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Mid-winter
I like Winter Solstice, I do. I love the lights up, and special holiday music, am rather fond of peppermint chocolate - these are bits of mid-winter I enjoy. On Sunday before Solstice, we had a quiet moment and celebrated as a family. I made a nice but not over-the-top dinner of ham and sides, and chocolate cake for dinner. CZ picked out a big log ( Read more... ) -
xmas eve
Oh it is so hard this divide between children and parents at Christmas time. I am moving like a whirling dervish wrapping gifts, baking and icing cookies, making food for dinner, and cleaning while my daughter is bored, wishing it were already Christmas, being cajoled to play a video game or watch a movie. I'm wishing it were already past Christmas ( Read more... ) -
All Hallows
I suppose I talked about leading up to All Hallows, and then didn't actually talk about it proper. It's a busy time of year. On Friday before Halloween, I led a Samhain ritual for Turning Circle. I asked folks to bring decoration for the sanctuary, and they absolutely delivered in spades. We spooked up the room beautifully. People brought photos of ( Read more... ) -
November dark and blue frosting
Christmas wants to come sliding in so fast. One radio station started playing holiday tunes by last Thursday. Nov. 12 just seems a tad too early for my tastes. I've taken down almost all of the Halloween stuff, but a few drips and drabs remain. I was thinking perhaps we could get an inflatable turkey to take up the slack between Halloween and ( Read more... ) -
Pre All-Hallows
I know some people deck out their homes and do tons of activities for Christmas. At our house, it's Halloween. OMG we did so much this past weekend for Halloween. I of course spooked up the yard with windsocks, the inflatable witch cat, tombstones, and a number of fabulous flashing lights. I love the big green spider I got a couple of years ago. I ( Read more... ) -
fall snippets
The acorns and hickory nuts are falling so hard and fast in the driveway this year, I'm afraid for my head as I walk out to my mini-van. All night we can hear them smacking the cars and exploding on the asphalt. It's like nature is bombarding us ( Read more... ) -
itchy itchy itchy
So my son asked me what we have planned for the weekend, and my first thoughts were oh, I thought I'd sit around and put lotion on my poison ivy rash every twenty minutes. Sadly I returned from MS with a speckle of welts and red bumps starting on my left palm, radiating over the back of my hand, and stretching down my forearm. I'm pretty sure ( Read more... ) -
On the Road and Back Again
The last half of August has been nuts. I went to a Sherlock convention in Bethesda, and then turned around and we did our family vacation road trip across a nice chunk of the country ( Read more... ) -
Change sucks
Oh, I am so sad. I called to make an appt. for the girls to get a haircut at Salon Kevin, and our favorite stylist, LeLe is no longer working there. Ack. I thought back and we'd been going there since Tara was in 5th grade - so five years there. She's watched the kids grow up, and always comments on how tall everyone has gotten. It feels very sad ( Read more... ) -
Road work season
There's a joke - they have two seasons in the north - winter and road work. We are definitely in the midst of road work. On top of enduring two ongoing spots of road construction on a big main road nearby, I now also have some big hole and orange traffic signs right on my street - just up from my driveway. Poor little guys is out there in the heat ( Read more... )