As you may discern from my absence for just about the entire month, things have been hoppin' in the Cricket house.

* Thanks for the nudges, jules1278 and divinemum! It's easy to just assume you are vanishing from people's minds and nice to know that folks are thinking of you ( Read more... )

Rough day at work today and I am combatting it by throwing a Virtual Christmas Tree Trimming Party!

I've gotten us a perfect fraser fir and it's all set up in its stand and strung with colored lights. Pretty!


( Read more... )

Woke up an hour earlier than usual this morning. Not sure why that was necessary...although I have to admit, the total peace and quiet that comes with 5:30am can be a pretty zen way to start the day ( Read more... )

The following thoughts come from the bottom file cabinet of my brain and should be treated with caution ( Read more... )

Just a few more days of work and then (*sigh*) I will be off for two glorious weeks. Am I travelling? Doing anything big? Nope. Just relaxing, enjoying the holiday and spending some quality time with the folks I love. Everyone will be home by Thursday night and it will be such a joy to have everyone there for Christmas this year. *sigh again ( Read more... )

Here are a few little tidbits from my Christmases Past...I've had occasion to share some of them lately and figured it'd be fun to write a bunch of them out.

( The Ghosts of Crickets Past )

I've been away from my computer lately, happily busy with friends and family over the last couple of days, having tons of fun.

But I had to pop on tonight before I went to bed and point you toward this drawing from beaustylo.   She drew a wonderful picture of Bridget and Remus from Moondance...I just went all giddy when I saw it!  (Even giddier than usual ( Read more... )

As promised, here are the recipes for the cookies I posted about yesterday (posting them is a good excuse to take a break from cleaning):

( Almond Sweets )

Although we didn't get a lot of baking done this holiday season, we did stumble across a few new excellent recipes (and yes, kit_the_brave, a few with NO chocolate!).  And, of course, we had our typical didn't-go-as-planned recipe that wound up getting a more appropriate name.  (Ever since the famous Bastard Cookies, any recipe that goes badly must be renamed.)
( Read more... )

Well, all my cards & packages are finally out in the mail (hooray!)...so I might as well tell you a little more about these gift issues. (But I can't tell too much because I don't want to give anything away yet ( Read more... )