Happy/Merry/Jolly Celebration of Your Choice!
Yes, my friends, the time is near. Or at hand, or maybe even passed. Nevertheless, I offer you my sincere wishes that you have a wonderful whatever it is that you choose to celebrate.
It's sort of a novelty that A's got Christmas Eve and Christmas off this year. We celebrated the holiday with family on Saturday, because A's dad works at the sugar plant on the 25th, so we're pretty much done with presents already. However, we may go up and spend Thursday with his mom and grandmother anyway. Besides, she's got a bunch of TV shows tivo'd for us.
I found it imperative that I share my good fortune this year. It's true, I'm still unemployed and things are tight, but A and I have enough. So, I scrimped a little on groceries this month and bought hooded sweatshirts for four children who needed them. And then I threw in a home-made and lavishly sugarplummed gingerbread house*, just so they could have something fun for the holiday, too. I don't tell you this to congratulate myself, but to remind myself that I feel richer when I share even what little I have. It's important not to lose hope, too.
I'm still working on finishing my novel, but I think I've finally broken past the mental block. My new year's resolution is to write on it every day until it is done, then I'll set it aside for a month or so and work on something else, and then I'll start to edit. March is Scriptfrenzy, I think. I might try it, if I can come up with a good plot.
The dogs were relatively unsupervised yesterday as I was spackling up the aforementioned gingerbread mansion with Royal Frosting, and when I finally turned around I found they had chewed a sizable hole in the carpeting at the base of the stairs. A was not pleased. I was mostly upset with myself, but I got over it. Granted, it's not pretty, but the carpet down there is not good carpet anyway, and I don't think it's anything that a small rug won't hide. I guess it must be time for a new rope bone chew toy -- the one the dogs currently have is more mop-shaped than bone-shaped, and it doesn't hold a candle to the carpeting, apparently.
Sonny (a.k.a. the South American Love Chicken as he's now known by several of my friends) is a good bird, though somewhat odd. He received a Christmas bag of mixed tropical fruit treats from my mother-in-law, but he doesn't like the papaya. Most other parrots I've met think that dried papaya is better than crack, but no, Sonny would rather have a cheerio, or a peanut, or anything made out of white flour. Or anything that comes served to him on a spoon would be fine, too. Unless it's papaya. In other bird news, we got a hint that our local bird shop may be closing its doors come February, so if anyone knows of a reputable place to buy supplies and toys -- someplace that's not Petco or PetSmart, because they don't carry it -- please let me know, otherwise I'll have to start ordering Sonny's food on-line, and that takes forethought and planning. I need someplace I can go at the last minute, when I suddenly realize I'm fresh out of bird food, or have burnt the whole batch to the bottom of the pan.
Besides that, I think we're all well here. Happy Merry Jolly to you all! And a good New Year, too.
_______
* My mom and I used to make these every year, using a Swedish recipe for gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor). She still has an excuse to make them: there are several little children in her neighborhood that adore decorating their very own gingerbread houses that she makes for them. I, however, have no excuse and absolutely no reason to have that much candy around the house.
It's sort of a novelty that A's got Christmas Eve and Christmas off this year. We celebrated the holiday with family on Saturday, because A's dad works at the sugar plant on the 25th, so we're pretty much done with presents already. However, we may go up and spend Thursday with his mom and grandmother anyway. Besides, she's got a bunch of TV shows tivo'd for us.
I found it imperative that I share my good fortune this year. It's true, I'm still unemployed and things are tight, but A and I have enough. So, I scrimped a little on groceries this month and bought hooded sweatshirts for four children who needed them. And then I threw in a home-made and lavishly sugarplummed gingerbread house*, just so they could have something fun for the holiday, too. I don't tell you this to congratulate myself, but to remind myself that I feel richer when I share even what little I have. It's important not to lose hope, too.
I'm still working on finishing my novel, but I think I've finally broken past the mental block. My new year's resolution is to write on it every day until it is done, then I'll set it aside for a month or so and work on something else, and then I'll start to edit. March is Scriptfrenzy, I think. I might try it, if I can come up with a good plot.
The dogs were relatively unsupervised yesterday as I was spackling up the aforementioned gingerbread mansion with Royal Frosting, and when I finally turned around I found they had chewed a sizable hole in the carpeting at the base of the stairs. A was not pleased. I was mostly upset with myself, but I got over it. Granted, it's not pretty, but the carpet down there is not good carpet anyway, and I don't think it's anything that a small rug won't hide. I guess it must be time for a new rope bone chew toy -- the one the dogs currently have is more mop-shaped than bone-shaped, and it doesn't hold a candle to the carpeting, apparently.
Sonny (a.k.a. the South American Love Chicken as he's now known by several of my friends) is a good bird, though somewhat odd. He received a Christmas bag of mixed tropical fruit treats from my mother-in-law, but he doesn't like the papaya. Most other parrots I've met think that dried papaya is better than crack, but no, Sonny would rather have a cheerio, or a peanut, or anything made out of white flour. Or anything that comes served to him on a spoon would be fine, too. Unless it's papaya. In other bird news, we got a hint that our local bird shop may be closing its doors come February, so if anyone knows of a reputable place to buy supplies and toys -- someplace that's not Petco or PetSmart, because they don't carry it -- please let me know, otherwise I'll have to start ordering Sonny's food on-line, and that takes forethought and planning. I need someplace I can go at the last minute, when I suddenly realize I'm fresh out of bird food, or have burnt the whole batch to the bottom of the pan.
Besides that, I think we're all well here. Happy Merry Jolly to you all! And a good New Year, too.
_______
* My mom and I used to make these every year, using a Swedish recipe for gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor). She still has an excuse to make them: there are several little children in her neighborhood that adore decorating their very own gingerbread houses that she makes for them. I, however, have no excuse and absolutely no reason to have that much candy around the house.