Christmas Eve Day 2020 - White Christmas and Cookies

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Apreciative to have gotten snow to make it a white Christmas.

Jean, our next door neighbor, made some cookies and was kind enough to bring some over to us. They sure tasted good!

Holiday Season 2020 - Will There Be Snow?

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

I took this photo at 7:38 this morning whilst out on my first walk of the day. As you can see, the ground is brown. Will there be snow for Christmas? I hear there's some on the way. 

Holiday Season 2020 - Tilted Tree

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

I put up the tree and it seems I'm getting worse at it. Maybe I should leave it as is. This is 2020 after all.  

 

Maybe not. I fiddled with the screws at the base and got it straightened out and it's looking much better. 

Holiday Season 2020 - A Christmas Mouse

Monday, December 14, 2020

Noel and I stopped by A Rare Bird this past weekend. Kelly was offering a free mouse with the purchase of a designer pillow. Most of the proceeds from the sale are given to a local women's shelter. According to Kelly, the material of the pillow I picked out is Christian LaCroix.

This is the reverse. 

And this is the mouse. 

When Noel bought her pillow and free mouse she told Kelly the story of her annual holiday fete (aka The Chrissy the Christmas Mouse party). 

Long ago, Noel and I were driving around in the old big brown bomber car that had once been her father's. I think it may have been a Cadillac. Anyway, it was so old the fm radio no longer worked so she could only get am stations. This was back in the 90s and a lot of the old radio personalities from WCCO AM 830 had migrated over to KLBB which featured pre rock era singers and standards. The station featured holiday music during the Christmas season and while out and about one December a song titled Chrissy the Christmas Mouse came on. It featured Debbie Reynolds and Donald O'Conner on lead vocals singing about a Christmas Mouse named Chrissy who helps Santa. 

Anyway, sometime in the mid-90s Noel started hosting her holiday fete and invited Dale and I along with her friends Caroline and Stephen. Initially she hosted us separately but decided to save time and energy by combining use together. I found a CD of the song and gifted it to Noel one year and during one of the Chrissy parties we played it to horrify Caroline, Stephen and Dale. It continued yearly. 

Holiday Season 2020 - Holiday Season Cigar

Thirty-two degrees outside but I ventured into the back yard for a cigar and braved the chill anyway. 

Listened to some holiday themed music on the Bose speaker and tried to keep Athena still long enough to get a picture with her. Didn't work. 

Holiday Season 2020 - St. Nicholas Day 2020

Saturday, December 6, 2020

St. Nicholas Day is here. I texted Mom a photo with a greeting. She responded by saying she hopes it's been a happy day for me. It has. 

Picked up the above ornament recently. We'll say it's for St. Nicholas Day although I didn't put it in my shoe. 

Holiday Season 2020 - A Trip to Afton

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Noel and I drove out to Afton today to visit Squire House Gardens. It was nice to say hi to Martin.

This afternoon I joined Dale for cocktails and we listened to a bunch of awesome Christmas music. 

At Squire House I picked up a sculpture of a dog smoking a cigar. I made him mine. 

Holiday Season 2020 - Cocktails & Christmas Music: The End of a Long Week

Friday, December 4, 2020

Funny how one’s body craves what it needs nutritionally. By the end of the work day I had overwhelming desire for tomato juice. To be more specific I was craving Bloody Mary mix. I of course added a dash of vodka to keep it true to the name of the mix and garnished it with an olive. 

What kind of a day was it that I was feeling like I just had to finish it off with a cocktail? Let’s just say John’s cat, Sylvester, died and came back to life after getting into some of his meds and that was just one thing. Listening to Barbra helped calm me down quite well. 

Holiday Season 2020 - More Snowmen

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Found my snowmen plates and set them out. Also found a couple more boxes of snowmen in the basement so I added them to the others. 

Holiday Season 2020 - Deb's Winter Greenery

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Our next door neighbor, Deb, did up her window box today and it makes mine look pretty sad. 

Holiday Season 2020 - Winter Greenery

Friday, November 27, 2020

The electric company was out the other week to deal with a downed power line for the neighbors across the alley. They decided to trim a decent sized branch from our backyard pine tree that was just a little too close to our power line for their comfort. I hacked some of it up to make this little arrangement for our front yard flower box. The fake berries are ones I had on hand. 

Holiday Season 2020 - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Friday, November 27, 2020

A woman I follow on Instagram posted the above picture. She and her daughter put the plate together for Thanksgiving. I did a double take as I scrolled by it because I thought it looked somewhat familiar. Funny because Dale and I watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving just yesterday.