Staycation Day 7

I had a crappy night’s sleep and woke up with a sore back, but once I was dressed and ready to get the day going it turned out to be an awesome day!

Just before I left to go to Home Depot and the food store, a pink/purple/yellow object caught my eye.  I immediately grabbed my Rebel and a step-ladder than stood outside snapping away.

Unfortunately it was taking the balloon driver so long to get going and rise above the block wall that I gave up and went on my merry way.  The balloons launch at the nearby airport (where I did my skydive) and sporadically launch from the fields around my house, but no matter where the launch site is, they launch all the time.  Like 3-5 times a week, and not just this guy, but other brightly colored guys and/or more than one at a time.  I’ll never know why after nearly 6 years they put a stupid grin on my face and cause me to grab my camera, but they do.

After doing my errands I tackled the projects in my front entry.  Not only did the front door need to be painted…

…but upon closer inspection, so did the door handle.

Amongst all of these supplies is a can of Rustoleum Hammered spray paint, color Rosemary.

That’s the paint that I decided would be semi-perfect, totally acceptable, for the door hardware.  The problem was that it came in a spray can.  Oh, there was something similar in a quart-sized can, for double the cost of the spray can, but really, painting such a small area once every 5+ years?  A quart??  The problem with the spray can is that spray-painting and I do NOT get along unless there is a huge area that won’t look crappy if dusted with the paint.

It took mere seconds for me to decide on the spray paint.  Why?  I could spray into a container then paint it on the door handle hardware!!! 

The plan worked perfectly!!!  Two coats of Hammered Rosemary on the hardware and two coats of the reddish color on the door that I used on the shutters last year and one more item was scratched off my to-do list!!!

What do you think of the new hardware??  Pretty awesome huh?

Well…I was so energized by that success that I tackled the privacy film on the entry window.  This pattern is different from the one I used in my master bath.  I thought it most appropriate to use Etched Leaves in the front entry since it looks out on the front garden.  Putting this up was a piece of cake — and it showed me the secret.  Spray LOTS of water/soap mixture on the window before applying the film!  Lots – like enough to take a bath in!  It words wonders – honest…all bubbles are gone!!

This is how awesome my front entry looks from the outside…

…and here’s a closeup of the entry window from outside…

…and from inside!

If you noticed in the “before” picture that viewed the entry from the outside, vertical blinds were hanging in the entry window.  I’ve opted to remove them and let the privacy film do its work.  I’m not sure if this is a permanent removal or just temporary, only time will tell.

I took a lunch break then removed and washed the three windows I hadn’t already done (check off #1) before surfing for that 2012 vacation that my sister and I are going to take in celebration of our 50th birthdays (I turn 50 eleven months before she does).  The  verdict??  It looks like a late August or September 2012 cruise to Alaska!!!!!   Hopefully we can more firm this up in the next week or two 

The balance of the day was spent working on one of my Dad’s Christmas presents.  I can’t go into any details on this ‘cuz he reads my blog posts 

There are big doings the morning of Staycation Day 8 — I’m so excited about them that I foresee a sleepless night in my immediate future!  Check back Sunday morning for all the details!!!

Staycation Day 6

I can sum up Day 6 in one word – LAZY!

My body was up before the sun, but even after a large mug full of coffee, my ambition was nowhere to be found.  I really think my brain just needed some down-time where it didn’t have to do any thinking.

I didn’t completely waste the day, but it was definitely the least productive (so far).

I spent hours working on the cross stitch ornaments while watching programs I had on my DVR.  The five ornaments are almost done – just 1-1/4 left to go then it’ll be time to figure out a creative way to finish them.  This might be the earliest I’ve finished these Christmas gifts ever!

By late afternoon my ambition was flirting with me so I made my Friday errand list — Home Depot for a few project supplies and food shopping for desperately needed food stuffs (I’m so low that lunch was tuna on Triscuits ‘cuz I didn’t have any bread!).

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the forecast is correct for Saturday through Monday and that the humidity will be gone so I can get outside and work on that last path.  I’ve mentally worked on it and figured out the solution to the problem I was having, now I just need the weather to co-operate so I can physically do it!  This near-desert climate where I live doesn’t have humidity like New England does, but when the thermometer says 105 and the “feels like” say 115, it’s ugly hot and humid.  The norm for a 105 temperature reading is a 102 “feels like” temperature because it’s so dry out here.  With the current weather we’re having, if you drove through my neighborhood you’d think no one lived here — there’s not a soul outside after 10AM — not even kids!

There’s just 4 days left to my Staycation.  How many more items will I check off my to-do list?  Check back tomorrow and you’ll know some of the answer!

Have a FABULOUS Friday everyone!

Progress In Spite of Mother Nature

I made some progress in the front yard this week.  It really may not seem like much but given holiday plans and Mother Nature’s decision to wreak some havoc this weekend, I’m pretty happy with where I am.

First, and very important, my replacement bridge arrived safe and sound this past week!  I haven’t done the post switcheroo and new bridge assembly yet, but I’ve got what I need in order to do so.

Now, on to the front yard…

Saturday was a lazy, drizzly day that also included a holiday get-together with friends, so nothing was done in the front yard.  However, Sunday morning I was outside shortly after 8AM to start putting plants in the ground.  I was soooooo excited even though it was showering!!!!

After 4-1/2 hours I had a whopping 13 plants in the ground!  Now before you think I was digging holes with my fingers not shovels, let me explain the process.

For each plant I had to move mulch out-of-the-way, place the pot on the black plastic then cut away a circle of plastic twice the diameter of the pot, remove sod from said circle, dig a hole for the plant, mix amendment with the clay soil, take plant out of pot and put in hole, backfill part of hole with mixture, water, fill balance of hole with mixture, stomp it down, create plant well border around plant, water and then pull bark mulch back so it butts up to the well wall (and small amounts are against the plants).  Eleven of the plants were in 1 gallon containers, one was in a 5 gallon container and the last was in a fifteen gallon container.  And I do mean the last – once that one was in the ground I stopped.

I wasn’t totally wiped out from what I had done to that point, but I was tired of rain being blown into my face, wet tool handles and sneakers and hands covered in mud, so I called it a day.

But…I have plants in the ground!!!!

This is my Fern of the Desert tree.  I have the green support stakes in the ground but I need to tie the tree to them – that should be done one night this week.

And here is the other tree — my Howard McMinn Manzanita…

This actually looks like a bush right now, and if I don’t prune it, it will be a bush.  Since I want it to be a tree I’ll prune some of the lower branches in January so it looks more tree-like.  This is the time of year to do the pruning but first I want Howard to get over any transplant issues.

Now, when I say it was wet and muddy outside, I can offer you pictorial proof.  Here’s the path I managed to create from repeatedly walking into the garage to throw away the black plastic circles I was cutting out…

…and here are my wet/muddy jeans…

…and sneakers.

Did I happen to mention that it was showery and windy?  Take a look at my wet and pushed-forward-in-a-Justin-Bieber-style hair after I stopped for the day…

Did you notice my dirty hands in the above picture?  That’s nothing compared to how mud-caked they were before I hosed them off!

If you need any further proof of the windy conditions, once inside I happened to glance out back and noticed that my canopy had a couple of tears in it.  It’s been in the yard non-stop for more than 3 years, so I wasn’t surprised that it was showing its age.

I was surprised however a couple of hours later and found that  3/4s of the canopy was shredded!  The wind had been whipping it so much it was now torn on all sides and only attached to the metal supports by the velcro wrappers.  I grabbed my ladder and went out back, in my jammies, and cut away the rest of the canopy and tossed it in the trash.

I ordered a replacement canopy this past summer but I won’t put it up until next spring.  I rarely use the table/chairs during the winter and see no reason to subject the new canopy to the elements now.

This coming week will be a short work-week thanks to the office shutting down for the holidays.  And the shut down will give me 11 days to play out front so expect semi-major progress in my next post and a completion celebration in the post of 1/3/11!

Cookies, Rain and Mulch

Saturday in Southern California was very soggy and windy but that didn’t prevent the arrival of my rocks and boulders…

The 3 boulders were placed in my yard and the bag of river rock (1 ton) was placed in my garage.

It’s quite a bit of rock – that palette is 44″ square and the part of the bag filled with rock is 30″ tall.  But the rocks are really great – lots of fun shapes, colors and sizes!

Half an hour later the mulch and decomposed granite arrived…

and were promptly covered with plastic…

Thanks to all that dreary weather I spent the day inside baking my family’s traditional anise Christmas Cookies.  After 8 hours of laboring I had 38 dozen shaped and decorated cookies and another 101 decorated scraps (the latter are made when the dough is rolled out for the last time and no more cookie cutters are being used).

They look really impressive spread out on the table, but they look just as impressive when you know that all four of these containers are full to the top with cookies!

Sunday morning dawned just as soggy as Saturday so I worked on Christmas gifts while watching the NASCAR race.

By the end of the race the sun was out so I spent a couple of hours moving mulch.

As you can see I still have to remove the sod from the path – that’s on the plan for this afternoon (I’m only working a 1/2 day today) – and then I’ll put the black plastic edging along the edges of the path and move the mulch up to it.  The black plastic strip on the right is the location of the dry creek bed.  It won’t be quite that wide, but I’m leaving myself plenty of room to work.  Once it’s in place and the cement is dry I’ll move the mulch up to meet it.  I’m hoping the dry creek bed will be completed by the end of my four-day Thanksgiving weekend.

Now here are shots of my boulders.  This first guy is 30″ across and is in the garden nearest my house…

this one, the back side of the one I showed you in last week’s post, is 34″ across and is closest to the street (though it’s  my favorite I thought it would be nice to be up front for passers-by to see)…

and this one is in the skinny strip of lawn between my house and my neighbor’s.  It measures 28″ across and will look just as awesome as its siblings once I was the sand off it.  I really wanted you to see the fun shape so I need to clarify that the 28″ goes from the far right up to the left turn the shape makes ( took the pic from the side)…

Though I was able to get a huge project out-of-the-way and make progress in the front yard, the best news was that my CRV was able to be in the garage the whole time!  Everything was put to the left side of my driveway and garage so that Putt-Putt could continue to live in its house…and still get in and out!

The weekend was super busy and exhausting for me.  Seems Scarpetto agreed with that thought too, though I’m not sure why he was the one curled up on my fluffy robe instead of me!

Little Bits X

Damage

This car nearly cut me off the other day as I was driving to work.  When I got up close to the vehicle my cursing turned to chuckling.  It seems this driver might have a history of doing to others what it did to me!

Christmas

How can you tell that Joann Fabrics is already preparing for Christmas even though they’ve just hung Halloween costumes in their seasonal department?

By following your nose of course!

Brush Fire

Remember the wild weather we had in my area of So. Cal. last week?  It was reported on the news that there was a lightning sparked brush fire in my town but they didn’t show footage or specifically indicate where, so I didn’t know the location.

Until I looked out my front door three days later…

A bit too close for comfort for sure but it stayed away from all the structures in the area.

The fact that the fire happened while I was at work is proof positive that the best laid plans of my grab-n-go bag, lists and plans may be of no use. 

A Spy

Friday I had a great day at the office.  Assistant was out sick so I had the penthouse all to myself.  I used the time wisely and worked on our show booth all day, iPod playing in my left ear.  When I finished and headed back to my desk I noticed that I’d been being spied upon.  I don’t know how long the spy was watching, but I did have a momentary concern about how entertaining I must have been.

I got over that quickly, grabbed my camera, went back to the windows and snapped away.

Hey, if I entertained him its only fair that he entertained me too! 

Full Moon

The other morning I was up sinfully early and decided to snap a picture of the full moon.  Not a bad job considering I didn’t have the camera on a tripod and the shutter took forever to “do its thing”.

What To Do With My Front Entry

Once again this year I have really really enjoyed having the small pre-lit Christmas tree in my front entry.  The soft glow is very comforting from both outdoors and in.  What’s even better for the early to bed person I am is the dusk-to-dawn timer attached to the tree.  I plug the tree into the timer, plug the timer into the outlet and voila…

…a soft welcoming glow when the hours are dark.

There’s even the added bonus of being able to see the key hole if for some reason I’m going in the front door in the dark (like say when the garage door decides not to open!).

Unfortunately after another week the tree is going to have to go back into the closet until next November and my front entry will once again be dark.  But I’ve decided that a dark front entry in 2010 is completely unacceptable. 

There is an overhead light in the entry but it’s too harsh, and besides, it’s a bug magnet, only releasing said bugs so they fly into my house when I open the front door.  I also like the dusk to dawn timer as I don’t have to tax my memory banks with remembering to turn the light on and off.

Late this afternoon I went outside to photograph a hummingbird in the top of my tree…

…and when I turned back to go into the house I was nearly flattened by the solution to my dilemma!

I will move this table and chairs to the other side of the front door along the wall where the tree was, and I’ll put a nice little tabletop light on it!  I can take the dusk-to-dawn timer and wind it around a table leg so that it gets the best light possible.

Now I have just a few days to find the perfect lamp, one that is welcoming, smallish and a perfect match to the person who lives inside. 

Wish me luck…I’m gonna need it!!!

My Most Interesting Gift

Every year I receive great gifts, most of them very telling about how well others know me.  Then there’s always that gift that has adjectives such as “interesting”, “intriguing” and “?????” flying through my head.

This year’s gift came in the box from my friend with these two bottles…

 

 Now for the unveiling…this year’s most intersting arrival is…

Being a person who looks at the front of packages first, I’m sure you can understand my confusion, head scratching and exhaling the word “huh”.  Not, “huh?” like I was confused, though I was, but “huh” like a statement of fact.

Then I turned the jar around and read the rest of the information on the label…

…smiled and screeched “KEWL”!!!!   I immediately thought this would be awesome to use in the post celebration of the skydive my friend and I are taking next month.  Then I started giggling like a kid at this thought…how interesting will the 5th flower openings be after we’ve each had 4 flowers???  Think about it…1 flower per glass of champagne…and there are appprox. 11 flowers.   I think I need 2 bottles of the bubbly 

Now for an interesting twist…

As I was emptying the packing peanuts into my packing-material-storage-garbage-bag I came across the notecard from my friend.  Seems I opened the whole box upside down, finding the card at the bottom instead of at the top (there was no “This End Up” on the box I swear) and the flowers ARE for our post-skydive celebration. 

WOW — that day is going to be so awesome!  Not only will I twice be kept airborne in a tunnel by huge forces of air and dive out of an airplane by choice (weather permitting), but I will also eat flowers!!!

Vacation Has Started

Christmas is over and now my vacation has started…and turned into a massive two pronged to-do list!  There are “me” and “work” prongs, and fortunately, or unfortunately, the “me” prong is longer but the “work” prong is filled with quicker projects.

I won’t go into details about the “work” prong since the chores won’t make much sense to anyone but me, but the “me” prong?  Well folks, strap in and prepare to get tired!

The quickies — a haircut and buying blue and green paint and 2 sections of wooden picket fence at Lowe’s (interesting supply list, huh?).

The long stuff —

I absolutely need to use the blue and green paint on a wall and prime and paint the picket fences as this is setting the stage for a January project with friends (more on this project in a future post). 

Another absolute is pulling up a section of my bedroom carpet & padding where my late kitty Scotch had litterbox misses, pulling up the exposed tack strips and washing the concrete floor several times with bleach.  I also need to remove the small things from my bedroom and the clothes from my closet.  This MUST be done before Tuesday morning as that’s when the guys from Empire Today are coming to replace my bedroom and closet carpeting.  They’re moving the big furniture AND putting it back afterwards…sometimes I like being a girl 

A truly fun absolute is decorating a Rose Bowl Parade Float!!!  I and four of my friends are scheduled to do this on Monday.  We’ll be leaving here around 6:30AM or so and then spending the day in a climate controlled facility (think “cold”) gluing, painting or doing whatever we’re told to do.  Don’t worry…I’m bringing my Elph camera and taking pictures as well as making lots of mental notes so I can give you all a behind the scenes look at the decorating process.  That post most likely won’t show up until Tuesday morning…

High on my not-absolute-but-need-to-do list is heading out to San Juan Capistrano to purchase some native plants for my backyard.  Of course, I have to figure out exactly which ones I want, and once I do, I may also have to make another stop at Lowe’s for some planting material, but I soooo want to add plants to my backyard that this will also be a fun chore.  That is until the next morning when my shoulders ache from using the pick ax to break up the clay soil.  I’ve slotted this little jaunt into Wednesday morning.

Speaking of yardwork, there’s some square footage in the front yard that could use a trimming and some plants that could use some pruning.  First I have to upend my large yardwaste barrel as it has some water in it right now.  Why?  This barrel lives outside and the lid is always open so that any yardwaste doesn’t “cook” in the Southern California heat.  This is great except that I never remember to close the lid on those rare occassions where we get liquid sunshine.

I do need to haul out my sewing machine for 9 reasons – 4 of them for work and 5 for me.  The work projects are sewing backs on 4 latch hook stocking.  The me projects?  Two valances and 3 barstool covers.

Both valances are for the front bedroom and use this striped fabric…

This is a perfect match with the aqua walls, white furniture and red chair, and I’ve had this fabric longer than I care to admit (let’s just say it’s been more than a year).  So, why have I procrastinated so much?  The valance going over the window is an awning but I can’t find a pattern so I have to create it myself.  The valance over the closet doors is just a regular horizontal tube that fits over the curtain rod, but I can’t make that until the awning is done, its simplicity being a reward for completing the complicated one.

The other 3 sewing projects are cushions for the barstools…

I’ve had the fabric and the foam for this project longer than for the front bedroom valance project and its been shuffled aside for the same reason as the awning valance — I can’t find a pattern so I have to create it.  Naturally I’m not making this easy as I want fitted cushions.  Not only will the foam be covered, but there will also be a flap of sorts that hangs below the covered cushion and that has elastic around the edges so that the cushion will be held in place without ties. 

How long as this been in the works?  See this valance over my sliding glass doors?

It’s made in pieces, and I sewed enough pieces to cover the sliders as well as 3 other windows…and the valances have been up for 2 years.     The fabric I’m using on the cushions is the leftover from the valances.

Another project will have me be hanging with relatives both in this world and the next as I finish up the latest issue of the family newsletter and get it off to my cousin/co-editor for proofing.  This is a very fun and enjoyable project, but I do have a tendancy to get carried away in the creative process, always fearing that I don’t have the right mix of information, words and pictures (the curse of the creative folks — hyper critical of their own work).

There’s a straggler Christmas gift that I have to finish.  Fortunately it’s for a very good friend who is also a crafter, so she completely understands how fingers and the calendar can get out of sync.  I did send her a tin of cookies and a tease of her main gift, so she did have something to open Christmas morning 

I’m starting a new workout routine so I’m going to have to spend quite a bit of time this week learning it so that I can actually do it with some familiarity once I have to start spending part of my day at the office again.

If all of these “me” prongs coupled with the not-listed “work” prongs isn’t enough, when I emptied the dishwasher this morning I discovered that a project I had opted to push out until after the trade show chaos of the next month canNOT be pushed out.

This overflowing drawer full of lids means that the Chez Judy frozen meals in both freezers is dangerously low.  OK, not really dangerously low, there’s still a 2-3 week supply, but a lot of said meals are turkey soup, so its variety that is missing.

Tomorrow I’m going to put my 21 pound turkey in the fridge so that it can slow thaw and be cooked on Thursday.  A good chunk of Friday will be spent restocking Chez Judy with containers of turkey chili, turkey pot pie, turkey stew, turkey stir fry, turkey stuffed peppers and 3 large containers of turkey stock (soup will be made in March).  Of course I don’t have all the supplies I need for this venture so I need to add a comprehensive food shopping trip to the schedule.

I think I’m going to need to go back to work to recover…and that’s not good since I’ll need to be wearing rollerskates at the office for the next few weeks in order to have even the slightest chance of keeping up with everything I need to do!!!

I’m off to take a shower, have breakfast, then head out to the store to get this vacation off to a productive start.  Here’s hoping that productivity lasts longer than the couple hours it’ll take me to do the shopping I need to do this morning! 

Christmas Day

Today was a mix of greatness and frustration.

The greatness was that I hung in my jammies all day and puttered on fun stuff the entire time.  After opening my gifts I plopped in the recliner with a book from my sister, Knit The Season by Kate Jacobs - the third in the series of The Friday Night Knitting Club books.  Not only did I read the book cover to cover by 9:30AM and enjoy it as much as the first two books, but this book also had an “open ending” so I fully expect there will be a fourth book!

My friend Lois called during my reading and we chatted for 20 minutes or so.  After I finished the book I spoke with my sister for a 1/2 hour before calling my brother’s house and speaking with him, his family and my Dad.

Next up was breakfast…er…brunch.  I made a delicious and filling meal of scrambled eggs with chopped onion and diced ham.  This creation used two more Christmas gifts — a chunk of the 5 pound boneless ham I received from the boss and a test drive of one of the new cutting knives my brother and sister-in-law gave me (the set is from the German company Wusthof).

The entire afternoon was spent putzing on various crafts while watching movies on LMN (Lifetime Movie Network).  I switched to the local news at 4:30 or so while I worked on dinner.  I put a Hormel lemon garlic pork loin in the oven, cooked then mashed some potatoes and steamed fresh asparagus.  After dividing up the leftovers and starting the dishwasher I sat at the breakfast bar and played computer games for an hour, talked with my friend Laura for a bit then played some more computer games.

Right now I’m sitting in my bed as I type, ”Medium” is on the TV, not for watching as much as for noise to drown out the next door neighbors as they continue their Christmas celebration in their backyard.

That was the great part, here’s the frustrating part.

I had an invitation to spend time today with a friend – an invitation that I politely declined.  The friend pushed a little before flashing a momentary pity glance my way, one that said how sorry she was that I was spending the day alone.  That thought was repeated multiple times during the movies I watched today.  No one should be alone on Christmas Day; everyone should be coupled up or with friends or family; those who spend the day alone are to be pitied.

GGgggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……..

I spent my Christmas Day EXACTLY how I wanted to spend it!!!  I gave myself a huge gift of enjoying my own company, relaxing in total jammie comfort and doing the things that I enjoy but no longer seem to have enough time to do.  And the day FLEW by — I can’t believe that it’s time for bed already!

What frustrates me is why people cannot understand that not everyone wants to spend their Christmas in the company of others.  Please don’t misunderstand, I enjoy spending holidays with family and friends, but when I choose to spend them by myself, there’s no reason for anyone to feel badly for me.  It was my choice, and I loved every minute of it.

I know there are people who spend the holidays alone that do not want to be alone, so in no way am I speaking for anyone but myself when I say that people enjoy spending the holidays alone.  And I don’t enjoy spending every holiday alone — I had an awesome time with family and friends during an extended Thanskgiving weekend, and I enjoyed my solitary Christmas just as much.

Now if only the rest of the world would understand…

Thanks for letting me vent.  I hope your Christmas was FANTASTIC whether you enjoyed it by yourself or in the company of others.

A Chrismouse Meme

The Twelve days of Christmas have been celebrated since medieval times ~ traditionally beginning the day after Christmas Day (now known as Boxing Day) and ending on the Twelfth Night.  And since the festive season is upon us ~ I thought it might be fun to do a Christmas meme!

I found this one over at TerriTerriQuiteContrary’s blog.

The Rules:

1. Copy the delightful Chrismouse picture to your post
2. Copy these rules and the explanation of the meme (above).
3. Link the person who tagged you.
4. List 12 things: either about a Christmas present or memories of Christmas past (or a mixture of both).
5. Tag as many or as few people as you like.

If you are reading this, then you are hereby tagged!

1.  The Christmas Star.  Throughout my entire childhood (and part of my adulthood), the Flanagans would hang a large star in one of the pine trees at the edge of the forest that bordered their property, and every night it was turned on for all to see.  I never saw the star up close, but I would say that it was at least 4-5 feet across and was hung 20-25 feet up the tree.  I loved looking out the window or standing in the backyard and seeing the shining star, and when the glow was reflected off the snow?  There was nothing better.  I remember the first year that the star wasn’t in the tree – there was a bit of sadness in my heart that year.  I also remember the year it reappeared – I literally screeched in delight!  I also sent the Flanagans a Christmas card and let them know how much that star meant to me.

2.  Candle Glow.  There was nothing more soothing to the child I was than the glow of the candles in my bedroom windows.  It was soft and welcoming, and though they illuminated the room, they added so much magic and mystery to the season.  I remember when the nights were really cold, the temperature difference between the outside of the glass and the lightbulb heated inside would keep Jack Frost busy for hours.

3.  Christmas Cookies.  To this day, Christmas is NOT Christmas unless our family’s traditional Christmas Cookies tease my tastebuds.  I won’t go into great detail here, but you can read all about these cookies here and here and oh yeah, here.

4.  Christmas Tree.  The artificial tree we had for most of my childhood is one that even Charlie Brown would hesitate using.  But for me, that tree WAS Christmas!  In fact, when I moved into my first home I asked my parents if I could set the tree up in my living room.  Even though you could see through the tree and the needles were paper thin pieces of green plastic, I used that tree every year until the twigs on the branches started snapping off from being used so much.  I miss that tree.

5.  Christmas Tree Lights.  I’m surprised that the nail on my right middle finger did not suffer permanent dents from the dozens and dozens of times that I snapped it against those big old colored lightbulbs that were the standard indoor and outdoor bulbs “back in the day”.

6.   My Christmas Stocking.  To this day I hang MY stocking, the same stocking that I’ve had my entire life, complete with some missing glitter and a cuff with a hot cocoa stain.  My mother couldn’t understand why I preferred that stocking to one that I could make for myself, either by cross stitching or quilting.  The answer has always been simple.  That red and white (and brown) stocking is MY stocking – it always has been and always will be. 

7.  Christmas Eve.  In many respects, the night before the big day was better than the big day itself.  There wasn’t the pressure associated with gifts – would one get everything one wanted, would the gifts one gave be received in the way the giver anticipated – nope, Christmas Eve was always about family.  And all that family came to my parents house for a night of singing, laughter, music, game playing, talking, munching and just plain enjoying each other’s company.  We cousins would hang on the main level while the adults hung out in the basement family room, complete with a Franklin stove and a bar.  The piano lived in that room so when it was time for carols, everyone would cram into the family room and either my Grandmother or I would play while EVERYONE sang along.  I miss those Christmas Eves.

8.  Popcorn Balls and Candy Canes.  Each year our tree decorations included popcorn balls and candy canes.  And every Christmas Eve, as all the cousins left our house, each could remove either a popcorn ball or a candy cane and take it home with them.  Neither were spectacular or personal gifts, but never did a cousin leave our house without one of the two in their possession.

9.  Christmas morning.  While my siblings and I were little, our parents recorded every Christmas morning, the reels of film now safely tucked on a shelf in a back bedroom.  For us little kids, this tradition was an incredibly long and tortuous delay to the morning’s adventure for nothing in the living room, not a present or a stocking, could even be touched until we were given the OK by our parents.  Mom & Dad would EVENTUALLY get out of bed, take turns in the bathroom then Mom would get the coffee going while Dad set up the movie camera and lights.

It took more years than I would care to admit before we kids finally figured out that if we all piled into the bedroom next to our parents bedroom, we could quietly make as much noise as possible, successfully waking our parents earlier than they preferred.  While they were busy doing “their” thing we kids would move to the bedroom closest to the living room and stand in the doorway until we were given the okay to run into the living room to see what Santa left behind.

10.  High School Band.  A select number of band members would rehearse Christmas Carols for a few weeks then over the course of two weeks before Christmas, said members would caravan to various local nursing homes after school to entertain the residents.  We would play in the activity room, the music often piped throughout the entire nursing home, and were rewarded with smiling faces, lilting voices and tapping feet. 

11.  Our traditional Christmas Day dinner.  Every year Christmas Dinner was served in the early afternoon, and the meal was always the same.  Lunchmeat (ham, turkey and salami), cheese, green & black olives, pickles, celery stix, radishes, homemade potato salad, spiced apple rings, rye bread, sliced onions and gahuktas (you may know it as steak tartar).  And for dessert?  Christmas cookies of course!

12.  Stocking Stuffers.  Every year the toe of our stockings held an orange followed closely by a bag of gold foil wrapped coins, tic tacs, a lifesaver book and for the girls, one or two L’eggs.  You ladies do remember L’eggs when they came in the white egg don’t you?  Other fillers could range from books to hand-held puzzles to underwear to chocolate Santas to mittens.