Holiday Ready

Well, we've been missing in action for quite a while. It's been a very difficult year for us and we've been just spending lots of time doing nothing together. The Portie girls are old and they miss their siblings. Mackey has started having seizures again after almost a year and Syd just does her own thing all by herself.  But even if we'd like time to stand still for awhile so we can get our act together, it keeps racing on with or without us.

So we'll just jump in as if we haven't missed a beat.

Yesterday, late in the day I realized it was my holiday, the Winter Solstice. I don't know exactly when I started celebrating the Solstice as my own personal holiday but it makes sense to me. One doesn't have to follow a certain belief system or join with like minded people to acknowledge the Solstice. One only has to believe in science, which apparently has become an option these days.  As a teenager, I always thought I was descended from witches or Druids. Since getting deeply into genealogy, I find that I do have some of those folks in my background. It makes me happy.

 Tomorrow is a much newer, less serious holiday that I find amusing, Festivus. It
 appeals to me mostly because I don't have to do anything except complain. That comes easily. You can see that the people who lived here before us planted the Festivus pole in the ground, but it hasn't grown an inch since we've lived here.

It's not like we haven't done anything at all for the last few months. We've been somewhat busy, just not in a frantic holiday sort of way. First the Christmas cactus took only about a six week rest this year and is back in full bloom again.

 The older plant is still alive though it looks more like a tree with a thick woody trunk and only sends out a handful of flowers. I can't part with it because it's still alive and well.

I find it hard to throw out healthy plants when the flowering is over. In this case I have a couple Poinsettia plants that were given to us three years ago. After the holidays they dropped their leaves but the stems were still alive. I kept them in a cool bright window and watered them weekly. So here we are three years later and look what we have.

I've recently completed a Christmas afghan, all except the fringing which I'll tackle this week. It gets added to my small but growing collection of Christmas afghans.

 The red one I made for my Grandmother about 40 years ago. It's what started my collection and I've already chosen one for next year. I'll start it in the spring.

  I also made these little creatures just because I thought they were cute.

 This one is a reindeer.

This one is supposed to be a hamster. OK, I'm not sure why the designer thought it looked like a hamster but here it is.

 This one was supposed to be a bunny, but mine wanted to be a dog. Surprise! He's my favorite, surprise!

Norma Jean is practicing for Christmas Eve. She knows she has to sleep before Santa comes. Norma Jean is a very good sleeper.

This little kitty is also ready for Christmas Eve. She's in her jammies and has her blanket.

Notice that she's wearing her mousie slippers.

Today I'm thinking about making some cookies. So far I'm still in the thinking about it stage. Hopefully I'll actually get started.

 Mackey says we hope your holidays are bringing you joy and not stress.