I know, I have done ornaments for the last two weeks, but I really love Christmas and all the decorations and my ornaments! Hardly anyone sees all our great ornaments so I am taking advantage of my blog and posting Christmas Tree ornaments! This will be the last one, at least that is the plan. Who knows, I might take a picture I love as I am “undecorating” and want to post it. I will try to refrain. But this is a NEW ornament. I received it as a gift and it is just so cute. She is BIG, but light, so it will be easy to find a spot for her on the tree every year. YAY! Love my new addition. So this is my last Friday Photo of 2016. I will be keeping this “feature” in 2017. This is also my LAST post of 2016.
Thank you for reading and liking. Thank you even more for commenting. I love interacting with readers. I wish all of you a happy and fun New Year’s Eve. And I wish all of you a GREAT 2017!
So, you might have noticed that I love Christmas. I love the decorations. I love the lights. I love all the sparkle and shine. It is a lot of extra work and there are a lot of “extra” things to do. But I still love it. This year we got a really big tree. I thought I would be able to put all of our ornaments on it. But sometimes REAL trees don’t want to support all of the ornaments we have. Plus I had a lot of “extra” stuff to think about this year, so I actually did not put all of the ornaments on the tree. There are still A LOT of ornaments on the tree, just not all of them.
You might have seen one of my posts about going to the ocean. Well, on at least one of those trips we bought two new (oh, there might have been more) Christmas Tree ornaments. They are so great. They are sparkly, just like I like ’em.
It is almost time to read the contents of the Goodie Jar. Oh yes, the Goodie Jar. We are still doing it. We actually have three containers going on. One was the original one that is the Princess House Pitcher. That one looked pretty festive (and it was full) so I put it in the China cabinet hoping it could be passed off as a Christmas decoration. Then the other one is a container that sits on the peninsula and has to be put away to make room for the Christmas decorations that are all over the peninsula. So I have a note in the present Goodie Jar dish that reminds me to go into the closet to get the planter that we were using to put good things in. So it is almost time. I really like this tradition. I think this is the third year that we have done it. I am not sure, but I think we will do it again next year.
I have not read any of the notes in the containers, but I am pretty confident that there will be a few about our cats. They are such good girls and the certainly make me smile when I think about them. So I am sure both of us have documented that! There are always moments that I write down about my students making me smile. The latest one is my socks. LOOK! Aren’t they cool. They have cats on them AND they can be worn with my flip flops. I was explaining to my students one day that since I have to rush over to class I didn’t want to put on my socks and shoes and my feet were really cold. Ya see, in the morning on the way to my first class I wear socks and shoes. But there is not a lot of time for me to get to my Tuesday morning yoga class after Nia so sometimes I just put on my flip flops after class and my feet get cold. So one of them picked up on that. Super sweet. The socks are super cute. They have cats!!! She is a cat lover herself!
Lately we have gotten some rain. And by lately I mean this week. Rain — for me — always goes in the Good Things Jar because it is really a good thing.
There is just always something that is a good thing that makes me smile. So many of my friends, family, and students are noted in that jar.
If you have not done a good things jar, I would like to strongly suggested it. It is such a great way to remember the good things in life. And it is really fun because you get to get TWO, maybe even THREE, smiles out of them. One is when the thing occurs, two is when you write it down, and three is when you read it. And sometimes it is really funny when you read it because it might take you a minute to remember what you were talking about. Then, if your family and friends (or whomever you are reading them with) are into it, you get to tell them the story. Often times things that make you smile make for a good story.
Ooooo! I am getting really excited thinking about it. Can’t wait!!!
So are you still doing a good jar? Might you do one next year?
IT’S CHRISTMASTIME. I love this time of year. Yes, I tend to get a bit crazed because I want to have my house sparkly clean, then all decorated, then have the presents all under the tree, the Christmas cards on their way in the first week of December. And the CRAZED part comes in because unless I start doing some of this in November it just doesn’t happen. So then I start having to take shortcuts. I even posted about Letting Go before — I’ve actually written a few posts about letting go, but one specifically about Christmas – it turns out, in 2010, I thought it was last year. I am nowhere near sparkly and Christmas cards are still on the radar, but I have no idea when. One of the things that tends to get me a bit crazed it coming up with stuff to write. I don’t always have ideas. I want to post stuff that you will read, but sometimes, I just can’t come up with things. I even posted about that before, too. I skipped/missed two Saturdays because I was busy and even though I remembered in time, I didn’t remember in enough time to think of something AND write it. So, tonight, I decided to take the pressure off by just posting what I have been doing that is taking up my time. I don’t have time to think of stuff and research it and . . . well, life gets busy and sometimes priorities change. I have been having a good time.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend I met Rocky. I like birds so I was trying to make friends with him. I would visit with him everytime I walked by his cage. The first time I heard him “meow” I ran into where he was and started recording . . . and all he would do was make that “drip” noise. This went on for about a day and a half. The last few hours it crossed my mind that he was not making a DRIP noise, but the noise that my iPhone makes when I turn begin to record. What do you thing? I am not convinced that is what it was. (The other bird noises in the video are his “music” his dad turns on for him.) He is a very smart and very pretty bird.
Birds are so amazing. But they are very messy and they require a lot of attention. They are animals that were created to fly. When they are kept in cages they want attention. They want attention like any pet.
So, I’ve been cleaning, putting up the tree, decorating the house, and entertaining cats. In another post I will share some of the other decorations . . . this is it for now.
One of my girls is calling.
How is your Christmas Season going so far? Are you ready for Christmas?
You might have read my post Homemade Soapy Goodness back in August. I wrote about this yummy soap that I had been buying for a couple of years. It was really nice soap. It had essential oils in it and smell great. It wasn’t cheap, but I considered it one of the splurges I like to as for as a Christmas gift from my hubby. Well, this year I was counting on him being able to get it for me for Christmas, but when I went to there was nothing there. I thought she went out of business since there was no product on her website, her Etsy shop was gone, and the e-mail I sent her was returned to me. There was no notification of discontinuing business or anything. I’m always a little disappointed when people don’t leave any “out of business” information or a notice as to what is going on. I know things happen, but when you have a business, I just expect a little information to be dispensed for customers. Oh well. It so happened though, I received soap as a Christmas gift. I actually received two different soaps. One I have not yet tried, but it smells really good (you’ll probably read about that in a later post). The other one I received smelled even better so I jumped on the internet to see if I could buy it on Amazon. And I can. And I did and it is awesome. It is my new soap. It is Verbena Flower scent.
It is very nice feeling soap and even better smelling. I showed it to my niece when she was here and she couldn’t stop smelling it. It smells terrific. It lathers up nice and it leaves me feeling clean. I don’t like it when I feel like I have a layer of something left on me.
Since I couldn’t get soap from my favorite place — I was lucky to get this soap for Christmas. I purchased addition bars from French Presents through Amazon.com.
I am just noticing that I purchased Verbena Flower and the one I had received is Verbena. They smell the same, but I guess they are different. When I was ordering I hadn’t noticed that there was a Verbena, I thought they had just changed the name from Verbena to Verbena Flower, but now I am seeing they are two different things. Either way, they smell great and I am happy to have been handed a new soap to love.
I’ve spent a good portion of the last few days “undecorating”. I’ve only been able to spend a few hours each day on it so it seems to be taking a very long time. My husband and I spent at least four hours today and it is pretty much packed up. He is helping me do the part I don’t like and that is putting all the boxes back in the big boxes. It just baffles me how the small ornament boxes can come out of one box, but when I go to put them back in they don’t fit. I get frustrated so my husband comes to my rescue. Not all the ornaments have a box so it makes the process a bit annoying. I need to work on getting things more organized so it is not as frustrating and therefore less stressful upon putting things away. I am so grateful my husbands help.
I have been wanting to post about my “soap lady” since I went on and on about her.** And I wanted to share about my new yummy soap, today seems like the perfect time since I am just able to get up to my computer now.
Seems like more people than I am used to are taking their time this year with taking their decorations down. I have more friends say they are just starting or just getting done. How is your “undecorating” going? Are you done? And just out of curiosity, what is your favorite soap?
**I just check on my “soap lady” and she might be back in business, but I don’t see my regular package that I used buy and I like this other soap I am buying. Maybe she took the Holidays off. Perhaps is she is in business at Christmastime I will ask for soap from her for Christmas.
So I always thought the Twelve Days of Christmas were the days LEADING up to the 25th. It was about 2009 when I was talking with one of my Nia students about Christmas and taking down the tree and decorations that she mentioned it. She is quite savvy when it comes to etiquette, traditions, and customs so she said something about waiting until the Epiphany. And I didn’t know what she was talking about. She said she didn’t take her tree down until January 6th. I did like the sound of that because it was a date in January. Usually we take our tree down the weekend after New Year’s Day. I need help as there is so much packing to do. That is the worst part to me. I hate putting everything in its own box. But I will not just put all of my ornaments into those ornament holder boxes . . . . OH NO WAY! So, yes, I cause my own misery. Thankfully I have a husband who helps. I take stuff down and hand it to him with the box and he puts it in. He gets to sit and “relax” and watch a movie and I get my ornaments put in their original boxes. Yay. This year on the day we typically would have taken down the tree, I just didn’t want to. I wasn’t ready. We were gone for – what I think of as – a long time so I felt as if I “missed” some days of Christmas decorations. Plus I knew it would take longer than one day and I had a Nia Class at the YMCA on Sunday so I knew we wouldn’t get it all done. We decided that I would start this week and we would finish this weekend. This is when I said that we could abide by the “whatchmacallit?”, ya know the days after Christmas? The . . . I couldn’t remember so I had to look it up. The day my Nia student had referred to was the Epiphany. But when I looked it up there were some other days I don’t ever remember hearing about.
Could be that I didn’t know about these dates because they look as if they are related to the catholic faith. At least the website that I found is. My family was once catholic, but we stopped going to a catholic church before I had to go through all of my catechism classes and take my first communion.
The website states the below:
“What are the other feast days and holy days during the Christmas season?
In addition to Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Christmas and Mary, Mother of God, Catholics celebrate:
The Feast of the Holy Family, honoring Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a family. It is celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas or on December 30. When Christmas falls on Sunday, it is celebrated December 31.
The Epiphany, the oldest of the Christmas feasts, is also known as Three Kings Day for the three magi who found the Christ Child after following a star to Bethlehem. It is celebrated on Jan. 6 and is the major holiday of the Christmas period in the Eastern Church.
The Baptism of Our Lord brings the Christmas season to a close. It is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Epiphany.”
So basically what this timeline is telling me is that the Christmas season comes to a close on January 11 this year. Which is pretty perfect because that is when I hope to have all of our Christmas decorations taken down and stored away.
I really thought the Twelve Days of Christmas were the days LEADING up to the 25th. So that is why I am not familiar with the Epiphany. If I knew the Twelve Days STARTED on Christmas, then I would have “got” the whole Epiphany thing.
Am I the only one? Did you know what the Twelve Days of Christmas were?
Some of you may still think, I’ve got nothing. You may or may not know I spend a lot of time decorating for Christmas. I LOVE all the decorations. It is the one time of year where you can have glitter and sparkle everywhere and people don’t judge you even though you have your hand on the doorknob of 50! My friend always laughs at me and says, “Everywhere you look there is Christmas.” And that is truly my goal. I don’t have a beautiful Sunset Magazine set up, I just have CHRISTMAS EVERYWHERE. I want your gaze to land on decorations. So that’s what I do. This is the one time of year where my house is always clean. I don’t like the dull of dust to damping the sparkle. The rest of the year — MEH! But during the Holidays the house is always “picked up”. And by “house” I mean the downstairs. The upstairs is a disaster . . . . where do you think everything goes? Anyway . . . with the house all decked out I like people to see it. But we don’t usually have people over. But this past week we did have two friends over. It was just a quick visit. I knew they wouldn’t stay long because they have family obligations to tend to. Since it was just going to be the four of us I didn’t plan on serving more than a few cookies for dessert. But when I started looking at all of my serving stuff, I decided I wanted to use both of my three tired servers. But I was determined NOT to have more sweets. So I decided to use two of the tiers as decoration holders. YAY. Decorations instead of desserts. A treat for the eyes not the belly.
Ok, many of you might be looking at this and thinking it is no big deal. And it REALLY isn’t, but I totally love it. Ha! It makes me happy. When I love something and it makes me happy, I wanna share it. And, that my friends, is the “power” of having your own blog. You can do whatever you want.
The heart ornaments in the dish are actually something I already have sitting on a table. I LOVE those ornaments. They were one of those coveted things that were part of an office “steal present game”. Ya know, where you chose a gift and there is “stealing” involved? I no longer remember how I came to be the owner of them, but they are one of my favorite sets of ornaments. One of the things that make me “Consider decorations and ornaments gifts” as I posted in More Sparkle, More Shine, More Fun! Since I love them so much I decided to add them to my “Treat” display.
Then the other arrangement is what I really love. I was scrounging around for something to make a display with and I found the purple sparkly berry things in a cabinet. I decided to pair them with the pine cone flowers from last year’s Cookie Swap I attended. Then I added the homemade card from one of my Nia Teacher/friends. Her cards always end up as decorations in the house. They are so gorgeous!!!
After my company left, I did not dismantle that portion of the display. I might just keep it up. As a non-creative, I am very happy with it. It makes me super happy. I think the sparkly blueish-purple, with the “flowers”, and the gorgeousness of the card just make me really happy. So why not keep it.
Again, I imagine some of you thinking this is silly, but (fist pump) more power to me! I am just going with what I love. I am sure this is not one of the displays that you would find on Pinterest, but I like it. I think I might like it so much because normally I would have just put out more food, but this time I was determined not to. So this is like a double treat to me!
So . . . I know many of you are very creative, so share! What have you come up with for your Christmas and/or Holiday decorating?
In addition to oiling my buffet in preparation for Christmas Decorations, I also took down all the “Death Cards”. The top of the buffet was crammed full of cards I received because of the deaths that have occurred this year. If you have read my blog for a bit you probably know about my mom dying. She died in April. It was sudden to me, yet it dragged out for 10 days while she waited, with a tube in her throat, unable to speak, for the doctors to take the tube out so she could die. But then she didn’t die for another 11 days. I have a separate page here on my blog for her. You are probably aware of the death of our cat. She was so sweet. I like to think she was an angel and I will see her again. I know she did a lot for the people she encountered. But you might not know about my brother. Yeah, he was the first one to die. He died in January. I got a call from my niece saying he was dead.
Now, I haven’t mentioned my brother because at the time there was some legal issues or more accurately there COULD have been legal issues. My brother was a widower and a single parent. He and his daughter lived in another state and we needed to get her guardianship and all that stuff taken care of before word got out. My niece has life goals so she wanted to finish her school year up where she lived before she relocated. So she was top priority. By the time everything was straightened out AND I felt like sharing about his death, my mom got sick. I literally was going to post about my brother that week.
My mom was waiting to die for a long time (as I mentioned). She went in the hospital for one thing, she was told they could “fix it”, but then they decided they couldn’t and told her she had to decide when to die. Not an easy choice. She picked a day and it didn’t go as they had thought. So that was another process. During all of this I was focused on her. And I thought that (think that) the way people die in the United States is so horrific, I was writing posts about that. I was dealing with all of that. I was not sharing about my brother.
Then, our cat died. As I have mentioned in other posts, I am not really a writer. I had never really experienced the “release” people get from writing or journaling. But with posting about my mom and the cat I kinda understood. Plus, it is soooo amazingly helpful to get support from people all over, close-in-person friends as well as people who I have never met face-to-face but have online relationships with. So I was supported by that.
Now my mom’s memorial is over. People keep questioning me about getting another cat. With life moving on, I feel I am ready to share. I feel I need to tell the world about my brother’s death. Since I shared about all the other deaths, his should not go unmentioned.
I thought it would be appropriate to share now, while I am putting away all the cards of love — because that is what they really are. They are notes and cards of expressions of love ABOUT death. It was so heart-warming to have received those tokens. It is nice to have them still.
For those that want more details, because death makes us curious, my brother was 48, he was not in the best of health and he died of an aneurysm. It is ok to be curious. That is human nature. You are welcome to ask more questions if you want. I reserve the right to answer them in a reply on my blog or privately via e-mail, though. There might be more posts in the future . . . but for now here it is.
My awesome neice has since been relocated and is doing well. She is awesome because life at her age is “hard” enough without all the stuff she has been given to deal with. We have yet to see how it all turns out.
So, take a moment, if you knew my brother or not . . . . . thanks.
Ahhh, it is December, and by the pure grace of God we are getting some rain. We need a lot of rain. Our state is dry and the water is pretty much gone, but every little bit helps. And the latest storm is bringing in some nice rain. This year the “storms” we’ve had in the San Francisco Bay Area have not really been storms and have not brought rain. Some have even just been “mistings”. But this one is good. It is an awesome way to bring in a season of Joy! One way I like to bring in the season is by oiling my entertainment center and my buffet. I don’t always have a chance to do it, some years are more hectic than others, but it is one thing I like to do. I somewhat consider it part of decorating for Christmas. Since I don’t really do “Spring Cleaning” I like to oil the furniture before I decorate at Christmastime.
It used to be that the oil came in a plastic bottle with a top like the ones that come on salad dressing bottles. The oil had to be squeezed out or shook out. But then someone got the brilliant idea to put it in spray bottles. WOW! That was an awesome idea. It makes it much easier to get the oil everywhere. I did use an entire bottle on the entertainment center. I am not sure that I oiled it last year. As I said, I like to do it every year, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. So many factors go into what you time for and what you don’t have time for, as I am sure you know . . . different things going on make different things possible or not. Sometimes you just have to let things you want to do, but aren’t that important (like oiling the furniture), go.
I take everything out of the entertainment center except the TV, stereo, and what is in the cabinet. (Yes, we still have a stereo.) When I oil the furniture I put a good coat on so I like to let it dry. I usually let it set for a day or two, to make sure it is dry and all the oil is soaked in before I put the items back. And since it is Christmastime I will leave some stuff off so that I can have room for the decorations. At least one whole shelf on the entertainment center is left empty for my nativity set. With the buffet I take everything out of the cabinets and oil inside.
I was not planning – I know I always say this, but really – on blogging about this otherwise I would have taken a “before” picture so that you could see the difference in the wood. The wood gets darkened by the oil. I think it likes it. I think it helps preserve the wood. This is really important since I’ve had the entertainment center for almost 25 years.
The buffet I got at a consignment store not to long after we moved here. I do not know its previous story.
Getting this done makes me feel good. As I said I don’t do spring cleaning, I clean for the Holidays and this is one of the things I like to do. Helps get my decorating mojo ignited. I love decorating for Christmas. I like for everywhere you look to be at least a little Christmas!
Do you have any furniture that would like to be oiled? Do you oil your furniture? Do you use Old English?
You might know I love decorating for Christmas. You might also know my cat is sick. She has a chronic disease. My husband and I work to keep her symptoms under control and make sure she is a happy cat. One thing about cats though, they don’t seem to mind vomiting as much as WE mind them doing it. They just hurl and move on. I was not looking forward to having to spend the additional time needed to clean with the Christmas Decorations added onto her frequent regurgitation. But so far so good. Every year though, her and I fight over “underneath the tree”. She thinks it is her spot. I think presents belong there. Last year the second the tree went up she cemented herself IN THE MIDDLE of the underneath and rarely moved! This year I made some kitty concessions to allow for a happier kitty.
Cats with Inflammatory Bowel Disease can live up to five years after diagnosis, but you never know, so this year she gets special treatment. For almost all of the 13 Christmases that we have had her we have put our tree up on a table. Some think it is odd to put a 6 foot tree on a table, but it saves a lot of time and headache. Our cat has never been one to climb the tree or even futz with the ornaments, but she does love “underneath” the tree. And all real/live trees shed so when she would walk underneath it she would brush it with her tail and cause needles to fall all over. While I love a real/live, I don’t care for the needles all over the place. They are not called needles for nothing. They hurt when they stab your foot. So, we started putting the tree up to keep from having needles all over.
That also allows for more room for presents . . . at least so I thought. Some years I have left room for her, but this year I hadn’t put any gifts under the tree, I was going to let her have the entire space, but after a few days of her having it all to herself she hasn’t been under there since. So I did put a few gifts under the tree, but still have a bed for her there.
Where she has chosen to lie is in my reindeer spot. As I was decorating I was struggling with how I was going to get her to agree to a move. We do not know why she has chosen this odd place near the curio, but it has been her spot for a few months now so I was not looking forward to the battle. Then I realized, I probably wouldn’t really “win” no matter what, so I moved my reindeer spot. They are now under the tree.
Also the last couple of years she has been chewing on the garland. Last year I finally was so tired of scolding her I took it down. This year, I decided not to put it up on the banister. That room needs light though, so, I moved it to an impossible-for-a-cat-to-reach spot. Yay! Now I have my garland and lights up, AND no chewing. Cat and decorations are safe!
Now, I mentioned this on Facebook earlier this month. In the past we have had exactly 30 days for the tree. At 31 days, the cat DOES swat an ornament. I took that to mean that she was done with the tree, it was time for it to go outside. This year since she doesn’t use her displaced tower as much now as she did then, she might let it stay longer, but really, in our house it doesn’t need to be up longer. And I am happy for the time she allows us to have it undisturbed.
Ahhh. I love Christmas decorations. I think this year we have some good compromises going on.
Do you have to decorate in concession with your pets? What do you do in order to keep your pet happy?
Now, I haven’t mentioned my brother because at the time there was some legal issues or more accurately there COULD have been legal issues. My brother was a widower and a single parent. He and his daughter lived in another state and we needed to get her guardianship and all that stuff taken care of before word got out. My niece has life goals so she wanted to finish her school year up where she lived before she relocated. So she was top priority. By the time everything was straightened out AND I felt like sharing about his death, my mom got sick. I literally was going to post about my brother that week.
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