It snowed here Wednesday. It fell in gentle flakes and made my hellaciously overgrown yard with its backdrop of bare trees look like a holiday card. We didn’t get much, I could clear the walk with a push broom, but it fell for a couple of hours, and since it was going to be in the forties later that day, I didn’t even worry about the push broom. Weather Valium. Which is not to say that I want more, just that snow is beautiful (for about an inch) and that made me happy. (And now we’re getting fourteen inches on Wed. Because there is no free lunch winter.)
What made you happy this week?
Snow is a wonderful happy-drug of which we didn’t have nearly anything for too long. I remember being literally snowed in in 2006 and while this had disadvantages for sure, it also turned a hectic city into a kind of fairytale. Happy memories.
What made me happy the past week was a very lengthy zoom talk with a dear old friend. Haven’t seen her on far to long plus she’d to move away for work, so spontaneous visits are a no-go.
A wonderful chat 🙂
Also, we already aranged to meet up again in a couple of weeks: something lovely to look forward to!!
I live in a sub tropical zone, so at the height of Winter on July, I need to drive 2½ hours to see snow!
It’s an unusual summer here. Our beaches are likely to be closed due to the pandemic. I usually go on a long drive out of town for Christmas quieter beach. Wonder what’s this year going to be like because by this time I need the salt water immersion therapy!
Happiness 2 more days to end-of-year vacation. Yoga, cardio, de-hoard and cook new foods on the plan.
A friend came over for a socially distant visit on Friday. We stayed on my porch and kept our masks on. It was really nice. She’s my best friend and she doesn’t live that far away, but we haven’t see each other since February and we had a joint birthday weekend. My Italian presentation went well and even though I love my class, I think I’m looking forward to having a little break. This time of year, I’m usually juggling lots of things and this year I’m not. I think there might even be some fun, fluffy fanfic to come out of it.
I love snow. I used to be a teacher, so I had additional years (besides my own childhood) to look forward to an impromptu break whenever there was a 1/4″ in the superintendent’s driveway. Even the past few years, if there was going to be treacherous driving, we had the option to just take a day off. Alas, this year I’m already working from home, so no vacation. I’ll just have to take solace from the fact that I have a giant dining room window near my work space, so I can watch it fall – if we ever get any here. (I once had a customer ask me where I was located. When I said North Carolina, she replied “It must be very cold there.” I figured the “north” part confused her – maybe she thought I worked in North Dakota!)
My happy this week was seeing a quilt I made last summer. I gave it to a friend who was having a hard time. This past week, she took her family on an extended stay away from home – and took the quilt with her. I was pretty blown away that it meant so much to her that it had to go along on the trip.
Oh, snow days. I was a teacher in the same system as my daughter, and whenever the phone would ring at 6AM in the winter, I could hear Mollie saying, “YES!” upstairs. Then we’d go back to sleep and celebrate later.
It’s been an up and down week for me. I am doing my best to embrace the good things, and acknowledge but not dwell on the less than fabulous.
Work is busy and stressful, but I will have a 10 day break, and I am planning to revel in it. Just one duty visit to MIL the day after Christmas, and all the rest of the time is uncommitted or low key with my limited group of loved ones.
My sugar cookie dough is in the fridge, ready to come out and become cookies later today. Tuesday I will do the easy, freeze-and-bake-right-before-need ones, so the gift cookies will all be (essentially) done except for the fun part of putting them on plates and delivering them. It makes me so happy to share cookies.
Me, too. Delivering cookies to my friends always feels like handing out hugs that can be activated after I leave.
Have you ever used candy melts as a dipping on cookies? I’m curious as to what kind to buy. Once the weather clears up it may be worth a trip to Michael’s to see what is left.
We’ve had several snowfalls but then the temps go up and it rains. Forecast is for snow later this week.
The silver Christmas tree is up – no decorations yet, but the lights come on every evening and it makes me happy to look at it. A friend sent me a photo of a silver tree her grand mother had in the 60s. Mine isn’t exactly the same, but pretty close.
My azalea plant is starting to bloom. Half of it is covered in bright pink flowers and lots more buds on the other side. Not a huge fan of poinsettias and it’s nice to have a flowering plant indoors this time of year. Mine usually blooms until early March so lots of time to enjoy it.
Oh, mine started to bloom too! I thought it was a lost cause. Just two blooms, but so pretty. I wonder how I can coax more out of it.
I remember those silver trees were sometimes accompanied by little lamp that sat on the floor which had a rotating disc with four colors pointing up at the tree. So the tree would be red, blue, green, yellow (or something like that). It was the ultimate in modern Christmas decor.
We had one too. It was set up every year in the basement/family room. We got it when our annual Christmas Eve party became large enough – and we kids became old enough – that it made sense to have a two level party rather than trying to crowd everyone onto the ground floor. (Party invites went to EVERYONE in the invited household. When my parents started it, the rule was that someone in the household was friends with one of the kids in our household…so it was pretty much the whole neighborhood, and as WE were quite young, it started early and ended pretty early.)
Susan, my daughter and s-i-l have a silver tree that his family used when he was a kid. They use a multi-colored light to reflect off it. I love it.
The snow we got yesterday makes me happy. It is still so pretty and won’t last too long, so it’s all good.
If the snow appears and stays in NYC–just checked weather app–I will be overjoyed.
Originally from Massachusetts with its famous blizzards, I love snow!
I love everything about winter–
the color palette–the pale light, the often cloudy days, the bare trees, the dead ground cover, the high contrast with white snow
the cold, dry air through my nose
the clothes–sweaters, hats, scarves, (yes) my old fur coat, Sorel boots, long woolen underwear
the food–stews, casseroles, hot chocolate
the activities–skating and the idea of skiing (mostly apres)
I took my driver’s test in Watertown during a January snowstorm. In those days they didn’t cancel things for, like, snow–we were hardy then.
All I had to do was a three-point turn on a hill–easy peasy. Since there were no empty spaces for parallel parking, the weather removed that reason for failure! Was always grateful for that storm!
Bring it on!
It’s cold, dark, and rainy in Dallas this morning. Ugh. But no snow; I hate going out in the snow, and I had to a lot many of the snowy we had in Seattle the 6 1/2 years I lived there. (Yes, snow, every year. The climate, she changes.)
Right now, I’m super-stressed and not eating well and back to not eating enough. Have to work on that: too few calories is not a healthy way to lose weight. Plus, I’ve been so sedentary that I’ve lost a lot of muscle in my limbs. If Congress doesn’t pass some sort of package, I’ll lose my unemployment and be up a creek without a paddle.
However, for happy things, we got a new roommate at our house and she seems very nice. I’m still having my one-candy-a-day from my Godiva Advent calendar. I am warm and dry. My house manager has a bluetooth speaker that we have put in the living room and I’ve been streaming holiday music every day for the house. I need more music, though. I have about 4+ hours worth and have heard all of it a lot now.
Jenny, how are things going with Emily the Cat?
Emily shows up everyday for lunch and then goes walkabout. With the snow coming in tomorrow, I think it’s time to close the door while she’s inside and see how she deals with it. Fingers crossed.
Let’s hope she shows the sense to realize she’s found pet heaven and be willing to compromise some independence for love and security. 🙂
Hard to tell. She’s a cat.
But I have fancy cat food and a lot of Italian tuna. I’m assuming she can be bought.
DS would be beside himself with joy at an inch of snow (he’s just turned 3 – we didn’t have any snow last year, and he can’t remember the year before, lol). He is desperate to make a snowman. I’m a bit more ambivalent, believing it’s fun as long as you don’t have anything you have to leave the house for (I grew up in Scotland in the middle of nowhere, and had many snow days off school because my legs were – literally – too short to walk through the snow to the nearest main road approx 1/2 mile away to catch the bus to school. Not that that was a problem in my eyes, lol). But it would be nice to see DS’s reaction 🙂
Happy this week – DS’s 3rd birthday. I’d been stressing for weeks about how it was going to be different this year and worried he wouldn’t enjoy it – DH sensibly pointed out that he’s only 3, he doesn’t know any different, and as long as we were around DS would be happy. Turns out DH was right. We put up brightly coloured bunting and banners, blew up balloons, had lots of presents, DS’s favourite foods all day, and a trip to the zoo (DS’s favourite place, where he hasn’t been since the start of the year). We had an extremely happy child on our hands, which made me inordinately happy.
There have been other happies too, but that was the main one. 🙂
A happy child is the best gift.
I put in another almost-three-hours of yard work yesterday which had visible results. Another couple of sessions like that in the backyard could leave things in good ‘winter rest’ (code for ‘will do nothing else but water plants till next winter’) condition.
I have this very strange conflict of interest back there: The weeds are good for bugs which are good for the birds and the meadow mice. My solution will be to sow some restorative ground-cover seed mix once I finish (‘finish!’ Ha!!) chopping out the undesirables.
Also happy: husband brought home food from an Italian restaurant we like which is managing to stay afloat despite pandemic. Must encourage him to do that more often. We can afford it and since he’s the one doing most of the cooking (and all of the hunting & gathering) it only seems fair that he should get a night off at least once a week, right? Oh, he also brought home a bottle of wine. Now I need to do my part and order a case from that winery we like in Mendocino.
Oddly happy: got a rejection letter from a publisher; immediate reaction was not to be crushed but to be pleased with myself for putting the thing out there. I will self-publish it in January.
We are doing eat out night once a week, too. Just trying to help people stay afloat. It was kinda heartbreaking yesterday to pick something up from a staple restaurant in our area and be the only one there, the tables and chairs put up. It’s necessary, but I really hope they survive.
I have the same conundrum. My yard is overgrown and I’ll have to tame it in the spring, but it’s so good for wildlife, birds and insects, and the rest of lawns around here are manicured. OTOH, my half acre is mostly woods that I’m not touching, so it’s not like the beasties don’t have a place to go. I’m thinking of sowing the front yard with wildflowers.
Bee-friendly, butterfly-friendly . . . on the East Coast, firefly-friendly?
Our California Monarch butterfly population is down 99% with a report that apparently about 2,000 are wintering, instead of millions.
It’s been so long since I’ve seen a firefly. There were a zillion of them when I was growing up. Magic. Of course, when I looked up, I could see stars then, too. Lots of them.
Mine disappeared for a number of years and I finally saw a few again this summer. I might have run around outside and jumped up and down for joy at the sight.
We’re getting estimates on having a tree taken down. It was already over the height of our two story house when we bought it fifty plus years ago. One of the first things I did at that time was to buy a climbing rope and have my husband put that and a tire swing off the limbs for the kids. When the grandchildren came along up went a baby swing and a child’s swing later. The grandkids were smart enough to borrow papa’s camera so we have plenty of pictures and “movies” of their antics. Over the years the tree assassins from the town’s lineman trimmed the limbs that were endangering the overhead power lines. With one thing or another age, storms, ok kids, it’s time. One thing we’re going to miss is shade, but better than having a tree come through the roof. The only happy part of this post is the memory.
I have a love/hate relationship with snow. Born a Connecticut Damnyankee, enjoyed snow til I was eight – two winters of that in Massachusetts. Then we moved to Florida for 12 years. One year, we were leaving church and everyone piled out of the car because we saw snowflakes in the beams of the headlights. For most of my naval career, they kept me stationed “up north,” which meant more than my share of snow.
I’ve lived in southeast Virginia since the mid ’80s. Western VA is mountainous and routinely gets snowed on and snowed in. SE VA? Down here, too many people assume that if you put your vee-hickul in 4WD, it’s okay to drive (a little over) the speed limit. I pass many of them sitting in the ditches, waiting for a tow.
It’s less of a problem than it might appear. An inch of snow is usually enough to close the state. The folks in the ditches were the ones driving to the store for an emergency supply of bread, eggs, and milk, because everyone knows you make French toast when it snows.
True story on that 1″ of snow! My dad was stationed in VA Beach when I was a kid, and we had a whopper of a snowstorm (they called it a century snow at the time, although I believe they’ve had others since) that shut everything down, even the bases! It was fun for this California child, but fast forward to a couple of years of my adulthood in Salem, MA, and I’m perfectly willing to never shovel snow again.
Hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick.
Instead of doing an easy sorting/cleaning project, I went with the more involved one. It was the right decision. I should have it finished before i have to shovel snow on Wednesday. Then I ca do the easy ones-paperwork sorting and the tee-shirts. So glad I seem to have gotten back a modicum of ambition.
The North Shore mountains have beautiful snow caps. Way up there not down here at sea level. Very bad drivers when it snows.
I am constantly watching the Hallmark Channel. I am doing crafting. I have only a week left to go at work (man, I’m so sick of my job) and then two weeks of literally doing nothing for two weeks BUT crafting and the Hallmark Channel. Though I am actually going to try to get some writing done, we’ll see about that.
Are you playing Hallmark bingo?
What is that?
Went with a childhood tradition of cutting down a christmas tree from the nearby national forest I have not been able to do this for 13 years and I was able to show my Boyfriend/Partner a old Christmas tradition for me. We now live close to three national forest within an hour and so we got some snack goodies, loaded the dogs up, checked the tires and made sure we had all the paperwork and permits (can do anything in CA without permits) and went on search for the perfect tree, the first two areas on the map didnt work out and then cue the music the third was perfect…..found the prettiest fairylike christmas tree, and it was just like being a kid again and he loved it! Such a day of happiness, and the dogs thought it was a great adventure, the cats are scoping out how many ways they can climb it to take it down and MY partner is very excited to make this an annual tradition.
I am having a burnout/bad case of the blahs today. I worked yesterday and came home and crashed by 7. Got up late, can’t seem to find me get up and go today. I did purge my dresser. All of the drawers close now and almost everything fits. The closet is still a mess, but that will have to wait for another day.
I got most of christmas wrapped/delivered/in the mail. That felt good. I was a bit manic about it earlier in the week. And we took a drive through the local park to see the lights. Pretty.
So, despite the blahs, you cleaned out your dresser and wrapped and mailed presents? I could use some of your excellent blahs!
I’ve gotten most of my Christmas list purchased, wrapped, and being delivered – early for me this year! Just two more to figure out, and I’ll do that tomorrow morning. Tucked up now in my afghan and recliner, with a fire crackling, drinking coffee and yelling at the Seahawks football game on TV. Happy and (relatively) peaceful. Except for the interceptions.
I bought a tree (third last one in the garden centre!) It’s lovely, and now I feel better. Until I had the tree up, I’ve been just going through the motions of Christmas preps.
And yesterday I went whole hog and added the tinsel.
Had a lovely walk with an old friend on Wednesday, and yesterday was action-packed: the second bare-root rose I ordered a month ago arrived out of the blue just as I was getting ready for the monthly photography Zoom meeting. So I had to leave the meeting after an hour so I could plant the rose plus a callicarpa, a clematis and a honeysuckle in the front bed, and then put in anti-cat defences, since I don’t appreciate them using it as a toilet. Then an old family friend I hadn’t heard from for more than a year rang for a chat; I had a quick lunch; and went for a walk in the sun on top of the hills with a friend. And when I got back, another friend rang for a long chat. It was an excellent day off.
A callicarpa, a clematis, and a honeysuckle walked in to a bar…
and said ‘who let this rose in here?!’
Doesn’t the punchline go, “Well, you can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her stink.”?
Think. You cannot make her think.
It’s a Dorothy Parker line. As I recall, she was at a dinner party and some wiseass said something like “I hear you’re funny, say something funny about horticulture,” and she whipped back, “You can lead a whore to culture, but you cannot make her think.”
Which I know because I studied her; she and Georgette Heyer are probably the reason I write.
The joke was also stolen by Spider Robinson. I’d have to check, but I think he used it in Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon. Since most of the Callahan series feature horrible puns one way or another, it might have been one of the other books.
My offering was trying to capitalize on “a rose, by any other name” rather than the flower’s intellect. 🙂
It’s an extremely thorny rose, too.
Struggling with my usual Christmas blues, but worse because of all the COVID restrictions and some money problems. But since I actually like Christmas, this is the week to put up some lights and put up the tree. I just have to be the one to do it, since I’m not in my 10th decade, and I’m the one that actually cares about the lights and such. Our Trader Joe’s amaryllises (I looked that up) are growing on the mantlepiece and will be blooming in about a week.
I’m having a pretty good time painting another pomegranate, and a small landscape.
By far the happiest event occurred this morning. My church is among the local organizations trying to assist about 200 homeless people (half of them children) in the county, who cannot be sheltered in the usual places, because of covid. This morning we had an in-person, in-church parking lot ingathering of donations. The choir, masked and socially distant, sang Advent carols. Seeing people–especially some I’d not seen since our last service in March–in person and not on screen was wonderful. Also happy was a special online service of light and hope this evening. And I think I’ve got all the gifts, just need to wrap them and get them mailed tomorrow.
I finished the Christmas cards and attendant letters. They can go in the mail tomorrow.
I made a pineapple cheesecake that turned out perfectly.
I had Chinese take-out for the first time in months. There was a line of cars at the restaurant so they are doing okay even if they can’t have inside dining. There was left-over Chinese food for lunch. Actually, there is left-over Chinese food for lunch and dinner tomorrow too. Perhaps too much of a good thing.
We drove to the mountains for snow and went snow shoeing. It was beautiful and quiet and snowed the whole time. Then we turned to go back to the car and suddenly there were people everywhere. Time to go home! Now I’m listening to carols. Very peaceful.
With their typical lousy delivery, FedEx left a package for me in the middle of the courtyard in the pouring rain, which someone ripped open. When I got the box upstairs and opened it, I was so grateful that the rain had not dissolved the package because inside was a calendar with pictures of a friend’s adorable children on every page. The timing was perfect because earlier in the week, Becky’s Dad had emailed out his newsletter with more pictures of the adorable kids as well as the rest of the family. The combination of the two will leave me with a glow that lasts all year. And every month I get to see a new batch of pictures. That’s what I call timed-release joy.
I’ve been trying to stay away from my sister’s house because my BIL has a lot of health issues and I am much more likely to come in contact with Covid-19 than they are. I take public transportation all the time, but Kitty is convinced that it is no longer safe. So she drove across town, picked me up and we spent the afternoon buying an amazing amount of apples so she can make applesauce for the mountain of latkes she is about to make. We picked up her new food processor today so she is ready to make Hanukkah happier for 4 different families. I gave her a box of extra long candles for her menorah so even though it is starting half a week late, this celebration should make up for a little part of the social distance that is getting to be so difficult for all of us.
We had our Christmas party at work so my co-worker who is going out for surgery could join us. All my presents have been wrapped and mailed; some have actually arrived! I put up my tree and even though it’s a small, artificial one (small house, no room for a real tree) it looks good.
Today I took advantage of a gray, gloomy, but not snowy or rainy day and went for a walk along the canal trail. To my delight, I found 3 painted rocks in various locations. I took photos of them and left them for others to find. I had spoken with someone about finding one of these painted rocks in another place I hike and she told me there are a number of people painting rocks ( No bigger than an inch up to 3 inches in size) and putting them out for people to find. It certainly cheered me up to find these.
And finally, I listened to the latest episode from the Prancing Pony Podcast, a podcast about JRR Tolkien and his works. They are currently going through The Two Towers.
I got Christmas cards done and sent for the first time in a few years. And this year, instead of waiting for Christmas Day to break out the seasonal china, I got out the mugs and the little star dishes. I use them for my morning cup of tea and snack, and it’s been a small moment of happy to use the pretty Christmas china.
I’m trying to let go of the panic about coming up with perfect gifts. I’ve come to the conclusion that that pressure is half of the stress about this time of year for me.
Received the most beautiful and 2020 appropriate Christmas Card from my daughter, SIL and granddaughter this week.
On the front is a photo of my GD laying in the grass on her stomach and grinning at the camera. Her face partially obscures a large, beautiful and ornate gold gilt “HOPE”. On the back of the card, there is a picture of the three of them (DD, SIL & GD) and the words –
“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks, a new and glorious morn”
I think that we all need that this year: a grinning three year old in the grass and the HOPE of a new and glorious morn.
(My SIL is a graphic designer/art director for an online company that does a lot of custom products for small businesses, etc. Usually DD will pick one of the “stock” formats of Christmas cards that SIL’s team has designed and add their picture to it. This year, it’s totally custom: concept by my daughter and a whole heck of a lot of execution work by my SIL. )
We had a big snowfall in October, around 8 inches. A week and half later it was gone and I mowed the leaves. So flurries today on brown grass. I just don’t like driving in it. On the plus side, I will probably get a Covid vaccine within the month. I don’t know if happy is the main emotion I feel, maybe tired or irritable mixed with grateful and guilty…
The make-art-for-each-other family Christmas project is underway, with the first round ready to mail off to our daughter. Husband and son both came up with delightful pieces. Mine is a bit demented…but she did request pop art.
Before he retired, my father was snow superintendent for New York City Sanitation Dept. We didn’t like snow. After several winter warfare deployments, I’m not a big fan either. The dogs like it though.
Dogs. Would-be wolves, sometimes!
You aren’t a big fan of water in general, as I remember. The Rock Squad, was it? And then you almost died that time in Maui with Elizabeth George.
The Sunday Foraging With The Dotter trip took place in the 60s – no threat of snow. Texas Roadhouse makes great boneless pork chops, so there was that.
I discovered drawbacks to digital books. When I had a Winders Confuser, the Kindle for PC would sync with my Kindles, and offer to go to the same location (never the same page.) Well, I’m on an HP Chromebook, and there is no syncing.
After Bet Me and Recursion (Harmon), I thought I’d reread Welcome to Temptation. When I opened it in the PC app, it was at the scene where Sophie and Phin are having the post-porn-on-cable fight, so I read from there. At the end of the book was the first chapter of Maybe This Time as a preview/come-on. Was there ever a published version where Kelly the O’Teeth was Susie Twomey?!? I read that preview and then opened up Audible to have it read to me, and MTT was at chapter 16. I restarted at chapter 1, of course. I’m not observant enough to catch any other changes than the newswoman’s name.
I have lately made a habit of returning finished books to the cover page before closing, but these were obviously from before I started doing that, and it doesn’t help when I switch from computer to Kindle, for example. I switch a lot. MTT is at chapter 5 in the background.
I honestly don’t remember Susie Twomey.
What the Lady Wants has a different last name for the hero on the back cover blurb.
The problem is, I rewrite on the galleys, so . . . uh . . . stuff happens.
My fave mistake is still the Jeep Fairy from Don’t Look Down. Two of us writing that book and neither of us caught it.
It was just amusing, honestly. Maybe This Time had another flaw, in that the text size kept changing in Kindle from one paragraph to the next. The easiest solution was to switch platforms. I’m done, and it was a favorite – you gotta do more with Carter and/or Alice.
I picked up “The Jennifer Crusie Collection” at Amazon this evening. No titles I don’t already own, but all of them in a single file.
Oh, and the font size thing wouldn’t have mattered, but I had my annual eye exam at 1 PM and my eyeballs were still anesthetized and pupils dilated.
I was going to say that it doesn’t do that in my Kindle version, but then I realized my copy of MTT is in iBooks, so never mind.
Carter’s in Arresting Anna, which I have to get back to.
YES PLEASE.
Polar opposite, I’ve just spent ten minutes outside eating ripe strawberries from the garden, sun-warmed and perfect.
That sounds blissful.
I was happy to hear from the attorney who actually composed the amicus brief in the Flynn case that not only did Judge Sullivan accept it (he denied a lot of others) but also he clearly read it and referenced it! (“We’re FOOTNOTE 5!”) I’m easily pleased.
Now also happily listening to a Lessons and Carols on YouTube, and hunting for my Alfred Burt collection. Burt died much too young, he should have lived to ninety and written Christmas music all his life, but his legacy is pretty good as is, and his family has insisted that his arrangements be left as he wrote them. On the one hand, that dates them to the 1940’s and early 1950’s, on the other hand, they haven’t been recast as rock or Motown or Very Heavy Metal or all-rhythm-no-melody.
And my brother has Lucy Worsley on television explaining how her Tudor character has been fasting throughout Advent and is about to start feasting.
Music shifted from Lessons and Carols to 1960’s Goodyear albums (search on YouTube). Very happy memories of my parents acquiring one most of the years they were available. I still like the arrangements, which are varied (my usual problem with holiday music is that, after many years in a choir, I not only know all the verses, but also all the arrangements; I haven’t heard these in so long that they’re fresh!)
Lucy’s Twelve days of Christmas is great! Between her and Ruth Goodman, the time really comes alive. I’m listening to Goodman’s How to be a Tudor when sewing my xmas stuff (gift bags and gifts) and it’s totslly fascinating.
I wouldn’t want to live bach then…
I read your last sentence and thought (as a reflex rather than anything else) “I wonder what aspects of our lives now people in the future will think ‘I wouldn’t want to have lived back then’ about…”
I then did a mental head slap and laughed at myself for being so dim. 😛
I put up too many lights outside in an effort to be cheerful (which they actually are) and one single strand of battery powered snowflake lights inside. They do make me happy.
And I won copies of Gin’s books at the Mystery Loves Georgia auction, so that was cool too.
NOT looking forward to the snow here in upstate NY. I’ve heard anywhere from 6 inches to 2 feet…we can handle the first, and the latter would be not so much fun. I have a PT appointment at 8:30 in the morning and then really really need to get in to open the shop, since we are barely a week away from Christmas. So I’m praying hard for not so much snow and a fast clean-up.