Holiday Cheer

I love, love, love Christmas and all it offers.

The snow, Christmas lights, walking downtown Seattle, wrapping presents, having cats eat the ornaments, overnight company, King Wha, holiday candles, cheesey potatoes, piano music, car seat heaters, holiday movies, fudge, Christmas Craft, laughter, opening presents and on and on. I love it all.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is December 24. We all looked like a picture in a magazine. All of us crowded (and literally crowded) into one room with the fire going, the tree lit and packages piled everywhere. All seven of us laughing and patiently watching as each one of us opens a present. So much thought has gone into each gift and we all take such pleasure in every one of them.

Thanks family for making this again, a lovely and memorable Christmas. I want to have Christmas this year on my birthday. Everyone overnight and sitting in the livingroom with a replay of fun. It makes scense since it is exactly 6 months from Christmas and all I want is a Birthday Craft! Oh know, not another!!! This could be great, please let me know if I can have my selfish birthday wish. I'm giving you plenty of time to think and purchase a new glue gun.

All Things Shinny and Gold

Well I think everyone wants to share with a bit of Christmas delight.

I received a wonderful gift from my overweight, adopted, alpha cat Abner!

He doesn't have the opportunity to bring a mouse without a head, or a bird without one or two wings since he's an inside cat, so yesterday he left me a Christmas gift all decorated with lovely gold curled ribbon. Where did he hide this marvelous gift?...how about the cat box!!

Sure enough, he's obsessed with the Christmas tree and all things around it. He has consummed the gold ribbon on one particular gift. As a result, my gift was about 3" long with entwined gold. This guy is crazy. Last night he discovered the ornament that I received from Mike and Jimmy's annual party. It is a glass bird with an actual peacock feather on it. I don't know if its the smell or what, but he has been caught dragging this 8" long bird through the house. Now mind you it is glass so this could be an accident waiting to happen. So I took the bird and hid it behind my clock on the mantel. Well big boy must have smelled it out because next thing I know all 20lbs of him are walking the tightrope of the mantel with the bird once again in his mouth. He is not very graceful so when he jumped off, along with him came one candle, a picture and two Christmas stockings.

Not to blame only Abner, but so far all paws are pointing to him as I also found one of Sheri's original Christmas Craft ornaments (candy cane made out of salt dough about 20+ yrs ago) partially eaten, and we all know who is food motivated in this household.

Well, I didn't know what to expect with these new cats as this is our first Christmas together....lots of laughs! I'm the winner once again!

Lorne Cakes

Yesterday Sheri and I met up with Lorna for dinner.

Once again her house is decorated like only a Christmas shop could be. She has more stuff than you can imagine...inside and out. You can tell that she really loves this time of year or she wouldn't have collected so much!

Great thing is to me she looks great! I know the cancer has been creeping up in her body, but it has given the outside of it a break. Her hair has grown back to where she even has had to have a haircut. It weight looks much better than the last time I saw her and her spirits were up and she was up to going out to dinner for new and interesting flavors. She talked of next year which can only make you smile.

This sarcastic, beautiful lady can only brighten your day and this is what she did for me. Thank you Lorne Cakes!

Augusten Burroughs

Yesterday was a very crazy Thurday. Everyone of us had issues at work...me- Tokyo flight cancelled and I had to stay at work late, Sheri-not feeling great and was on an airplane to get here, Taylor-needed to report/file to the authorities regarding a family and their children, Morgan-Tom wanted a last minute brief and now!....these are normally okay things to deal with in our lives as part of our jobs, but we had plans! Augusten Burroughs is in town and we have tickets to his reading and book signing.

So instead of a casual and easy going afternoon for all of us, we had a bit of tension building to be at the start of the program at 7pm. Of course, it all worked out fabulously and we had an amazing time and the last one of us (Taylor) walked right past Augusten as the lights were turned off to indicate the start of the reading.

How fun as we all were able to get together for something that meant a lot to us, and not everyone would enjoy such an event and who would understand. Can you see Charley, Dave or Tyler driving for over an hour for this and truly appreciate the evening? We on the other hand, wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Thanks to my family, that we all love so many of the same things and we all understand each other so very well.

Great Smells

You all know how much I love the smell of Tide with a follow-up of Bounce...one of my favorite smells.

So last night I just pulled out of the dryer a warm, lovely Resto housecoat. I had it on for about 1hr before it was time to retire to bed. I even threw it on top of my blankets so I could enjoy it and my freshly washed "B".

This morning getting up in the dark, I slipped on a hairball. Since we are all cat owners, we all know what it feels like...a shock when your toes get the wet, chilly, goo between your toes. That's okay. I clean it up and walk just a few steps when I know feel something damp on the back of my leg. What could this be???? How about hairball juice!!

While cleaning it up with my fresh housecoat on, the bottom somehow got into the mess. Now I have to throw it into the washing machine and what am I going to wear when I get out of the shower? We all know how cold my bathroom is...the solution! My backup housecoat! Hooray - thanks sister!

Election Night

Yesterday was such a great day.

I started out the door around 8:15 with my dog in tow to go see Cheryl as it was her birthday. My plan was to stop off at the Danish Bakery and pick up this almond pastry she loves to have with coffee while the kids are at school. The bakery hadn't opened yet, and I didn't was to wait as Cheryl and I don't really have very many opportunities to just visit.

The news was saying all morning that traffic was terrible due to rain and election day so I just head onto her house, but decide to stop off and get my tire checked since I'm right there in Renton and a bit early for Cheryl's....I have a nail in it, but they will fix and rotate my tires. Great. I'm waiting and who walks in but my little brother. I'm sure I enjoyed the visit (one sided visit) much more than him, but again it makes me realize how much I really do miss him. We had what I thought and hoped was a decent conversation for about 15min.

Cheryl and I talked and had coffee, laughed etc...went to the bus stop and picked up Alex and then decidied to get Dim-Sum at a restaurant that I've been dieing to try. Yummy! I love dim-sum. Hugs goodbye and off to home.

I rake leaves to fill up my yard waste and proceed inside to make homemade cream of tomato and rice soup. Turned out great. I enjoyed this while watching the debate. It had me glued from 4pm until 10pm last night. I throughly enjoyed it and Marian and I texted all evening. I'm a little sad that I couldn't share this with Charley, but he has his own opinions and they don't always agree with me (how can that be?)....but would have still enjoyed having someone with me for the occasion.

All this to say....had a fun day off!

Coffee

Hey all coffee drinkers....I was lazy and ran out of coffee but didn't want to drive to Costco to pick up the coffee beans I like so.....I instead went to Trader Joes. Again they have come through. I love Trader Joes. Who would have thought all these years of occasionally going there to have it be my favorite place to go grocery shopping?

Well, since I like to grind my own beans I purchased Trader Joes 1lb 10oz French Roast whole beans for under $10. It looks similar to a Quaker Oats container...kinda fun, anyhow, it is great. I like a robust cup of coffee and this fits just right. They also supply a grinder right next to the coffee so people can do it themselves instead of at home.

Thought I'd share a new and great find!

P.S. Another Christmas Craft class tonight!! :)