My idea of Christmas. . .is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why wait for Christmas to do that? ~ Bob Hope

Whatever it is that lives. . .should be touched gently. . . . ~ Elizabeth Goudge

"Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt.  Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be treated gently. . .Civilization is another word for respect for life."  ~  E. Goudge

A Ceramic Stuffed

I found a blue and white cat-shaped salt shaker at the thrift shop last month and decided to paint it to resemble Stuffed.  For fifty cents and about five minutes' worth of painting, 

it has become one of my favorite things in our tiny home. 

♥

The December 3rd Story :)

A few years ago, pre-"dating days" with Mike, he and I emailed back and forth for a couple days on the subject of the worst things we'd done as kids. This is an excerpt from that email exchange. For me and my mom, it is just "The December 3rd Story." 

. . .Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, here's the best one--and I almost forgot. My mom still gets so upset about this, I can't even joke with her about it. I was a New Kids on the Block fan when I was 12, and they were coming to the city for concerts December 3rd and 4th, 1989. This friend I had at the time said we had tickets for the December 3rd show, then said she had seats held but needed them paid that night, and my dad--who is truly too trusting and good--paid for the tickets with his credit card. The girl then said we had somehow not gotten the tickets after all. (And of course, stupid 12-year-old Val was sobbing into her pillow throughout the whole saga. "Jordan!!!!!! I love you!!!!!!!" I was so upset at one point, I was just sitting in my bedroom all forlorn, and Dad came in and said, "Better days will come." So dear. But it didn't make me feel any better. "What does Dad know about anything?!" I was 12, you know.)

Anyway, this girl called me before I left for school the morning of December 4th and told me to fake being sick during 3rd period and to go home "sick"--because she'd gotten the tickets and her parents were driving us to that night's concert. I knew my mom wouldn't go along with any of this if I just told her about it, so I went along with this girl's plan. And when the school nurse put me on the phone with my mom, my mom said, "Valley, you know I hate driving when the roads are this bad, and they are REALLY bad out today, so if you're just upset about missing the concert today, I don't want to come get you just for that. Are you really sick?" And I lied--!!!--and said yes, and she came to get me, and while we were still sitting in the (ice-covered!) school parking lot, I told her the truth. It was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. I've never disappointed her as much, I'm sure. It was just a horrible moment.

And for whatever reason, she actually let me go to the concert when this girl's parents arrived to drive us to the city for it. (Gahhhh, my parents! They're so dear.) So, I went to the concert, and to 12-year-old Val, it was totally worth it and awesome, and I got to scream "I love you!" to Jordan during the show--and I was so loud when I screamed it, he actually said into the microphone, "I love you too!" ('One of the best moments of my adolescence, I tell you!) My friend and I could have fainted, we were in hysterics over that. ♥

But my mom still can't speak about this, she's still upset that I lied to her like that. I try to joke every now and then--"Hey, Mom, it's December 3rd again! Do you remember..."--and she gets upset all over again. But I was never punished. (And the next morning while I was eating breakfast before school, Dad, although I'm sure he'd heard about nothing else from my infuriated mom the night before, simply said, "Well, how was it?") That was the worst thing I ever did, though. If that makes it better.  

 

Around the Apartment

It Begins with a Wreath

We began decorating the apartment for Christmas yesterday, starting, as we always seem to do, by hanging a wreath in the window. 

Our Thanksgiving Together at Home

Since Mike and I were apart for Thanksgiving last week, we had our own little Thanksgiving supper together last night.  We watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving cartoon--as is tradition--and part of a hockey game while we ate, and after supper, I pulled the fall quilt off of the table to switch out with a wintry tablecloth, and with that, Thanksgiving had passed once more. One of my favorite holidays, it was sweet all around again this year. 

Home for Thanksgiving

It somehow slipped my mind to take more pictures Thanksgiving Day, but the few I took are proof I was home for the holiday a year I hadn't expected to get the time off to make the trip. 

That I will also have a few days off over Christmas is an incredible extra blessing this year. 

Hearing that news just a few days before going home for Thanksgiving made the holiday even sweeter and made saying goodbye to everyone a bit easier. I have been dying of homesickness lately, and the thought of not getting to see my family over the holidays had been breaking my heart. 

I am thirty-three and getting married next year, and I know it won't be possible to spend every holiday with my family in the future, but I hope to do it as many times as possible, and this year, it was something I just plain needed. 

As I told my mom Thanksgiving night while we got ready for bed, we're so lucky that we all enjoy seeing each other and spending the holidays together. Not every family feels that way, and mine is blessed in that we do. I appreciate it more the older I get, and this year, with all the uncertainty about whether I'd even be there to experience either Thanksgiving or Christmas with them, I feel it more deeply than ever. Blessed, blessed, blessed. ♥

The heart of autumn must have broken here, and poured its treasure out upon the leaves. ~ Charlotte Fiske Bates

It is what I consider a true Pennsylvania November day here with thirty-one-mile-per-hour winds making it feel much colder than it is. Trash cans and plastic lawn chairs have been blown into streets and now rest between cars. Dunk your brush of black paint into the water pot until almost no color remains in order to achieve our watercolor-water sky today. I think this morning is the prettiest I've seen so far this season, though. The dreariness above only makes the colors closer to us pop.  Many of the trees are only branches this morning. Some of the sidewalks are only leaves.  And some of the yards are the candy aisle of their street and neighborhood.

Stuffed Won the Photo Contest :)

In this case, people--40,115 people!--can't be wrong. :) Stuffed has won the photo contest we entered in September.  The company is mailing his prize sometime soon ("How are they going to deliver a bowling alley here tonight?!"), and I bought him some treats and a new mouse toy (which he's afraid of, of course).

Thank you if you voted for him.  :)  Yeaaaa, Stuffed!