Just snapped some photos of a lovely fall bouquet from John. Brilliant colors–such deep golds, reds and purples. Sunflowers and an alien flower that’s a cross between a thistle an a tulip. Lovely.
Author: Jana
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can’t. stop. posting. today….
A meme from alisonwonderland:
I’m tagging everyone on this one–answer either in the comments or on your blogs (but please do leave a comment here if you reply to the meme):
Tanya, John, JohnW, Caroline, Margi, Amy, Deborah, Brooke, Christi, Seymour, Dora, BIV, Lorell, RyanH, Elise, and the rest of you readers out there… :)1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Umm…tea. Duh.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just put them under the tree? Wraps them. He used to wait until Christmas Eve for them to appear. But this year they appeared about Dec 1st.
3. Colored lights on the tree, or white? White.
4. Do you hang mistletoe? I wish. Anyone have some for me?
5. When do you put your decorations up? I aim for T-Day weekend, but it’s usually later than that.
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? John‘s clam dip, Mom’s rolls, yams, and rotkohl.
7. What’s a favorite holiday memory from your childhood? Hmmm…maybe this goofy little Santa play that my big sis and I wrote and acted out when we were about 8&9 years old. I was Santa–wearing my bright red Danskin turtleneck and pants. And Becky dressed up as a reindeer in her brown velveteen jumper (with a lipstick-red nose)
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t remember. As far back as I can recall Mom was puting the gifts under the tree.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? With homemade ornaments, origami cranes, paper flags from all the countries that we’ve visited, and a slew of applesauce-cinnamon ornaments to make everything smell yummy.
11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love visiting it. Dread living in it
12. Can you ice skate? Not anymore.
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Every year I had a different favorite.
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Tradition and family time.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Just about anything pumpkin-ish.
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Saving up the Halloween candy for making gingerbread house-ish creations (just you wait, I’m already planning the AVCT 3.0 gingerbread extravaganza this weekend–anyone wanna join in the fun??). Also, handmade Christmas gifts for my sibs.
17. What tops your tree? A big golden bow. Someday I want something better, but the right topper just hasn’t found me yet.
18. Which do you prefer – giving or receiving? I love it all as long as neither is too excessive.
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I really love Sting’s “Gabriel’s Message.” I also love Harry Connick Jr and Amy Grant’s Christmas Albums–I can belt out every song! My favorite Christmas hymns are “Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
20. Candy Canes! Yuck or yum? Pretty yucky, IMO. I don’t like sucking on sugary candy because it makes my mouth feel all sticky and yucky inside. That said, though, I’m a sucker for anything toffee-ish.
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bestest part of the day
As the time nears each afternoon that Catgirl and GameBoy will come home from school. Watching the clock. The anticipation. Then the build-up of sound, like jet engines revving up, as their roller backpack wheels grind up the front walk.
Then the moment of seeing sweet faces pressed up against the screen door mesh. My cheer from across the room, so loud:
“Woohoo, you’re home from school. Hey everyone, you’re home!”
Their impish smiles, ear to ear, as they step across the threshold. :)
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update: toby
After hiding under various beds most of the day (post-vet trauma, no doubt), TobyJoy is back to her usual rascally self. As if to say that yes, now that it is midnite she is ready to play and why is everyone else so dang tired and uncooperative?I, for one, am thrilled to have my lapkitty back in action again. It’s just not as fun to type on my laptop w/o her little motor purring as she curls up on my right hip and rubs against my forearm. :)
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a needle-not-in-a-haystack
Two days ago John found TobyJoy munching on a length of thread. He pulled what he could out of her mouth, administered some medicine to smooth things through her intestines, and hoped for the best.After about 24 hours of throwing up and gagging and general malaise (not eating or drinking, hiding from us, and mewing pathetically), we took Toby into the vet for a checkup. Our vet gingerly examined Toby’s jaw and throat and then called me over to see the three-inch needle wedged into the roof of her mouth and running down the back of her throat. So at that moment I proceeded to have an emotional meltdown. One team of vet personnel comforted me (keeping me from swooning right then and there) while the others prepped Toby for an extraction procedure.
Within an hour Toby was waking up from the sedative and the vet pronounced all well as she handed me the needle in a vial.
Sigh. Another item on my gratitude list: I’m so glad that the needle didn’t go past Toby’s throat, and that we have such a capable and kind veterinary friends.
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Jolly good
CatGirl playing “Good King Wenceslas” on her flute. Also, GameBoy playing “Let It Snow.” :)
PS: Thanks for your patience with all this holiday cheer coming your way. We’ll be back to the regularly scheduled pilgrimgirl programming soon. :)
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AVCT 2.0
Made another version of the Astro Veggie Christmas Tree for the Friends’ Christmas Party today. Added pineapple and maraschino cherries (thanks to JohnW) and cheese (thanks to John). It was, as before, the glory of the buffet line. Thanks also go to DavidK who definitely has the astro-veggie creativi-tree skillz.
For those of you (like RyanH) who missed out on the construction of AVCT 2.0, a picture is worth a thousand words. :)
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fast fingers
Watch this short vid of GameBoy and his cello teacher playing “the Hannukah Song.” Note the magical ending where the song continues on after they’ve stopped playing :)
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bedhead
This morning when our family was sitting around the table I realized that we were each sporting some pretty spectacular bedheads. I snapped a few photos for your enjoyment (see if you can guess who is who)…
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Astro Veggie Christmas Tree
This was the beautiful appetizer assembled by our family for our Institute potluck dinner. It was quite a hit!
Thanks to Charles Phoenix for the inspiration for our holiday-themed creativi-tree.
[Ingredients (added 12/7): green olives w/pimento, broccoli, small sunburst squash, 3 types of cherry tomatoes, cornichon pickles, baby carrots, edamame pods. Quite an improvement over Charles’ weenie tree, IMO.]
