer that EM and I picked out for her. I got me one of those phone headsets that make you look like you are talking to yourself in public when you use one. I plan to not stand around in grocery stores and use it--mainly it's for those really, really long phone calls with EM every night when we aren't together in person, where my hand falls asleep holding the trendy yet not comfy Razor phone.

Holiday meal was good. We had: pork loin stuffed with garlic cloves (whoa, did that give me indigestion for which I can't take anything due to the antibiotics I am on), homemade mashed potatoes, delicious and most wonderful King of Vegetables butternut squash, and usually nasty but well doctored up canned peas (my sister likes them). She also made an apple cake with caramel frosting for dessert, and it was most yummmmmy. I managed to get two glasses of the expensive merlot wine I bought--yay.

After that, all but Older Boy (who had to run play his new Final Fantasy Whatever) watched Little Miss Sunshine and enjoyed it a lot. I managed to finish the last of my sister's dishcloths, a lovely bathtime blossom (eek, didn't get a photo of it) AND I finished a sock. Finally, some knitting time! Photos of the measly four dishcloths I finished out of Schaeffer hand dyed cotton are in the Flikr feed in the margin. They came out very nice, with subtle patterning.

Tomorrow, back to work, though practically no one will be there but us pitiful contractors. Hey, at least I am feeding the family and did not go into debt this holiday. Whoop.

I miss EM, who I believe went to see his father, after some vacillation on that topic. Argh, two days with no Psychic Twin!!