Book Attack

It's that time of year again, no not Christmas, not New Years, no it's time to do something about all the books we have.  I need to be able to use our closets for something besides book storage.  We both have tablets with Kindles on them, we have Google to look information up and do research with, I buy books ALL the time, so it's time to weed out some of our outdated books.
It's not easy to do, we'll keep the books we plan on reading again or we have a strong sentimental attachment to.  Mac is keeping all of his P.G. Wodehouse, Fred Archer and Beverly Nichols books.  I'm keeping all my Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Charles DeLint and Elizabeth Goudge books.  But it's out the door and off to Goodwill for many of the rest.  Hopefully they'll find new homes to be read again.
 It was hard to let some of them go, we've been hauling them around for more that 40 years, but some of them haven't been opened in nearly that long.  When you're looking information up, which we frequently do, you need up to date information and sadly that rules out the information in many of our books.
We have huge a car load that's going tomorrow to Goodwill and stacks more that will head out in the New Year.
 It hasn't been easy, it hasn't been fun, but it was necessary.  That leaves us with a 4 shelf bookcase (full) in the tv room,  a 4 shelf bookcase (full) in the closet of our daughter's room and 2 three shelf bookcases (full) in my make a mess room, and 2 four shelf bookcases (in a state of disarray, their time is coming) in the computer room closet.  Plus numerous stray books scattered around the house.
I plan on using the shelves in my make a mess room closet to store fabric, yarn, scrapbooking supplies, and other craft material.  I'm tired of being unable to walk across the room in there because it's such a mess, I'm too old and clumsy to live with that way any more.
I guess the New Year brings on this clear-out mania.  We dragged the Christmas tree out today, even though a cousin-in-law says I'm supposed to leave it till Epiphany when the 3 Wise Men come, but I told her that unless the Wise Men planned on carrying the tree off for me that the tree was out of here today.

Forget the gold, frankincense and myrhh get the tree

Right now I'm tired and I need a cup of something.

How Lucky I Am

When asked if I got everything I wanted for Christmas I always say yes because having our daughter come is always the only thing I really want.  And when asked what I want besides that I'm usually hard pressed to think of anything much, though I LOVE when I get something homemade.

My 2 favorite Christmas gifts fall into that category this year.  Mac painted me a picture based on on a vintage Christmas card and the lady in the pictures red coat looks so lush you want to reach out and touch it.  Meanwhile my daughter got me a Fairy House (have I mentioned my fairy addiction before?) and she showed it to her Dad when we visited her  at Thanksgiving,  and he came back and put together the other parts and fairies for it.   Then  when she got here at Christmas they put it all together.  I think it's beyond magical, and as I said, I'm a very lucky lady.

Merry After

We had a wonderful Christmas, how could it be otherwise, our daughter came for almost 5 days, she left yesterday.  We're really not turkey people so the consensus was that we'd have lamb, and speaking modestly, I think it's the best lamb we've ever had.  Tons of presents were opened, all that wrapping was worthwhile, and there were many surprises along with the more practical gifts.
Our daughter left yesterday afternoon and though I'm use to there just being the 2 of us here, plus the cat, the house seems very quiet,  and that's strange because our daughter is a very quiet person so I don't know how having her gone should make this place quieter.  I guess I'm just missing her.  She's an only child and having her live nearly 600 miles away is hard.  We see her oftener  now that we're in Georgia instead of California, but not often enough.

It's time to take down the tree, put up the decorations and make plane reservations for our next trip to see her.

Almost Christmas

One more day to go!  Always feel like a kid when it gets this close to Christmas.  Our daughter got here yesterday and we've probably had  a million cups of tea, usually only have it when she's here, eaten way too much food already,  and just enjoyed  all the catching up.
Santa worked in his workshop/garage all day and wrapped presents after lunch.  He says he's almost ready. UPS came this afternoon with things I'd forgotten that I'd ordered so I still have a couple of things to wrap.
Unseasonably warm again today, yesterday we broke a record it was 82, not quite that warm today, but too warm for this time of year, I'd like it a bit cooler.
I've been looking at aprons online and the prices are ridiculous!  Most sites that have stuff I like want 20-30 dollars.  Way too much money for something I'm going to make a mess of.  So I've been looking at patterns and after the dust of Christmas settles I'll be sewing myself one.  Tomorrow more cookies will be made and more of a mess, unless I can convince my daughter to make them.  I roped her into making a gingerbread house one year and she still hasn't forgiven me for that so we'll see how the cookies go.
This will probably be my last post till after Christmas so Merry Christmas to all my family, friends and fellow bloggers!

Heading Towards Christmas

Boxes keep being delivered, cards arriving, baking almost done (still no apron, what a mess), gifts being wrapped, Santa's still out in his workshop/garage working on something, Miss Kitty who normally ignores the Christmas tree has discovered the joy of strings and bows and I'm counting hours.  Though it's only the 21st it feels like Christmas Eve because our daughter gets here tomorrow and having her here for Christmas is what makes it Christmas for us.

Apron!

An apron, an apron, my kingdom for an apron!  I know I use to have an apron, I actually broke down and bought one once upon a time.  After hearing me moan numerous times  about my lack of an apron my daughter gave me one as a gift, but those aprons are long gone!
 I was baking cookies today, lovely, floury sugar cookies, and what did I choose to wear while playing with white, white, white flour, why a black shirt of course.  What other color could coordinate so well.
By the time the first batch of cookies were done I looked like I'd been in a flour fight with the 3 Stooges.
I've cleaned the kitchen, dusted myself off as well as I can, but there's another load of cookies to play with tomorrow and I still have no apron, any suggestions as to what I could wear instead?

Wrap It Up Baby!

I entered the "wrapping room" around 11:30 this morning and just made it out again a bit after 2.  Even with judicious use of gift bags and as little wrapping paper as I could get away with I'm not quite done.  I don't spend a huge amount at Christmas, I buy used, I make things and I buy lots of fiddly little things that are fun to open.  But the wrapping it a job and a half, even with the cat helping me by holding down and rolling in the tissue paper.  A lot of work but such fun to watch when they're opened and people are surprised, and hopefully pleased.

Christmas Movies

Was talking to my younger sister yesterday and she said that she'd been watching a bunch of Christmas movies and she asked if I had too.  I had to admit that I'm not a big fan of Christmas movies, I find them over sentimental  and sometimes just silly, though I do like White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.  Actually caught the last few minutes of it on AMC the other night and found myself singing along to the ending.
Funnily enough my 2 favorite Christmas movies aren't movies  at all, they're animated features.  My all time favorite is The Snowman narrated by David Bowie.  I love that it has almost no dialogue and the music is absolutely haunting.  I bought a copy of this video a few years ago and it has become a tradition for us to watch it each year.

The other one I like is one of 4 short films found on a Christmas story video, it's called Morris's Disappearing Bag.  A short, sweet film about a little rabbit's Christmas.

Both films are sentimental without being cloying and I look forward to seeing them again this year.

Oh Christmas Tree

Love having a real Christmas tree, not much of a pine tree smell,  but oh so nice.  It's a Frazier fir and keeps its needles forever!  But there are pitfalls to real trees and we hit one of them this year.  No, it's not the cat climbing it, though we had a cat who use to do that, it's not a cat knocking everything off the tree or eating the tinsel, had one who did that too.  No, the problem is that fresh trees need water and this year our holder was leaking and when Mac found the water it was a mess.  We had the tree on a deep plastic lid and under that an oil cloth table cloth but the water still  got under it all
So we had to get the cloth and lid out, dump the remaining water, lay the tree down while we did this, dry up all the water so the wooden floor underneath wouldn't warp, get the holder back on the tree, stand it up, collect everything that fell off, sort out the lights, rehang ornaments and try to be cheerful about it.
The last part was the hardest, but after baking more ginger people and getting things back on the tree the cheerful came back.
I love a real tree, but we've got to find a better way to stand it next year.

Having a Beary Merry Christmas

One time while watching a movie where one of the characters had a teddy bear (was it Anthony Andrews in Brideshead Revisited? ) I commented that I'd never had a teddy bear.  Mac was amazed, he said everyone should have a teddy, and that's how it began.  These are a few of my teddies, and of course I have a bear Nativity.  How could I help but have a Beary, Merry Christmas.

Favorite Carols

While exercising today I was listening to Christmas music played on the harp.  Strange music to exercise to but I get tired of listening to the lady on my exercise cd so I turn her down and play my own music.  But listening to the harp cd made me think of my favorite Christmas music, and while I like all the standards, you know "Oh Little Town of Bethleham", "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear", "Away in a Manger", "I'm Dreaming of a While Christmas",  my absolute favorite Christmas Carol is " O Holy Night" a French carol written in 1865 by Adolph Adam, and my favorite version is sung by Bing Crosby, an oldie but a goodie.  I also like his version of the Little Drummer Boy done with David Bowie and his version of "Do You Hear What I Hear".
Another favorite is "What Child is This?" done to the tune of Greensleeves with the words being written by William Chatteron Dix in 1865,

But for a really modern version of a carol I LOVE "The Carol  of the Bells" by the Trans Siberian Orchestra is fantastic.   I looked for a You Tube version to put on here but they're all bootlegs with poor sound and picture quality, so I'll just put the album on here, think I'll be exercising to it tomorrow.

What are your favorites?

Christmas Cactus, Sometimes

My HalloThanksChristKing Cactus

I've written before about my Christmas cactus and thought I mention it again.  I bought it 6 or 7 years ago at Christmas time and it was in full fuschia-colored bloom, it looked glorious.  But unfortunately it's not a reliable Christmas cactus.  Some years it blooms as early as Halloween and some years as late as Martin Luther King Day in January.  This year it has decided to bloom between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it is beautiful, hope the blooms hold on till Christmas.  The one in the laundry room, a white one, is also a little calendar challenged!

Its Partner in Crime

The Smells of Christmas

I'm so impressed with me, I multi-tasked today, I did my Christmas cards while I baked gingerbread people and only one of the envelopes got any gingerbread on it, pretty good.  Now they may not be the prettiest folks I've ever made, but the they are tasty and they just smell so Christmasy.
But look at my poor little Bear jar, his tummy is so empty, I see some cookie baking in my future.

Poor Empty Bear

Decorating

Note the train without all its track

If you enter this house you are in danger of being covered in ivy and having a bow stuck on you.  I need to stop decorating, and if I could find the rest of the track to my miniature train I would.  The tree is done and nearly everything else is too, including me.
I love Christmas, I love being with my family and cooking for them, surprising them with presents--things they wanted and some they didn't know they wanted.  I don't get stressed out by Christmas, it's a time when I actually slow down, think more about others and how much they mean to me.  I really enjoy making gifts for them, though I'm not sure how my fingers feel about it all.
Next I need to do cards, wrap packages for mailing and make some gingerbread people--I love the smell of ginger, even more than the scent of pine, ginger smells like Christmas to me.

Entryway

Dining Room, almost done

I'm off to look in one more box to see if I can find my track, nobody wants to be off their track!

On the First Day of Christmas

Well actually on Dec.2 it begins, the tubs come out, Thanksgiving disappears and I try and figure out where everything goes.  Miss Kitty brings her friend Tail to inspect the first tub down.  I've been working like a demon  an angel on Christmas presents and Mac has finished 2 paintings for the Etsy shop.  Tomorrow we get the tree!