You must begin to think of yourself as becoming the person you want to be. ~ David Viscott

The past two weeks have been wearying, and aside from a Saturday when a combined headache, kink in my neck, and day without sleep found me waving the white flag from my bed, I have plodded on and even have some good things to show for it.  The bathroom has been put back together post-painting, with new shower curtain and curtains too.  The bedroom wall-painting is almost done.  The headboard project is at least begun, with stars, string lights, and waiting-for-payday pillow shams next on its to-do list.  The bedroom curtains are up but lacking their ruffle-trim, tie-backs, and the hankie-patchwork-type sheers I'm planning to hang underneath them.  The 1980s childhood memoir-writing continues. The healthy eating continues.  It feels, though, like I've just been hanging on and getting through this fall so far.  Do you remember the brilliant exchange between the frustrated sheriff and his secretary in Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men?  It keeps coming to mind this month.  "What is it that (Justice) Torbert says?"  he asks her.  "About truth and justice."  She distractedly answers, "We dedicate ourselves anew daily.    Somethin like that."  The sheriff responds, "I think I'm goin to commence to dedicatin myself twice daily.  It may come to three fore it's over."  Hear, hear.  I brought in Halloween cookies for my coworkers this week, and the cashier yesterday morning told me "I love your smile" while bagging my groceries, and I'm choosing to accept both gestures as signs that hope is not lost.  :)  Here's to the plodding-on.  

Our First Three Christmas Breakfasts

I've  never been a breakfast person--I eat it every day, but I prefer to heat up some soup or make a sandwich instead of eating more typical breakfast foods, and I think my two-and-a-half-year stint as a breakfast cook permanently wiped out any fondness I ever could have found for the smells of bacon, eggs, or waffles--but the Christmas breakfast Mike and I share has become one of my favorite parts of the holiday.  It has been egg casserole and cinnamon rolls every year, and while the food is good (she says modestly), it is the table-setting and actual sharing of it that I love the most.  We enjoy a Christmas Eve dinner and a Christmas evening dinner too, but somehow it's our Christmas breakfasts that delight me. 

This was Mike's and my third Christmas in this apartment, and our third as a married couple.  I remember Dad asking me on the phone last Christmas what we'd had for breakfast, and I responded, "Egg casserole and cinnamon rolls--It's our tradition" and then laughing at that with him because it had been only the second Christmas Mike and I had done that.  'Quite a tradition!  :)  Our Christmas meal together before we married was always a belated supper  after we'd both returned from our parents' homes--Christmas 2011 was the first time we shared Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, and Christmas dinner together.  And it's sweet to be able to do that.  I had actually been scheduled to work this Christmas, but a coworker covered it for me, picking up some holiday overtime for herself, and Mike and I were quite grateful.  (I burst into tears when she said she would work it for me, I was that surprised and relieved.)  Our holiday together was extra-special this year, then, since we hadn't known until last week that we would, in fact, be together for it.  And this year's breakfast was sunny and sweet just like the two before it.

2011's breakfast table was in aqua with most everything on it a gift from loved ones.  The knit-look aqua mugs were from my mom.  The candlesticks too.  The lace snowflake tablecloth was a Christmas gift from my younger brother in 2010 and is now part of the tradition. 

Last year's breakfast table was pink.  The candles, trees, deer, house, church, and other little ornaments were all from Mom, Aunt Laurie, and (one of their younger sisters) Aunt Heidi. 

And this year's table was glowing and sunshiney, although that was an as-I-woke-up-Christmas-morning decision.  The yellow under the lace tablecloth was the yellow gingham bedspread I'd used on the table this past Easter.  It looked soft and mellow with the lace over it, which was nice.  While Mike slept in, I gathered the dishes from the cupboard and the ornaments off our tree that were yellow and cream, picked a couple yellow star sugar cookies for our plates out of the tin, and even found a lion and lamb amongst Stuffed's toys.  ♥  (Martha Stewart would shake her head.  That's okay.) 

The snowflake spreader was on Christmas clearance at Walgreens (drugstore) years ago for fifty cents or so.  :)  The trees and houses and ornaments and casserole dish were all gifts. 

Mom found me the brown deer at the flea market this fall and gave it to me last week.  The glass candle dish was the one Aunt Laurie had tucked into our cookie tin this Christmas. 

And now it is back to work for me after a blissful six days off.  I am blessed beyond measure. 

And it was absolutely a merry little Christmas.  ♥

Easter Breakfast

Mike and I will be having our Easter dinner tomorrow--He's cooking a ham and asked me to make macaroni and cheese to go with it, while I'm excited about the broccoli-cauliflower salad and cake--but this afternoon I surprised him with a late Easter breakfast so we would have something festive on the table today too.  

I love holiday foods and tables.  My mom is the same way, and our conversations on the subject, usually held while looking at pictures we're clipping from magazines, always find us saying the same things:  "Look at this, Vally!  Isn't this cute!"  "Oh, honestly, Mom, the people who come up with these ideas for magazines have the BEST job!"  "I'd eat themed food every night if your dad would go for it."  And then she tells me again about how when she and Dad were first married, she was in her Daisy-collecting period and had them on everything, so the first breakfast she made for him was sunny-side-up eggs cooked into Daisy-shaped molds.  "I think he started wondering then what he'd gotten himself into," she concludes.  When I called home a little while ago to wish my parents a happy Easter, I told Mom about today's rabbit-shaped pancakes, egg casserole nests with potato eggs, and bacon Tulips, and predictably, she ooohed and ahhed.  

The practice I got painting those bunnies onto my Easter cards last week paid off during batter-pouring today:  Mike's pancake actually turned out bunny-shaped on the first attempt.  :)  A donut hole rolled in coconut flakes made the tail.   

I never did find a bouquet of my beloved Daffodils at the store, so I tucked a couple sprigs of my silk ones around the table.  The yellow gingham tablecloth is actually a small bedspread I found at a thrift shop a few years ago.  It was a simple table and a sweet breakfast with my Mike.  I hope you've all had a wonderful Easter too.  ♥