Merry Christmas to One and All

As luck would have it I’m off work for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year.  WooHoo!   I had intended to go to the St. Nicholas church for services Christmas Eve but there was freezing rain here that night.  Somehow a 32 mile drive home at 2-ish am seemed a bad idea, so I went to the local Christmas Eve Carols service just up the road and had a wonderful time. 

Pippen Enjoying a Christmas Day Nap

Then I did another drive around on the way home to enjoy the Holiday Lights and fixed myself a nice fish dinner complete with ice cream for dessert. 

Paws-in-Trouble Enjoying a Christmas Day Nap

NPR let me down though – in the past NPR has featured 24 hours of Holiday music on Christmas.  This year there was music Christmas Eve but mostly talk shows on Christmas Day.   ?????  So I listened to my iPod instead.  And kept track of Santa’s delivery via NORAD while reworking an 18th century apple green petticoat I was given many years ago.  Its now been over-dyed with tan, which gives it a better period color, and the side slits for pocket access have gotten real plackets installed.  (That way the pocket slit doesn’t rip out again.)  It’s a nice light weight cotton fabric, perfect for those hot Virginia days.

So OK, that’s not the most eventful Christmas I’ve ever had.  But it was quiet, restful and I enjoyed it immensely.  What more can one ask?  I pray all my friends and family had as glorious a holiday season.

Happy Birthday

So today is my birthday, I have reached the venerable (or at least senior citizen) age of 62 and I happen to be off work for the day.  Its kind of a windy, rainy and biting cold kind of day so being home puttering around and listening to holiday music is just plain wonderful.  So I treated myself to a birthday lunch at the local oriental buffet, finished decorating my house inside for the holidays and put a new strap on my Patriot Rev War cartridge box.

New Cartridge Box Strap

Cartridge Box Strap Installed

  The cartridge box strap was originally cloth with leather ends and the narrow attachment pieces had gotten chewed up a bit by some small critter (which I hope the cats sent on to another life.)  So I dyed some russet leather black for new attachment straps and as long as the strap was apart anyway replaced the cloth shoulder strap piece with a buff leather piece.  The strap is not only repaired it fits better.

Holiday Lights near Ruckersville

After dark I took a nice slow drive around my neighborhood and  those close by to check out the Christmas lights.  The rain meant the lights were reflecting off the road so things were quite bright. 

A Serious Light Display

This Display Makes the Papers Annually

The display that’s visible from US29 was up and running this year.  Unfortunately there’s no way for me to get far enough away from the yard to get a good picture of the whole kahuna. 

Just a Nice Display

Oh Look – Real Christmas Trees

Back home in Michigan the normal Christmas decorations were lights on a pine tree in the yard.  There aren’t as many pines in yards here, so finding someone with not one but two lighted pines was a real treat for me.

An All-White Light Display

I’m not personally a big fan of the all white lights thing but this home has done a very nice job of it.

Once upon a time I had hoped to retire the month after I turned 62 but that’s not how the cards have been dealt.  But I’m in good health, have great job security, and should be able to retire at 66 with a decent income.  Since retiring at all once seemed a distant dream I’ll take what I can get and be glad.

Holidays & Hobbits

The LOTR came out during my daughter’s college years.  I waited each December until she was home from school so we could go see the LOTR.   It was wonderful and my enjoyment of those 3 movies will always be overlaid with seeing them with my daughter.  I’m a serious Tolkien fan but my daughter isn’t so for her the movies where just that – movies with an integrity of their own.  She insisted I not tell her anything in advance, which I mostly but not totally managed. 

So it was with great joy that we planned to see the Hobbit (part 1) together.  I re-read the book just to refresh my memory.  She has never read the book as far as I know, so I again had to promise not to tell the story in advance.  And yes, there are events in the movie from outside The Hobbit, but overall I found it closer to Tolkien’s texts than the LOTR.  Yes it’s a slam bang action adventure movie, but then so is The Hobbit.  And most of the “extra stuff” served to tie the movie to the LOTR for those who hadn’t read every work Tolkien wrote about Middle Earth.  I was entertained.  It was fun, it was action packed, and I will buy the DVD when it comes out.  I’ve already bought the sound track.  As for those of you who are not thrilled by the movie, well to each his own.

The weekend we went to The Hobbit was also the weekend we celebrated my birthday and our Christmas.  Da Urchin found me a grand sparkly green hummingbird ornament and 2 sparkly red mistletoe ornaments.  Then she let me pick out 2 books at McKay's for my birthday. 

I made her this count thread cross stitch ornament.  This is before I put the ornament in its frame.  Its 2.25x2.25 inches square.  I’ve never done this type of embroidery before and it took me quite awhile to get any rhythm to my stitches.  But it came out nicely and I enjoyed making it.  The apples in the tree are my own addition to the pattern. 

We also had a very nice dinner near the movie theatre and watched “Brave” together the next day.

On the way to Manassas for all this celebrating nature graced us with one of its wondrous moments.  About 15 miles from Da Urchin’s Place there were 2 eagles engaged in a courting flight.  I’ve seen this on National Geographic but its not at all the same as seeing it right before your very own eyes.  May they have many many healthy offspring.