December already?
So, er, yeah. I'm still here, still doing stuff, getting behind on the writing but all caught up on the art at last. Looking forward to traveling at the end of the month although I will need to stock up on Airborne for the trip. Egads, it looks cold up there.
Thanksgiving was a festival of drinking, eating, movies, games, cleaning, sorting, drawing, reading, and lazing about. There was also some unfortunate GI distress, which has prompted me to make an appointment to discuss the pharmaceutical option with my doctor. Ever since he ran down the typical symptoms, I've been noticing ones that I hadn't really connected with IBS before. Plus I can't eat anything, it seems, without a lot of discomfort.
We're doing the Food Plan again so we didn't actually make Thanksgiving foods at home, and partook of them sparingly at my aunt's. I am trying to be more diligent about the food diary. With sickness came the inevitable holiday depression, although thankfully that didn't last too long. Somehow I have in my head that achieving a certain level of crafty productivity will mean I never feel depressed again. But experience shows that no matter how many works of art I produce, I will still occasionally be sad. Such is life.
Mom and I watched her favorite reality TV program yesterday: Smart People Doing Real Stuff. The NASA Channel had live radio and video feeds from Mission Control and the cockpit as the shuttle landed. It was pretty cool.
Now that all of my anonymous exchange art is turned in for the next month and a half, I hope to do some work that I can post free and clear, as well as participate in various December writing games, and of course I have a quilt to make. Need to print the photos for that. And find the final important design element to print and applique. It's something very specific, but that has many variations, so I will probably be scouring various sources for a good one. (And I'm hoping that part of it, at least, will be a surprise, as it is a gift.)
And here, since it's December: a meme about Christmas.
Hey, I can start playing my Holiday Playlist now! w00t!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both, depending on the item. Often recycled. Sometimes I wrap in festive fat quarters. (And once in several yards of muslin, which was returned later.)
2. Real tree or Artificial? Er. It was artificial until I was in my early teens, I guess, then it was real for years and now it's none of the above. Sometimes we go to the Garden Store and get a festive rosemary bush at the big winter plant sale. (Dad likes to buy palm trees at the winter sales.)
3. When do you put up the tree? See above for why this isn't terribly relevant. We don't do decorations much, either, these days. Used to be, we'd put it up sometime after Thanksgiving when we found a nice one, I guess. I don't recall a particular tradition.
4. When do you take the tree down? Back when we had trees? Epiphany. We were less of an Advent-oriented household (I really never understood Advent Calendars) and more of a Twelve Days of Christmas household. I think this may be a Hispanic and/or Caribbean Catholic cultural thing. Kind of like Holy Saturday was our Polish Catholic thing for Easter, instead of Good Friday or Easter Sunday. We had cultural observations, not holidays, so much, because even as a child there was a distance built between the observance of the holiday because It Meant So Much to Grandma That We Be There and the ceremonies were pretty cool from an anthropological perspective, and the participation in Catholic ritual because We Believe In This Religion. Well, how was that for a tangent?
5. Do you like Egg Nog? No.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Um. I don't remember. Isn't that sad? Could've been the Cabbage Patch Kid. Or perhaps the full drum set. Or art supplies. Where is my box of photos?
7. Hardest person to buy for? I really couldn't say. We don't actually do many gift exchanges anymore. Hillary, out of the immediate household. Or anybody who won't appreciate a donation made in their name rather than an addition to their stuff.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Everybody else? I don't really buy many presents at all these days. I suppose the easiest are the babies. :D
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Our old one that I still like to set out sometimes, ceramic with a few chips from years of use, is in the hall closet. I have a thing about the Madonna and Child so even without the full nativity set, there are plenty of Madonna figurines or icons or paintings in my general vicinity. I wouldn't say I collect them (because then suddenly everybody I know will start giving me Madonnas as well as hippos, or, creepily, Madonna hippos, and really I don't need stuff), but sometimes one or two unique or moving pieces will find their way to me.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both, but mostly mail if I do it at all.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Ummm. I can't think of any.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Lion in Winter (1968 version) and A Muppet Family Christmas. Donna got me hooked on these when we lived in New York, and they quickly became our tradition.
Also, I really love the Claymation Christmas Special featuring the California Raisins, but I have no idea where our old VHS recording may be, and have never seen it for sale. Here we come a-waffling...
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? These days I mostly recycle or craft.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Of course. Especially for White Elephant parties, which are now de rigueur at every family gathering *and* my office.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? my mom's Cinnamon Pecans. and her apple pie with crumble topping.
16. Lights on the tree? Well, once upon a time, yes. colored ones that blinked. I'm pretty sure that the tangle of lights in the attic has gained sentience after all this time and is quietly plotting to take over the neighborhood.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. I have a really great version by Eden's Bridge, but I collect different ones.
I also love O Holy Night, What Child Is This?, We Three Kings, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.
Isn't it funny that I'm not Christian but all my favorite songs are hymn-types? This is what early childhood indoctrination does!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home for Christmas, travel for New Year's. Unless you count the family Christmas parties, which do take place in other cities, but they're technically part of the Houston Metro Area.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? According to the poem? Yeah. And isn't it weird to have a reindeer named Vixen?
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I think we mostly did stars. Or fun and exciting things made of construction paper and macaroni by me or my brother.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Traditionally, Christmas Eve at Grandma's, then Christmas morning at home. Now it's Christmas Day whenever we all get up and feel like it.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Political/religious posturing and increasing tension among communities of mixed cultural tradition.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I don't have one. We always had a great mix of construction paper/macaroni or other craft projects, souvenir ornaments from various places, and vintage handmade family heirloom ornaments.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Stuffing with gravy and cranberry sauce. (Out of a can is fine.)
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want to clean and clear the dining room of our house so that Mom and I can create our Craft Room, thereby clearing my bedroom for art projects and general storage. I'd also really like to find the space to set up a permanent altar by Imbolc.
World Peace would be nice, too. Neighborhood peace might be a great place to start on that.
Thanksgiving was a festival of drinking, eating, movies, games, cleaning, sorting, drawing, reading, and lazing about. There was also some unfortunate GI distress, which has prompted me to make an appointment to discuss the pharmaceutical option with my doctor. Ever since he ran down the typical symptoms, I've been noticing ones that I hadn't really connected with IBS before. Plus I can't eat anything, it seems, without a lot of discomfort.
We're doing the Food Plan again so we didn't actually make Thanksgiving foods at home, and partook of them sparingly at my aunt's. I am trying to be more diligent about the food diary. With sickness came the inevitable holiday depression, although thankfully that didn't last too long. Somehow I have in my head that achieving a certain level of crafty productivity will mean I never feel depressed again. But experience shows that no matter how many works of art I produce, I will still occasionally be sad. Such is life.
Mom and I watched her favorite reality TV program yesterday: Smart People Doing Real Stuff. The NASA Channel had live radio and video feeds from Mission Control and the cockpit as the shuttle landed. It was pretty cool.
Now that all of my anonymous exchange art is turned in for the next month and a half, I hope to do some work that I can post free and clear, as well as participate in various December writing games, and of course I have a quilt to make. Need to print the photos for that. And find the final important design element to print and applique. It's something very specific, but that has many variations, so I will probably be scouring various sources for a good one. (And I'm hoping that part of it, at least, will be a surprise, as it is a gift.)
And here, since it's December: a meme about Christmas.
Hey, I can start playing my Holiday Playlist now! w00t!
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both, depending on the item. Often recycled. Sometimes I wrap in festive fat quarters. (And once in several yards of muslin, which was returned later.)
2. Real tree or Artificial? Er. It was artificial until I was in my early teens, I guess, then it was real for years and now it's none of the above. Sometimes we go to the Garden Store and get a festive rosemary bush at the big winter plant sale. (Dad likes to buy palm trees at the winter sales.)
3. When do you put up the tree? See above for why this isn't terribly relevant. We don't do decorations much, either, these days. Used to be, we'd put it up sometime after Thanksgiving when we found a nice one, I guess. I don't recall a particular tradition.
4. When do you take the tree down? Back when we had trees? Epiphany. We were less of an Advent-oriented household (I really never understood Advent Calendars) and more of a Twelve Days of Christmas household. I think this may be a Hispanic and/or Caribbean Catholic cultural thing. Kind of like Holy Saturday was our Polish Catholic thing for Easter, instead of Good Friday or Easter Sunday. We had cultural observations, not holidays, so much, because even as a child there was a distance built between the observance of the holiday because It Meant So Much to Grandma That We Be There and the ceremonies were pretty cool from an anthropological perspective, and the participation in Catholic ritual because We Believe In This Religion. Well, how was that for a tangent?
5. Do you like Egg Nog? No.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Um. I don't remember. Isn't that sad? Could've been the Cabbage Patch Kid. Or perhaps the full drum set. Or art supplies. Where is my box of photos?
7. Hardest person to buy for? I really couldn't say. We don't actually do many gift exchanges anymore. Hillary, out of the immediate household. Or anybody who won't appreciate a donation made in their name rather than an addition to their stuff.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Everybody else? I don't really buy many presents at all these days. I suppose the easiest are the babies. :D
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Our old one that I still like to set out sometimes, ceramic with a few chips from years of use, is in the hall closet. I have a thing about the Madonna and Child so even without the full nativity set, there are plenty of Madonna figurines or icons or paintings in my general vicinity. I wouldn't say I collect them (because then suddenly everybody I know will start giving me Madonnas as well as hippos, or, creepily, Madonna hippos, and really I don't need stuff), but sometimes one or two unique or moving pieces will find their way to me.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both, but mostly mail if I do it at all.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Ummm. I can't think of any.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Lion in Winter (1968 version) and A Muppet Family Christmas. Donna got me hooked on these when we lived in New York, and they quickly became our tradition.
Also, I really love the Claymation Christmas Special featuring the California Raisins, but I have no idea where our old VHS recording may be, and have never seen it for sale. Here we come a-waffling...
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? These days I mostly recycle or craft.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Of course. Especially for White Elephant parties, which are now de rigueur at every family gathering *and* my office.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? my mom's Cinnamon Pecans. and her apple pie with crumble topping.
16. Lights on the tree? Well, once upon a time, yes. colored ones that blinked. I'm pretty sure that the tangle of lights in the attic has gained sentience after all this time and is quietly plotting to take over the neighborhood.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. I have a really great version by Eden's Bridge, but I collect different ones.
I also love O Holy Night, What Child Is This?, We Three Kings, O Little Town of Bethlehem, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.
Isn't it funny that I'm not Christian but all my favorite songs are hymn-types? This is what early childhood indoctrination does!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home for Christmas, travel for New Year's. Unless you count the family Christmas parties, which do take place in other cities, but they're technically part of the Houston Metro Area.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? According to the poem? Yeah. And isn't it weird to have a reindeer named Vixen?
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I think we mostly did stars. Or fun and exciting things made of construction paper and macaroni by me or my brother.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Traditionally, Christmas Eve at Grandma's, then Christmas morning at home. Now it's Christmas Day whenever we all get up and feel like it.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Political/religious posturing and increasing tension among communities of mixed cultural tradition.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I don't have one. We always had a great mix of construction paper/macaroni or other craft projects, souvenir ornaments from various places, and vintage handmade family heirloom ornaments.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Stuffing with gravy and cranberry sauce. (Out of a can is fine.)
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want to clean and clear the dining room of our house so that Mom and I can create our Craft Room, thereby clearing my bedroom for art projects and general storage. I'd also really like to find the space to set up a permanent altar by Imbolc.
World Peace would be nice, too. Neighborhood peace might be a great place to start on that.