The Twelfth Day of Christmas

Here we are at the last/twelfth day of Christmas, which is also the birthday of our sweet Dug (well, it's the day we officially adopted him, so we assigned it as his birthday). So before anything else, Happy Birthday, Duggie! We miss you and still love you more every day. Tonight we'll drink a toast to you.

Our Christmas Day was a nice, lovely, relaxing day. The kitties enjoyed having us home all day and hanging with them.

Pip

Esme

Milo 

Alfie

Lots of presents for everyone to be opened!

Our tree, after Santa left kitty stockings and gifts under it!

Just hanging out and exploring

Alfie was the first one brave enough to check out the Christmas tent. It took him about 10 minutes to figure out how to get in (yeah, I know) and then he took even longer figuring how to get back out. (We're not hoping for him to become a Rhodes Scholar, so it's all good.)

Everyone seemed very happy with their gifts, including those sent in the mail. We talked to some family and heard about their celebrations. We ate and drank a lot of good things, and listened to Christmas music and it was a nice, long, enjoyable day.

*****

Then, there is another thing I wanted to show you, related to the holidays. About two blocks from our house is a small park called Fitler Square. It's a lovely place with benches, trees, flowers, and though smaller than some of the other squares in the city, it's beloved by the neighborhood. 

Well, a local group, the Philadephia Drunken Knitwits, received permission this year to "dress" the sculptures in the square in festive attire! 

The Ram

The Bear

The Pup

I have the feeling a lot of people missed this little guy - he's behind a fence. But if you look at the bear sculpture above this image, there's a small white spot behind the fence - that's this pup!

The Turtles

Isn't this great? It really made people smile, and as you can probably imagine, a lot of the kiddos who come to the square with their parents or daycare groups were excited to see the animals dressed up for the holidays! It got a lot of local and national media coverage, which was nice, especially since Fitler Square is not that well-known, even by people in the Philadelphia area. 

The group "undressed" everything yesterday, but I'm wondering if they will do it again next year, since it was so well-received. 

I can say for myself that every single time I walked through the square, seeing this made me happy.

*****

So far, 2025 has been good - all six days of it! But you have to take it when it's there, right? And since January 6 has become such a sad date in our history, it's nice to think there are still good things to celebrate about it. So I hope your day treats you well, and let's all keep our fingers crossed for the coming year. 

Because ... well, you know.

[Not Signed], But Sealed And Delivered

Hello all, and I hope your Monday is going well. As you may have guessed with my frequent absences around here, I've been busy getting things ready to send, and also getting us ready for Christmas. All of us have been doing things that make it festive in our house, and we are nearly ready. The things that need to be done at this point are the last-minute things - you know, like putting away boxes, last-minute clean ups, and wrapping some gifts.

This fluffer has been enjoying investigating everything. Like the others, he enjoys the tree but is not at all interested in bothering it. Which is a relief, because who knows what his past life showed him? 

He's really funny though, because he has not quite mastered the art of the under-the-tree ambush. Pip and Milo are *not* surprised when he pops out to get them, because he manages to make sure it's always completely predictable.

We finished decorating our tree on Saturday, and we love it! It's kind of a skinny tree this year, but all decked out, it looks perfect to us.

Last night we attended a concert by the Philadelphia Boys' Choir and Mens' Chorale, which was just magnificent. I always especially get a charge out of watching the littler boys during the concert, as they have not yet gotten to the point of standing still the whole time, or being able to just have a benign facial expression. 

This coming Wednesday evening, we are going to the "Glorious Sounds of Christmas" concert by the Philadelphia Orchestra. It's an annual event, but we haven't gone for about six or seven years, so we're looking forward to it. They are of course a wonderful group of performers, and the concert is always just such a fun and enjoyable evening. 

And the good news is that all of the packages we had to mail are not just on their way, but most have already been delivered! As it turns out this year, most of what we were sending was both small, and did not weigh a lot, so having to pay to send them didn't break the bank. Win-win!

But you know what I failed to do? Take a photo of the completely finished and ready to go shawlette I made for my niece Amanda. Sigh. I'm sure I can get her to send me one once she has opened it, but seriously, what a rookie move!

I hope your Hanukkah/Christmastime/winter solstice season is moving along happily. Even if you don't celebrate a specific holiday, I hope you are enjoying the spirit of happiness and giving that is around us. Don't let the grinches get you down.

That's it for today. I need to do a couple of things before heading to the yarn shop for the day. Yesterday was almost eerily calm, so I'm wondering what today will be like. Last Monday was insane, not just for a Monday, but for any day. 

Take care of yourselves.

Christmastime with a Broken Wrist

Sigh.  "Next year will be different," I keep telling myself.  Yes, I am trying my best to be in the moment, and I am enjoying Christmastime overall, as I usually do.  But I have to tell you, this year has presented challenges, due to my limitations from a broken wrist. 

Some background first:  The Tim is famous for getting a tree for us during the first week of December, and then almost immediately putting the lights on it.  And then, nothing.  He wants us to decorate it together, but he is usually either sleeping, cooking/baking things he wants to make for the holidays, or at work.  So almost every year, the tree has lights only for a week or two, and then all of a sudden he decides it has to decorated THAT SECOND, regardless of what else I may have going on, or be in the middle of trying to get done.  The down side of this is obvious if you have read this paragraph.  The good side is that in the meantime, I've put out all of the other decorations and have cleaned up after myself, so other than vacuuming pine needles once the tree is finished, there's not much left to do.

This year, though, has not worked that way.  I have been going to occupational therapy 2 times a week, and I have about an hour's worth of exercises to do on my own every day a minimum of twice a day.  The days I go to therapy are especially hard, as those sessions are exhausting both physically and mentally.  But I have been doing my best to get out the other decorations and place them where I like them to be, which is fun.  Sadly though, I am not able to pick up the empty boxes and put them back in the basement, since I do not have the control in my hands and wrist yet.  Which means that there are boxes all over the place, because The Tim is a believer in wait-until-everything-is-ready-to-put-away and there are still one or two small boxes of ornaments to unpack (which we are doing tonight and will finish the tree one way or the other), so I can't really clean up.  He is not bothered by this, but it is making me CRAZY.  So I told him that tonight we are finishing up with the ornaments (because as far as I'm concerned, it should already be done), and the boxes need to be downstairs by the time I come home from work tomorrow (he has the day off). 

So what will I be doing this week before Christmas, when I am usually just able to enjoy things and do the activities I want to do (baking, knitting, etc.)?  I will be cleaning the house.  Which usually means a commitment of a couple of hours.  But when you have limited mobility, it takes a very very long time and every single thing is a Big Project. 

Now, I realize that in the grand scheme of things, this is truly no big deal.  But for me, it's really annoying.  I just keep telling myself that a) it will all get done, and b) next year, I will be able to do things the way I like to do them, and that makes me more of a happy camper. 

On a very positive note, I did successfully get the gifts wrapped that we send to family and friends so that they are well on their way.  I love wrapping things, but as with every single thing at this time, it was, shall we say "challenging."  Especially when you are not only surrounded by snoopervising kitties, but a large dog simply *has* to have his head resting on your knee while you are in the midst of it ...

I've also made toffee and one kind of cookie so far (The Tim has made several), and hope this weekend to make a batch of cranberry curd.  I'm sure we'll also tackle decorated spritz cookies, since we generally make those right before Christmas Day.

Maybe The Tim is lucky I can't lift much of anything ... you never know what could happen ... ;-)

Trying Out TGIF

I always enjoy it when Kym does TGIF on her blog, and now Kat has done it a few times as well, so I've decided to give it a try today.

Thinking About - all of the things I want to get done around here this weekend.  None are things that will take all weekend, but all are things I need to just start, if you know what I mean.

Grateful For - the colder weather and the holiday season.  It makes me so happy, and though everyone else seems to wish it was summer, I love fall and winter and the dark nights coming early. 

Inspired By - physical and occupational therapists.  I've had enough therapy to know not just how hard they work, but how thankless it must seem occasionally.  I am always a very conscientious patient, and follow instructions, and do my assigned home exercises without fail.  But so much of the time, I see and hear others around me at the sessions that do nothing but complain, and who seem to truly believe that the therapists enjoy torturing them.  I say that as a joke, but I think you have to be foolish to really think that.  In any event, they carry on and most that I know seem to do it with a lot more grace than I could muster.

Fun - decorating the house and our tree for Christmas!  Those are two of the things on the agenda and I cannot wait.  I love it all, and we have a good time every year, remembering where we got some of our stuff, and who was with us, etc. 

Have a great weekend!

Scenes from Christmastime 2016

Happy Happy

What a lovely day!  Weather that feels like it's Christmastime (finally!), getting the last of the decorations placed around the house, the ornaments on the tree, and some cookie dough in the fridge, firming up to make some yummy cookies tomorrow.

There are still things to do - clean the house, finish the laundry, wrap presents for The Tim, and some odds and ends - but the big stuff is finished.  With a week left, and time to enjoy everything about Christmastime and Christmas Day.  I'll take it.

The only down side for today is that The Tim has to work this evening, so I'm on my own.  Not that we are missing anything exciting, but I feel bad that he has to work so much during this time of year (six-day weeks instead of five-day weeks).  He is the type of person though who makes the best of things, so though I'm sure he would rather have the day off, he doesn't get as bummed about it as I would.

This evening I'll probably do some reading while listening to Christmas music.  Dug and I will go for his evening walk, and I'll have a nice cup of tea and a Christmas cookie or two.  I would like to stay up to see some of "Saturday Night Live" with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Bruce Springsteen, but I sincerely doubt I'll be able to stay up that late!

Days and evenings like this at Christmastime just make me happy.  It always feels that it should be like this.  So many people try to do too much, and get so aggravated, I sometimes wonder why they even bother.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend, and that you're ready for it to be less than a week until Christmas Day!