Christmas Pictures

We had a lovely Christmas Day, and I hope you all had the same.  Relaxing, with lots of fun and laughter.  I'm too tired to write a real post, so here are some pictures of our Christmas decorations.

Check Out My Dealie Boppers!

Delia reminded me that I haven't posted a picture of my birthday dealie boppers yet, so here it is!  I apologize for the moon pajamas and my total unwillingness to put on a bra.  That's hard work, and I just wasn't up for it tonight.

You can't see it in the picture, but there are flashing lights on the dealie boppers.  Also, check out my red hair!  I talked to my mom about the green hair thing, and decided not to do it right now.  I'm planning to go to Christmas Eve services with them (I never go to church, so it's kind of a big deal to Mom), and I know it would completely humiliate them for me to show up with green hair.  I know that's silly, but I'll respect their feelings about it.

Also, I talked to the hairstylist, and apparently maintaining an unusual color is a hell of a lot of work.  I'd probably be re-dying my hair every week to two weeks.  I am so not up for that right now.  So I'll be sticking with the fiery, but longer lasting, red.

And since you can't really see them in that first photo, here are the giant hoop earrings that I talked about a million years ago but never posted a picture of.

Aren't they fantastic?  They looked good with the scraggly blond mop that I used to have, but they really work with the red.

Also, taking clear pictures of myself, one handed, with that thing was a serious pain in the butt.  Definitely not designed for taking pictures of yourself one handed.

In other news, there are two jars of cherries draining in the refrigerator right now.  Tomorrow is chocolate covered cherry day!  Messy, but fun.  And the results are worth it.  Better than any chocolate covered cherry you'll buy in the store.  The recipe I use is in the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  (Also available online here.)  They're a little harder to find, but if you decide to make this recipe, take the time to find cherries with stems.  Your results will be much better.  (Especially if you're not an experienced candy maker.)

I think that's all the news and pictures for today.  I've started my brother's socks, but just barely.  I need to get trucking on them if he's going to get something more than an IOU in his stocking.  And I haven't finished embellishing my peanut, but maybe I'll have pics of that tomorrow!

Lip balm of the day: a very festive and seasonal White Cranberry.  (It's way yummy!)

Toffee!

As you may have noticed, there have been a lot more pictures around here lately.  I bought that Samsung Galaxy Player a couple of weeks ago, and I'm having much fun snapping pictures of everything around me.  The pictures are much better than what I was getting from my cheapo digital camera, too!

Anyway, tonight I made toffee.  My uncle really enjoys it, so I send him a batch for Christmas every year.  It's really easy to make, too.  (The recipe I use is from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook.  Here's the recipe from their website.)

On to the pictures!

This is the toffee cooking.  It's approximately at firm ball stage.  Hur.

Here's the toffee poured out and cooling.

And this is the finished product.  Toffee covered with semi-sweet chocolate and pecans!  I'll make another batch tomorrow or the next day without the nuts.  Dad can't have them, and they're a pretty bad idea for me, too, because of the Crohn's.  I would be shocked if Mom doesn't manage to sneak a piece or two of the be-nutted batch, though.  She really enjoys them.

Mmm, Stollen

I wish someone would get on the ball and invent smell-o-vision.  (Or smell-o-internet, I guess.)  Because, seriously?  Best smell in the world!

Christmas Cookies!

My brother and SIL came over for dinner tonight, and this was the after dinner entertainment.

Merry Christmas, Darling

I know I keep saying this, and then I never do anything.  But this time I really mean it.  (I think.)  I'm going to start writing again.

One of the m/m publishers that I've been reading a lot lately has a call out for holiday short stories and novellas.  5,000-18,000 words, due September 1st.  I can do that.  I just have to get into a Christmas frame of mind.  To achieve this I've been listening to Christmas music.  The fact that it's been in the middle 90s (a solid 15 degrees above normal for Indiana this time of year) isn't helping.  But I'm going to give it the old college try.

Tomorrow I'm going to start poking around the interwebs, looking for images to inspire me, both hunky and Christmassy.  If you have any favorites, please be sure to link them in the comments.  I could use all the support and inspiration I can get!  If I can figure out how I did the last computer collage, I'll make one and post it when it's ready.  If not, I might have to resort to paper and glue stick, and then God help you if you want to see it, because I haven't the foggiest where my digital camera is.  So, keep your fingers crossed that I find the collage website.

While you're crossing fingers, keep 'em crossed that I manage to get beyond the soundtrack and collage phase.  'Cause I'd really like to write this Christmas story and get it submitted!  (Once I get it written and into the hands of an editor I'll start worrying about whether or not anyone actually wants to publish it.)

Oh, and since I haven't done this for a while, my lip balm of the day is the thoroughly un-Christmassy lavender lemonade.

Huzzah!

The Christmas knitting!  It is done!

Those are the two pair of socks I knit for my father for Christmas.  I finished the last one about 5 minutes ago.  I still need to weave in a few ends on the face cloths I made for my mom and on the scarves I made for my brother's in-laws, but that shouldn't take long.  I hope to take care of the face cloths tonight before I go to bed.  The scarves I can work on tomorrow in front of the rest of the fam, since the in-laws won't be there.

Done, done, finito, done!

Also, I know my hair looks like it survived a recent encounter with a pair of hair clippers, but I promise, it's just pulled back in a pony tail.  It's as long and snarly and multi-colored as it's always been.

Little Mysteries

Something the wonderful Julie said in her comments the other day got me thinking about this.  The odd, random stuff that comes up in conversation sometimes.  The little things that you never would have guessed about someone-- even someone you know well.  I decided to dig around in my personal closet and see if I can find a few to share.

I was in the marching band in high school.  I played the flute.  I still have it, but I don't play it much anymore.  Whenever I do, it scares the cat.  In my four years we won the state competition twice and marched in two national parades-- the Orange Bowl parade and the Fiesta Bowl parade.

My favorite TV show as a kid was The Dukes of Hazzard.  The Best Christmas Ever was the year when it fell on a Friday, and therefore it was both Christmas and Dukes of Hazzard day all in one.  (Although I don't remember actually watching the show that day.  But I sure do remember being excited about it!)  I had the hugest crush on Bo Duke.

I finaled in the first RWA chapter contest I ever entered-- West Houston RWA's Emily.  I was 22 and at my first RWA meeting.  Everyone kept talking about the Emily, but no one actually said what it was.  As the meeting broke up I approached someone-- it turned out to be a pre-published NYT Bestselling Author Kerrelyn Sparks-- and asked what the Emily was.  She said, "It's our chapter contest.  You have to enter!"  So I did.  One judge gave me a perfect score.  Another wrote in the comments that she felt I was ready for publication.  Almost 15 years later and it's still the most success I've had with my writing.  I never did finish that book.

My grandmother was one of the first people ever on TV.  She worked in Philadelphia for a company that was developing the technology.  They needed something to broadcast, so they got their employees together and had a talent show.  My grandmother sang.  (When she wasn't typing or running a switchboard at her day job, she was a professional church soloist.)  Somewhere we have an album with the group photo from her television performance.  Based on the family stories I did a little googling, and I think this is what she did.  I'm pretty sure she worked for Philco.  I'd ask my parents to be sure, but they're asleep right now. ;p

I inherited musical talent from the other side of the family, too.  My great grandfather was an orchestra leader in Philadelphia.  One day he was walking down the street with his wife when he said, "Someday I'm going to play trumpet in that church."  Her response was reportedly, "Honey, that's not our church.  Plus, you don't play the trumpet."  So he learned.  And damned if he didn't play trumpet there professionally one day.

I've been in, I believe 36 out of 50 states.  I've lived in 5 of them-- Pennsylvania, Iowa, Texas, Indiana, and Massachusetts.  I've lived in two of them twice-- Indiana and Texas.  I've made brief forays into the edges of Canada and Mexico (pre-9/11, when you didn't need a passport to cross the border), but other than that I've never left the country.  If I could go anywhere in the world, and silly things like cost, my physical limitations, and the political situation were no barrier, I'd go to see the monuments of Egypt.  It would be cool to see England someday, too.  But if I could only go one place, it would be Egypt.

I never met my paternal grandmother.  She died shortly before I was born.  But she did come to me once, in a dream.  My grandfather, who had died a couple years before, was with her.  I was in high school and one of my best friends had died.  In the dream Mom Mom and Pop Pop were holding hands, and they told me that it was OK, that I didn't have to worry anymore.  Jasper was there, he was safe, and they were looking out for him.  I woke up crying.

My parents were both juniors.  So when they got married they decided that their children would not be named after anyone.  I am Rebecca Lynn and my brother is Jeremy Daniel.  (I insisted on the Daniel.  In fact, according to my parents, I never called him anything but My Jeremy Daniel for the first year of his life.)  Being their first child, Mom and Dad recorded the calls they made to friends and family announcing my birth.  Somewhere, in one of these million and a half boxes we just hauled half way across the country, there is a recording of some great aunt somewhere saying, "Rebecca Lynn?  What kind of name is Rebecca Lynn?"

When I was a kid my dad used to tease me and tell me that he'd wanted to name me Agnella Blossom, but my mom wouldn't let him.

Every year we put our Christmas tree up on Christmas Eve.  (Except for this year when we're going to do it a few days early to make things a little less stressful.)  When we were little Santa put up the tree.  Once we got a little older we were allowed to help put up the tree as a way to help Santa out.  All those millions of other kids to get to, you know.

My brother believed in Santa until late in his elementary years.  In fact, at 32 I still haven't ever heard him admit that he isn't a real, flesh and blood man who comes down the chimney to deliver presents once a year.  (Hey, my brother ain't dumb.  As the pillow sitting on my couch right now says, "Those who don't believe get underwear.")

I learned the basics of knitting from my grandmother as a kid.  She also took a stab at teaching me to crochet the summer before she died.  I wouldn't say it was all that successful if my aim was to learn to crochet.  But as a way to spend time together and be close, it was excellent.

The summer between my freshman and sophomore years in college I started picking up large print books my grandparents at the library.  The first time it was the whim of a moment, and I wasn't really sure what they would like.  So I got an assortment of books, whatever caught my eye.  They loved it.  It turned out they liked "the cat books" best.  (I think they were The Cat Who books by Lilian Jackson Braun.)  What they liked even better, though, was that their granddaughter was interested enough to pick up books for them.  Every week or two I'd pick up the old ones and come back with some new stuff.  There always had to be at least three.  Granddad read faster than Grandmom did, and with only two books they'd fight over who got to read what, when.  They were pills.

Well, that's... quite a lot actually about me and my family.  I don't know if they really rise to the level of mysteries.  They're perfectly well known to me, obviously.  But I thought they were interesting tidbits, at least.

What about you?  Anything interesting you'd like to share?  Write your own blog post if you'd like, and then give us the link in the comments.  I'd love to hear something new and mysterious about you, too!

Sometimes I'm a Jerk, Too

This weekend I did a thoughtless thing, and now I feel like a shithead.

I went out to dinner with my brother and sister-in-law on Friday night.  We laughed and had a really good time.  My brother took my dad to a train show on Saturday (he used to collect N-gauge trains and put up an elaborate train platform every year at Christmas).  And then they sat with my parents at church on Sunday.  It doesn't totally make up for everything that's happened in the last six weeks or so, but it was a big step in the right direction.

So anyway, on Friday night, right in front of my SIL, I told my brother that Mom was making everyone's favorite Christmas cookie and asked him what kind he wanted.  But I didn't ask her what she wanted.  It was thoughtless and rude, and I can't believe I did it.

It seems like a little thing, but I still feel bad about it.

Oh, brother

I'm a bit cheesed off with my brother right now.  It started the weekend we moved in.  The movers delivered everything on Friday, and understandably he had to work.  But instead of coming over on Saturday to help (keeping in mind that this was for his 71 yr old father with Parkinson's, his 63 yr old mother with a not-100%-successful knee replacement, and his 35 yr old sister with pretty significant medical restrictions of my own), he decided to spend the day with his father-in-law, helping him with his model trains.

I can't be the only one who thinks that's shitty.

Since then he's come by probably twice a week on average.  One Saturday he helped us move some stuff to storage.  One evening he helped us buy TVs, and one night later that week he helped us set them up.  (This is more or less what he does for a living.)  Every other time he's come by it's been to hang out, eat a meal that my mother fixed, and go home.  With the exception of the one Saturday and the night we bought the TVs, these have all been nights of his choosing.  No one is demanding his presence.

Once he had plans to take my father to a meeting, which he cancelled last minute.  Dad tried to go by himself.  My mother was terrified the whole time because Dad's night driving has really gone down hill in the last six months.  (I don't know how much longer it's going to be before we're going to have to take away the keys.)  Dad was back home about 20 minutes later.  He knew which intersection he was supposed to be at, but he somehow ended up in the wrong place anyway.  When he couldn't find the building he just came home.  So Dad had the pleasure of being dumped last minute by his son, feeling like crap because he couldn't find a place that he should have been able to find with no problems, and missing a meeting he was really looking forward to.  What was my brother doing that was so important?  Dinking around at church.  And again, no one asked him to make these plans with Dad.  It was his idea, and then he backed out.

Earlier this week he came to dinner and announced what the Christmas plans would be.  Mom was not happy about them, and she questioned him.  In the past, the story has always been that since his MIL's birthday is the 24th, it was super important for them to be down there for Christmas Eve.  She had expected that they'd go down for the 24th and come back to spend Christmas day with us.  Nope.  Just the opposite.  We get Christmas Eve (although they won't be going to Christmas Eve service-- the most important thing for my dad-- because his wife doesn't want to) and an hour or two Christmas morning, and then they're driving down to spend two and a half days with her parents.  Mom, lacking input from them up to this point, had started making plans based on what she thought they might want to do.  The in-laws, on the other hand, were consulted, and my brother and his wife made their plans based on what worked best for that side of the family.  When Mom pushed back on this, questioning the plans, my brother told her that she needed to learn to "compromise".  Excuse me?  I thought compromise was two people sacrificing to come to a mutually acceptable solution.  I'm pretty sure it's not one side telling the other side to shut up and take it.

The next day I called him for something completely unrelated, and the topic wandered into Mom and Dad.  (Mostly Mom, because she does all the talking for the two of them, so she's the one he resents the most.)  I let him know that his making plans and not keeping them was upsetting Mom and Dad.  (He'd also made plans to have dinner with us last Saturday night, knowing Mom was going to make her annual Hanukkah meal (ie: piles of yummy yummy latkes!).  She had announced that she wanted to make the meal and let him pick the night that was best for him.  Then he backed out to go to a party.)  He said he considers all plans tentative.  What that says to me and Mom and Dad is that he's willing to make plans with us until and unless something better comes along.  He's mad that we aren't perfectly fine with him dumping us.  He thinks we should understand that "I will be there" really means "I'll think about it."

There was some other stuff about how he has a life of his own, and he didn't really want Mom and Dad (and presumably by extension, me) moving here.  (Buddy, if you think I want to be here, you've got another think coming.  I hate Indiana.)  He doesn't think he should have drop everything any time they call, and that they should be doing more stuff for themselves. 

Never mind that they kill themselves trying to do stuff before breaking down and asking, and when they do they always fall all over themselves assuring that it works with your plans and schedule, never mind what works best for them.

What I didn't say, but wanted to, was: "They came here to be close to you, you little ass wipe.  If you didn't want them here you should have spoken up sometime in the last year or so, since that's how long you've known they planned to retire here.  And they wouldn't ask for your help (not that you can be bothered to follow through and give it) if they didn't really need it.  They've started hiring people to do some of this stuff because they're sick of waiting for you to get around to doing what you say you're going to do."  Can you tell I was pissed?

I did a lot of deep breathing last night, and watched a lot of Christmas specials, and eventually I calmed down.

Today I emailed him to warn him that if he was thinking about getting Mom an oven thermometer for Christmas (she's been talking about it A LOT for the last few days) that he might want to hold off, because she was talking about getting one this afternoon.  Also, I asked for his Christmas list again.  (Before we moved into deeper waters in our conversation yesterday, he'd told me he was making a list at an online musician's store.)  The guitar place he likes to shop at is running a sale this weekend, so why pay more next week?  He emailed back that he'd already sent us his Amazon list (he did, it has 7 items on it, 5 of which are expensive electronics), and other than that all he wanted was gift certificates to the guitar store.

Right now I'd like nothing better than to tromp over to his house in my steel toed boots and kick him in the taint.

Am I totally off base here?  Am I being way to sensitive here, or is being a real little shit?

Fa La La La La

The Christmas spirit is finally creeping into Huddleston Drive.  Yesterday, with out meaning to, all of my TV was holiday themed.  I watched Tuesday night's episode of Glee, which was entertaining but weird.  Why were Puck and Rachel so enthusiastically going along with all the Christmas music?  Puck, in his own skewed, Puckish way, is very proud of his Jewish heritage.  So why would he shut up now?  And Sue playing out the Grinch story was so hackneyed I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  The bit about Coach Beast and Artie's present from Santa made me cry a little, though.  (But why was she Santa?  That part was straight out of bizarre-ville, too.)

And then Mom wanted to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  Always a favorite around our house.  It was followed up by a Prep and Landing short that was really cute.  Dad slept through the whole thing, and Mom dozed off and on.  I finished the scarf I've been working on for my brother's father-in-law.  Yay!

After they went to bed I took the bag of Christmas refrigerator decorations that Mom found the other day and put them up.  (It wasn't quite the ninja decorating I've been doing so far.  They knew I was going to put them up, they just didn't know I was going to do it last night.)

And then to top off the festivities, I got 6 Christmas cards in the mail yesterday.  It was just the tip of the domestic Christmas card iceberg-- there are many more to go.  (The international cards went out on Monday.  Fingers crossed that the recipients get them before New Year's.)  But it was progress.

Last night, after the not-quite-ninja decorating I sat down and took a good look at the calendar.  Then I took a look at the knitting that has to be done in the next two weeks.  After I stopped hyperventilating, I made a list.  If I stick to the schedule, I should be able to finish all my knitting in time for the big day.  Fortunately for my schedule, my traditional, gotta get it done Christmas movie will be on TV next Friday-- A Very Brady Christmas.  I don't know what it is about that movie, but I always seem to do my best last minute crafting while watching it.  Thank you, TV Programmers!

Today I start with a tissue sweater for my great aunt.  (It's a cozy for those little packs of tissues you put in your purse.)  It looks to be a quickie project, so there should be no problem whipping it up and then doing another half a dozen or so cards.  Maybe I'll even get a jump start on tomorrow's knitting!

It's a hope.

Big, scary day

Today I had an adventure.  I borrowed my dad's car keys and left the house by myself.  It's the first time I've gone anywhere by myself since Labor Day weekend, when I drove to the airport in Houston and got on the plane.  It's only the second time I've been behind the wheel since then.

It was pretty damn scary at first.  Almost three months is a long time to go without driving on doing anything independently.  I was way out of practice.  The fact that I was driving someone else's car didn't help.  (My car is long gone.  sniffle.)

Mom was in a foul mood this morning, and apparently all day yesterday, too.  (I missed yesterday.  After all the company and Thanksgiving hoopla, I declared Sunday an I'm In My Room, Leave Me Alone day.)  She was upset because she thought she would have all the house done, and there are still boxes everywhere, and she can't find her Christmas stuff, and she was MAD.  So while the 'rents went to the Social Security office to get stuff straightened out, I went shopping.

The two things she specifically mentioned were her Christmas mugs, which she always puts out first thing and are very important to her, and the Advent wreath.  I found some cheap mugs at Michael's, so I was able to take care of that, but the Advent wreath was a bust. 

Michael's had undecorated, do-it-yourself Advent wreathes for a while, but they were sold out when I got there.  And they had one pre-decorated one, but it was way over the top and fugly.  The whole things was covered with purple flowers and white things crusted with glitter.  She would have appreciated the thought (and she damn well better if I'm spending 25 bucks for the ugly thing), but she'd rather die than have something that over done and ugly on her table.

I went to four other places-- four!-- and none of them had ever heard of an Advent wreath.  Even Hobby Lobby, which is Christianville USA, didn't have them or know what they were .  I was beginning to feel like a freak.  I'm not the only one in the world, aside from Michael's Happy Glue Gun Lady, who knows what these things are, right?

One of these puppies.  Light a candle every Sunday in Advent.  You've seen these, right?  I know a lot of people don't go in for the religious aspect of Christmas.  I can't say I worry about it too much myself.  But I grew up with one of these on my table for as far back as I can remember.  My family can't be total weirdos.  There have to be Advent wreaths out there somewhere.  It's just so bizarre to me that I spoke to at least 7 people in 4 different stores, stores that carry all kinds of Christmas decorations and people who work in and stock those departments, and not a one of them even knew what an it was.  Very strange.  I knew that Indiana was the Twilight Zone, but come on.

Anyway, even though I couldn't lay my hands on a non-fugly Advent wreath, I did find a few other Christmassy things to brighten up the place.  One was a small pillow that says "Those who don't believe get underwear."  I was highly amused and had to have it right away.  The fact that it was on sale helped. I got a magnet with a snowman on it that says "snow".  (I collect magnets, so it's always exciting to find a new one.)  And I bought a set of blocks that spell out the word "joy".  Mom has a set of acrobatic elves that spell "Joy" that she always puts on the piano.  My brother and I delight in scrambling them, so that they say "oyj" instead.  One year I hid the J, so it just said "oy!", which I found highly amusing.  So I took the blocks and put them on the piano, out of order, of course.  So far Mom has noticed the mugs, which she couldn't help but notice since I put one at her place at the table, and the pillow, which she also couldn't help but notice because it was on the couch right where she planned to sit.  No one has noticed the magnet or the blocks yet.

The weather is supposed to be cold and crappy for the next several days (plus I totally wore myself out shopping and will need a couple of days of rest to recover), so I think that's all the stealth decorating for a little while.  I may call Michael's and see if a new shipment of the undecorated Advent wreaths have come in.  If they have, I may pick up one of their decorated wreaths for the front door, too.  There was one there that I liked.  And maybe I'll get a fake poinsettia, if I can find one that's bushy enough.  (Not a real one if I can avoid it-- they're poisonous to cats, and Trouble is dumb enough to eat the whole damn thing.)

This place may start to look a lot like Christmas, whether Mom finds any of her decorations or not!