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Yesterday and today have consisted of working and knitting. Knitting is basically what I’ll be doing in all my spare time now until early next week. Perhaps next time I decide to make things I should start earlier than just a week before, hmm?
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The last two days of puzzles. I’m highly amused that the elves can be very very quiet when they want to, and then in the next moment smash things with wild abandon.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
For many years now, my knitting group has done a combination cookie exchange and Santa exchange, where we each bring something yarn/knitting related, and then do a random gift swap. But this year it was hard to find a date that worked for everyone.
So instead, tonight, just a few of us gathered at one house. We ate cookies (which some of us had made anyway, despite deciding there weren’t enough to do an official cookie exchange, and we knitted, and we caught up on each other’s lives, and it was lovely.
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Pretty sure that’s a toolbox.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
This afternoon we hosted a board game / cookie exchange gathering. We’ve got a regular group that’s met monthly for a while now, and when I suggested we do a cookie exchange for December, everyone was enthusiastically on board.
There were cinnamon coffee cookies, eggnog cookies, lemon bars, dark chocolate cherry cookies, and gochujang caramel cookies, and mini gingerbread whoopie pies with cream cheese filling.
Also there was a veggie tray as a nod to health, but let’s face it, today was all about the cookies.
I was also going to make the one remaining GBBO bake (opera cake) but ran out of time so instead I made some tiramisu fudge, which although delicious, didn’t completely set, so was more like thick frosting than fudge.
The crowning glory of the afternoon, however, was the Cat Butt Pie.
Why no, none of us made jokes about probing things when the pie was cut, because we are far too mature…oh who am I kidding, probe jokes *abounded*, because we are all grown adults with senses of humor.
Anyway. Many cookies were consumed, and games were played, and more than once we were all laughing hysterically, so it was a very good day.
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Oops, I don’t think this car care set is going to be up to the job.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
I’ve got some social events coming up that include cookie exchanges, so today I cranked out a whole mess of cookies in preparation.
I also went out to dinner with a friend (delicious Thai food), and we attended the Kitka concert in Davis.
Kitka is a women’s ensemble based out of Oakland, CA. Their main focus is on Eastern European style music. Tonight’s concert was a series of songs from the country of Georgia, which they visited recently in order to attend a festival and learn from actual Georgian choirs.
They are absolutely fantastic, and have an incredible sound, with all the voices blending perfectly together. Here’s just a few of the songs from the concert to catch your interest.
If they perform anywhere near you, I’d highly recommend checking them out.
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This fox looks quite pleased with herself.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
We put the trees up a week or so ago, with the usual assistance.
Today we finally got around to decorating them.
Here is the tree for the cats.
It is decorated with jingle balls, and also cats.
And here is the tree that is also for the cats.
The decorating scheme for this tree includes sparkle balls, crinkle balls, and large grey ornaments that move amid the branches at will.
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This lady doesn’t seem all that thrilled with her brand new lawnmower.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
This morning, as I was puttering around filling food bowls and scooping litter boxes, I heard the telltale sound of a cat getting into something they shouldn’t. I turned around to find a cat (Timmie) on the dining room table, industriously pawing at the open doors on Richard’s dinosaur advent calendar.
Me: Um, excuse me. What are you doing?
Cat: Treasures!
Me: No, those are not things for cats!
Cat: If not for cats then why shaped like fun?
Me: Hey, come back here!
Cat, scurrying off with tiny dinosaur in mouth: Ith friend thaped!
Me, hastily rescuing the tiny plastic dinosaur: No, it’s a choking hazard!
Cat, stomping off in a sulk, because humans are SO MEAN.
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Uh oh, I know how *this* movie ends.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
Is there anything better than soup on a cold day?
How about soup with a big hunk of freshly baked soda bread?
I made a batch of ginger carrot soup yesterday, plus a rustic loaf of soda bread. Both were super easy to throw together, both filled the house with delicious aromas, and both made enough for a very comforting and satisfying lunch today.
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Took me a moment to figure out that this guy is on a boat, which is why the gift is so disturbing.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
Today was a mostly usual day – work, chores, etc. – but then i got two different phone calls with much anticipated news. More on those in the next few days.
In the meantime, I feel like today’s jigsaw is an accurate representation of us attempting to decorate a Christmas tree, except instead of having a present hurled in from the window, we just have extremely excitable cats.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
We had tentative plans to put up the tree today, but instead, after work, we camped out on the sofa and watched holiday baking competitions and the latest episode of Mistletoe Murders. Which, while not as productive as planned, was still a nice way to end a day.
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Much like these mice, I, too, would be very excited to receive a giant box of cheese.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.
Welcome to December, wherein I try to update this (sadly neglected) blog every day for a whole month! And happy 25th anniversary to Holidailies!
Today has been a very long day. We flew back Washington pretty late last night, after spending several days at my younger sister’s house, with all the family, for Thanksgiving. I don’t sleep well in the best of times, even in my own bed, and traveling makes it even worse, so I was pretty wiped out by the time we headed home, and the cats were very needy after being all alone* for years and years**.
(* We have a fantastic pet sitting service, so they were well taken care of.
** It was only 3 days, despite all the tales of sadness and woe they told me in the wee hours of the morning.)
Today was Richard’s family’s Thanksgiving celebration, so we assembled a veggie casserole for him to take, plus a big pot of potato cheese soup, since it’s definitely soup weather. I, however, could not attend, since today was also recording day for our upcoming concert, so he headed off alone and I instead went and sang for several hours straight.
But at least there was some time this morning to kick off the month with some new advent calendars. This year we each got one of our own, plus one to share. We had such fun with the Escape Room calendar last year that we decided to try another one.
Sadly, we were both completely confused and had to end up looking at the clues for today’s. I am telling myself that that is because we were both still so tired this morning. Hopefully by tomorrow we’ll have better luck with our guesses. Ha.
My individual advent calendar is another jigsaw puzzle one, although this time instead of all the days combining into one big picture, each day is its own little surprise scene, which is definitely more my style.
Here is Day One. I’m definitely going to enjoy these.
‘Tis the season for Holidailies.