holidaze and good cheer
Well, we had a good holiday, Abbie and I. As is traditional, I planned for about 600 cookies, overbooked myself, and have only made about 350 to date. I have one more batch to go to finish Christmas cards and gifts. Then I need to send thank-you notes, and Christmas will be done.
Christmas for me starts with the Barony of Axemoor’s Christmas Revel (first week of December, usually) event. Axemoor is the SCA (1) group I play with, although not the one I ‘live’ in, which is the Barony of Osprey(2). Christmas Revel is Axemoor’s EVENT of the year - they put it on every year, and do a lot of work to make it special for the entire kingdom. The best part about this event is that everything is geared towards Toys for Tots - toys as part of the entrance fees to site, the William Marshall Tourney, the Archery contest, etc, etc. And Axemoor is my ‘home’ in the SCA, so I do my best to support Revel every year. Usually, this means playing kitchen wench/ dish bitch during Feast Saturday night and bringing 100-200 gingerbread cookies each year (depending on time available to make and bake) to the dance following Revel Feast. This year, I made the cookies smaller than normal, and ended up with about 150. This was two large tins, of which they only got through about half.
I was not the only one who brought home dessert this year - Revel was smaller than normal due to a winter storm that swept the northern half of the Kingdom (3). It was freezing at site, too, and that particular site had some issues that I, well, *take* issue with. The two primary things that affected me were the hot water - there was none in the kitchen, and any we had had to be boiled on the stove. This means that cleaning dishes was hard, and potentially dangerous to your health. We found out that the water in the big sink warmed up to around 60F if the hot water in the small sink was kept on at least at a trickle, but would be ice-cold if the small sink’s hot water was completely off. I’m not sure what sort of plumbing fiasco had to be put together to make that happen, but I am sure it wasn’t up to code… I had a helper this year for the dish-washing, so he did the big pots in the big sink, and I did the small stuff/ serving ware/ serving dishes in the small sink. We each kept a pitcher of hot water (boiled on the stove, remember) by our sides to use for clean washing water, and rinsed using the cold water. I was not happy due to the safety/ health issue - both because washing this way led to the dishes’ suspect cleanliness and because getting cold water over hands and tunic is not a good idea in the middle of winter - but we got through it, and my back didn’t hurt nearly as bad as it usually does when I dish bitch, so I was happy.
The other issue is that the buildings had no heat, and no insulation. And it got so cold that one of our Barony members, who has a lot of joint issues due to being in an accident, ended up going home because she could not get warm enough *inside* the buildings for the joints to relax.
It’s rather unfortunate we’re limited for event sites in the area for large indoor events, because I really hate that site. It should be classified as a ‘rough site’ by the local groups.
That being said, everyone who came to Revel had a *great* time, myself included. Brother Carl, a merchant who sells furs and skins, made a bundle on us poor, cold wretches this year, hah. I had gone to his table earlier in the day, and eyed some sheepskins that I couldn’t have because of fixing the Camry and buying Zeke.
Other people were not so limited, though - when I came out after Feast (they always call in kitchen staff to thank us) I noticed a lot of people wearing furs they hadn’t had earlier in the day.
I enjoyed meeting the local SCA players again - seeing my favorite folks and meeting new ones, including one poor soul who was absolutely *convinced* he knew me from somewhere. I had a great time gently teasing him about it. One of the ladies decided to do a ‘Garb Swap’ this year, well, kind of rolling it event to event she was at. The way it went was that people who had old garb to donate, or that they never fit, or whatever, brought it in and got tickets (or no tickets, if they donated). Then, if you had tickets to ‘spend’, you got first crack at the garb on display. After the first hour or so (because a lot of people donated and didn’t want tickets), the woman opened it up for everybody to buy. The money was donated to somewhere, but I forget where. I spent $35, and got a green velvet dress, silky-ish chemise, new sideless surcoat, purple tunic, and something else I can’t remember right now - a yellow tunic, I think. But I was really delighted with my finds. Made out like a bandit.
Then I wound up owing Clan Gambit $5 for the fundraiser lunch, cause I’d spent it on the clothes. Oops.
The next event is After-Revel Revel, which is basically a little relax-a-con for friends and family of Axemoor. In years past, it’s been the weekend following Revel. This year was two weekends after Revel, because of a Kingdom event called Tournament of Champions. ARR is done to kind of ‘deflate’ after the run-up to Revel. After-Revel Revel was also small, because many people had sickies this year. Ah, well. For me, it’s a 3-day party at Gellis’s house, starting Friday night. We played Cards Against Humanity, and I think I died laughing at least twice. Great fun, highly recommend it.
The ARR itself involves a ‘white elephant’ gift exchange - one of those where everyone brings a gift, but you draw numbers to determine who gets to pick a gift first. As it goes around, people have the option to ‘steal’ an already opened gift, or pick a new gift. I have a hard time buying for this exchange, because a very common present is liquor of some kind, and if I have 4oz of alcohol all year, that’s a lot. I’m not a teetotaler, I’m just not fond of a lot of the various boozes to be had. And also, I’m usually my own driver, and since I *haven’t* drunk a lot to date, I don’t know my own limit, so prefer to err on the safe side. The booze is usually the most fought-over of the gifts, but I’m not up on my boozes, and I usually try to bring something *else* because I can’t be the only one who likes things other than liquor. This year it was beads. Czech glass beads that were bought in excess of what I needed to finish the gifts for my blood-family (I made 12 pater nosters for them). There were also assorted clay, china, and gem-stone beads. I figured they’d make the perfect gift.
And then I got to thinking. I decided to make it more interesting, and pair something that might not go over well (the beads) with something I *knew* would go over well (booze). But when I looked around at the local grocery store, all they had was wine and beer. And my SCA friends, God-love-em, are not “wine and beer” folks. They’re “we make spontaneously-combustible moonshine and drink it straight” folks. Wine and beer just does not compete with that. Over to the package store, where I picked up a $40 bottle of Tullamore Dew, and commented that it was the only bottle of alcohol I’d bought all year, and I’m not even going to keep it. Eesh.
But I’d done well - the ‘booze and beads’ package was fought over just as much as the other liquor gifts, so I felt good, hah.
I came home from Axemoor, and two days later, I’m on the road again, this time with Abbie, up to my parents’ lake house. Abbie had a GREAT time chasing deer in the woods, and barking at the hawks that circle outside the lake house windows as they hunt. Mom told me the pater nosters were a hit, although I had to repair one.
Then Mom, Dad, and I exchanged gifts. Now, the adults in my family have a gift exchange, and my mother usually gets me something a little extra. This year, when Mom asked (a couple weeks before Thanksgiving) what I wanted for Christmas, I said, ‘Research. I’ve been trying to research a form of embroidery called stumpwork, but I haven’t had the time. You don’t even have to get me actual books, but a list of them to start buying and looking at would be *great*. Also, a beginner stumpwork kit. Or any kind of embroidery kit - I haven’t been able to treat myself all year, so anything new will do.’
Mom did the wisest thing with this request that she could - she let my gift-giver (my brother, this year) twist in the wind. So I got a sodoku book, a t-shirt from The Mountain, and a Hobbit calender from my brother. Cool beans, and I was happy.
Then *Mom* got me *two* books on stumpwork - one from the Royal School of Needlework in England, and one from Jane Nicolas. *And*, working with a local expert on stumpwork(4), she put together a kit for one of the patterns in Ms. Nicolas’s book. Because stumpwork is 3-dimensional with elements raised from the foundation fabric, this involves a lot of unusual materials in this day and age. And some materials that were unusual when stumpwork was a big thing, and are nearly impossible to find for Jane Average Stitcher today. I was really impressed with what she did - and she said she learned a lot of stuff putting that gift together. I was in heaven - jumping up and down like I haven’t done since I was 5. I’m *still* excited about it every time I think about it.
As a Christmas present to myself, I bought Micheal Biehn's movies 'Navy SEALs' and 'Double Edge (American Dragons)'. I thought the lake house would be the perfect place to watch them, so I brought them with. I forgot that Mom and Dad did away with their VCR - and Double Edge *only* comes on VHS for American markets. Oh well. I did, however, watch Navy SEALs with Mom and Dad. Just before bailing on us, Dad commented 'Oh Dark Thirty' was a more realistic movie. That's ok, I said, I got it because of Biehn, not because I expected it to be great. And that's important, because what this movie lacked in cheesy dialogue, it made up for in inspirational video game music. Let me say that again: INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO GAME MUSIC.
INSPIRATIONAL VIDEO GAME MUSIC!!!!!
Needless to say, I giggled a lot. But I agree with slavelabour, I can see ATF!Chris Larabee in Lt Curran, although I *didn't* see an analogue to ATF!Buck Wilmington in the entire team. Martin Sheen's character came closest, but he was too much of an intrinsic dick to really be remotely near Buck. He was more like the anti-Buck. Fun times.
About the only thing bad about this visit was that I managed to get sick driving up, and was sick the whole week. I don’t think it was the flu - some kind of cold/cough that settled in my chest and made me lose my voice though. MY throat never hurt, but Mom said listening to me talk made HER throat hurt. So she told me to stop talking and save my voice, and then she kept asking me questions. The best was when she’d ask me questions while going up the stairs or with her back turned to me. *facepalms* I maintain that she liked it that I lost my voice because she could pretend she didn’t hear me, hah.
Wednesday, New Year’s Day, I drove home with Abbie. On the way down from the mountains, I saw a bald eagle rise from the side of the road with its prey. It was a wonderful, heartening sight to see. I decided that was a good omen for the year to come. Then, south of Jackson, Mississippi, a young hawk or eagle of some kind rose up from the side of the road with a groundhog or something - right into highway traffic. Right into my windshield, as a matter of fact, with a distinct ‘thunk’. I winced, and prayed that it was either instantly dead, or just stunned and all right, cause that sounded like it *hurt*. And if the bald eagle was a good sign for the new year, did that mean the young hawk was a bad sign?
After thinking about it for an hour or so, I finally decided ‘screw the signs, I make my own way anyway!’ And on I went home.
When I got home, I found my roomie had the flu. He works at a restaurant, and his immune system isn’t the best anyway, so this was not a surprise. But he was able to get up and take care of himself, so Thursday, I left him alone, and unpacked. Friday, more unpacking and readying to do more painting on the guest bedroom. I’d torn up the carpet out of the guest bedroom over Thanksgiving, but hadn’t gotten around to doing any painting - just completely wiped from work this year. But when I’d come back from the lake house, I finally felt I had the energy to start working on it again.
I was thinking it wouldn’t be too long to do - paint the trim and the closet and the ceiling - but I forgot that ‘finishing the stenciling’ was part of that picture. And I forgot that when you work with a repeat stencil, you have to paint the one area, and wait till things dry before moving the stencil and painting the next area. In winter, this is rate is about 1 painting incident/hr. Hmmm…. Still, the closets are going well, and I bet I can do the trim and ceilings before I get the stenciling done, hah. And then, I’ll be putting in more carpet. But just in the bedroom. The hall outside that bedroom is getting some kind of hard flooring, although I haven’t decided what, exactly.
And that was my holiday, pretty good overall. Look for a few more longish posts in the near future: especially the 2013 To-Do wrap-up and the 2014 To-Do Post. I’m hoping to get a few other posts done as well, since I’ve got the time and energy while work gains speed again.
-bs, wishing everyone a happy new year!
Notes:
1) SCA is the Society for the Creative Anachronism, and my favorite socialization and hobby group.
2) Osprey folks are fine, wonderful folks. The only reason I don't play with them is that Axemoor is only 2 hours away as the hoomin drives, which is a tad too close for me to cut ties and play with Osprey.
3) The kingdom in question is Gleann Abhann, which is Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Memphis in TN. The storm that week left loads of icy roads in the Memphis, AK, and Northern MI and LA areas. Needless to say, a lot of people decided better safe than sorry. Although we missed our fellows, we definitely support such a decision!
4) The expert's name was, no lie, Mrs. Stump. You can *NOT* make this shit up...