Category Archives: Holidays

how steadfast are your branches

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I decided to put the tree up a bit early this year so Miss L could enjoy it before she went to spend a few days with her dad for Thanksgiving. Although I had considered getting a real tree, the logistics of it seemed a bit overwhelming to accomplish single-handedly, so I brought up the good ol’ prewired tree from the basement (in sections because that sucker is HEAVY). It all fit together and although a few of the sections didn’t light up, most of it looks pretty good. I’m not entirely sure how to trouble shoot the light sections that aren’t lighting. I think there are entire books written and tools developed to test Christmas lights and I have very little interest in getting this detail oriented and anyway, if you squint, the whole thing looks good.

Every ornament we have on our tree is something pretty special to us. Maybe someday I will have a lovely immaculate home and do a themed Christmas tree but for now the Miss Piggy ornament I’ve had since childhood is just fine, rubbing shoulders with Miss L’s popsicle stick reindeer.

Emmett, faux Bengal that he is, was extremely interested in every step of the proceedings and had to thoroughly immerse himself.

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Caught mid-meow.

 

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It looks peaceful, but immediately after this picture was taken, Emmett knocked the lamp over and Miss L almost pitched into the tree.

We turned on the radio station that has been playing nonstop Christmas music since Halloween and I sang along. Typically I’m not a huge fan of this radio station as I find Christmas carols somewhat grating, except for the old mellifluous religious ones, but I thought Miss L might enjoy it. She did at first, and then, when ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ came around for the second time in an hour, she said tactfully, “Do you think we can turn that off?….”

I had to laugh, girl after mom’s heart.

 

labor day

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  • If anyone had randomly stopped by last night (which they didn’t – everyone knows better) they would have found a strange party celebrating the long US holiday weekend. There was a small redheaded girl running around the backyard in shortie pajamas and a tiara, covered in ice cream. There was a woman of indeterminate age (ahem) (also covered in ice cream) glumly prodding at a disappointing campfire and swatting mosquitoes. There was a crazy striped cat hanging off the screen door yowling. There was Valley of the Dolls on Netflix after small redheaded girl repaired to her bedroom to nurse her mosquito bites. Patty Duke, holy cow.
  • How is Wheel of Fortune still on television? Who exactly is still watching this show?
  • We have a mild and rainy summer and my completely unnecessary air conditioner works perfectly well. We have a heat wave over a long weekend and my air conditioner wheezes to a halt. 86 degrees and no A/C, I wouldn’t have made a good pioneer.
  • I haven’t exercised in days and yet every muscle in my body hurts because hey, yardwork. Somehow I just don’t think I’m going to get the same weight loss and toning benefit to pulling weeds as if I were investing the effort in running and planks, but a girl’s gotta do and all that.
  • Tomorrow is the first day of school for aforementioned little redhead girl and there are sacks of school supplies waiting to be packed in a Frozen backpack. There is a new dress to be worn and a new lunchbox to be filled and a mommy whose hand will need to be held on the morning walk to first grade.
  • The leaves are already starting to turn.

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happy places

I’m enjoying my Sunday morning lie-in in my favorite way, propped up in bed with my computer, a cup of coffee, and the windows wide open to sunshine and birdsong. Also the Weather Channel, but that didn’t sound quite so lyrical. I’m sort of addicted to the Weather Channel. For some reason, I find the constant flow of information about weather in other parts of the country very soothing. It seems to remind me that I am not alone in my own little weather bubble. Emmett and Sarge are out playing dress-up with Miss L in her room and eyeballing Gaston – the fish – with evil intent. They are, I think, still recovering from the trauma of July 4. They spent most of the booming fireworks either hanging from the screens or hiding under the bed.

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Southeast Michigan has been blessed with an amazing weather weekend, sunny and clear and warm without being uncomfortable. Miss L and I spent the day of the 4th in our happy place with a bag of birdseed and binoculars.

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In addition to feeding the birds, we had a little chipmunk following us closely to pick up the dropped birdseed. He even came right up and took seed out of my hand, leaving a generous smear of chipmunk drool. Miss L knows better than to try to feed a rodent with her bare hand so she kept a safe distance and rolled her eyes at me.

We were so busy having fun that I didn’t get out to run until midday yesterday, and pulled out a pretty pathetic 4 miles with a lot of wheezing even though honestly, I had no reason for the hystrionics. There was a nice breeze and it wasn’t too hot. Yet still, I came home a bedraggled red-faced mess wondering why I call myself a runner. I sacked out in the backyard chaise for awhile while I finished ‘Attachments’ by Rainbow Rowell, which was a decent if somewhat fluffy romantic novel. I have little stomach these days for fluffy romantic novels but it was engaging and breezy and the right kind of read for a chaise, although there were constant interruptions by the wildlife in the yard. The hummingbirds are crazy pigfaces this year and can’t stay away from our feeder – their tiny motor noise is constant and they aren’t deterred by Emmett’s wild fishtail jumps at the screen window to get them, or our presence in the yard. And we even have a tiny brave baby bunny who came out from the shrubbery to sit a foot away from my sweat-reeking prone figure and nibble on clover.

The tomato plants that I bought from Michigan Heirlooms are booming and I have many little green tomatoes starting. The horrible Mr Stripeys that I detested last year appear to have reseeded themselves in one of the other beds and I’m waiting to see what they are going to do – if they seem like they are going to develop flowers, I’ll thin them and stake them and see if I can coax something out of them worth eating.

In front yard news, I worried that the pink Annabelle hydrangeas might have been irretrievably damaged by our harsh winter, but they are back and in better shape than ever. The day lilies need to be thinned and the knockout rose bush, which had grown to epic proportions, reminding me of the gnarled thorn hedges around castles in fairy tales, has bounced back as well even after my vicious pruning of it. I am full of plans for the backyard and feel like every plant and every tiny garden space that I invest in weaves a bit more protective magic around the house.

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I’m hoping that this week is short and relatively painless, as Miss L and I leave for a nice weeklong northern Michigan vacation on Thursday afternoon, and I think we both really need the downtime.  I, for one, am looking forward to long sleeps, no makeup, and some time spent outdoors and with my folks.

troubles melt like lemon drops

04.2014 philadelphia storylife imitates art, two smart sassy redheads and four charming handsome boys (two of whom have four paws, admittedly). mornings off – be they good friday or just a nice weekend – sometimes just mean classic movies in our robes in bed. i think philadelphia story is the perfect vehicle for james stewart, and had i been tracy lord, i can’t imagine picking dexter over him. any man who will carry you elegantly up through a nighttime garden singing ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ is, drunk or no, in my estimation, worth keeping.

good friday is rainy and damp here, but no schedule and no timekeeping and no chores except from the assembly of the traditional nine-egg lemon tart for easter. no one is ever excited about the lemon easter tart except me, but it i remember eating it in australia, in a tiny one-room farmhouse, and thinking how fresh and wonderful and perfect it was. it stays with me, those simple happy memories, and sometimes a ritual can just belong to one person. lemons are spring to me. lemons are the taste of new life and rising suns and risen sons and lime tinge in the trees.

blessed, and thankful for it.

20140418_175021~2and just in case anyone thinks we are very serious around here, this.

IMG_20140418_103906#catladyproblems, insert smiley face and xoxo here, darling emmett, our little lanky james stewart of the day.

 

winter shades

in marked contrast to previous winters, where i was able to run outside very regularly throughout december and january, we’ve been experiencing a cold winter in southeastern michigan. yesterday, it snowed all day, and by evening the world was lovely and blue; today, it is shades of black and white, the wind is sharp and bitter cold.

i was scheduled to work today, but i took one look outside and decided another vacation day was in order.

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i shall return to the real world tomorrow. in the meantime, i’ll be here in bed with a diana wynne jones book, and the new york philharmonic on detroit public television. the kittens like classical music and get drowsy to the sound of a good mellow trombone.

days merry and bright

“More evident from high latitudes, a hemisphere’s winter solstice occurs on the shortest day and longest night of the year, when the sun’s daily maximum elevation in the sky is the lowest.The winter solstice itself lasts only a moment in time, so other terms are used for the day on which it occurs, such as “midwinter”, or “the shortest day”. For the same reason, it should not be confused with “the first day of winter” or “the start of winter” (Lidong in the East Asian calendars). The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening of days…

Worldwide, interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but many cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals or other celebrations around that time.”

I’ve been on the struggle bus this holiday season, and as the days have gone on I’ve seen a few of my friends filing on board with me. It’s not a conscious sadness; it’s more the pervasive pressure of Happiness All Around that makes me feel like it’s more under scrutiny and thus more expected. Lights! Trees! Presents! Food! Music! Are you happy yet??! Well for God’s sake WHY NOT?

I think I’d prefer to just observe the solstice this year, the knowledge that the world always tilts back eventually, the simple appreciation of the balance between light and dark.

One of my colleagues sent my (very small) department to a spa afternoon earlier this week and it’s a luxurious joy to have a pretty manicure, and glowing skin from a facial & massage. Unfortunately, the spa was in the basement of a grand Detroit casino and hotel, and my tolerance for casinos has completely faded since the days where I got married in one. Just walking through the land of smoke and slot machines, a world where time never seems to go anywhere, made me feel uneasy and oppressed by the weight of thousands of unmet expectations.

I saw this quote on Facebook the other day, and loved it.

1472893_10151818820831378_992612685_nI think it’s my new mantra for 2014.

Otherwise, I am just looking for small moments of peace in the days, and trying to soak up the people and the things that fill my bucket, as my baby girl would say. It turns out there are lots of them. Not just in my own life, but in the blogs I read and the feeds I love on Instagram.

12.2013_CollageIt’s raining today, and there are winter weather warnings all over the state. I wouldn’t get near a big box store or the mall to save my life today. So it may just be a walk downtown to investigate the little knitting shop to see if I can buy local.

thanksgiving

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after grey cat died in my arms on the antiseptic table at a vet’s office, i cried with my head against a wall and felt more alone than i ever had in my entire life, the breath of my good loyal friend gone from the world, no longer her big gold eyes watching over me, padding quietly after me wherever i went, blessing me with her watchful and completely selfless love for sixteen years. i knew i would get another cat, but i didn’t think it would be so soon. however, fate, as it will, intervened, and the addition of the kittens to the house has been so welcome. they are, to put it bluntly, crazy; i’d forgotten the mischief that two kittens can cause. falling into bathtubs, playing endlessly with jingling furry feathery toys, scaling bookshelves, chasing each other’s tails, walking across computer keyboards, dragging little girl pajamas into litter boxes…collapsing into exhausted naps like the babies they are, purring and purring and purring.

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last night i dreamed of being lost trying to find my way somewhere, but not alarmingly so; just more confused than i had thought i should be to get where i was going, lost on backstreets and taking trams via a circuitous route, seeing things i hadn’t expected to see, but never entirely fearful that i wouldn’t get where i was going. then i was on a beach in australia looking in cottage windows at a happy family and feeling happy for them; then i was with people who are very important to me, trying to quickly enjoy their presence and trying not do anything to scare them off, or that would make the moments end. i woke up this morning and came downstairs to snow falling, and when i turned on the radio, rhapsody in blue was on wrcj. i tend to celebrate with food, so i made hazelnut coffee and cranberry orange scones and thought about fairy tales and read some blogs. it’s thanksgiving.

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i never used to think much more about thanksgiving except that it was a great holiday for eating. it is, of course, that, but somehow this year it is different for me. somewhere this year i learned about gratitude; there’s something about losing many things in your life that you thought were unloseable that can make you extremely appreciative for the other things in your life that still manage to be awesome. yesterday, in my work cafeteria, a girl i barely know called over the salad bar to me that i should enjoy my holiday, how excited she was for hers, she and her family had already started the food preparations, and the holiday is all about family. it kind of hit me, over the salad bar, how surrounded i was at that moment by so many people who are full of love and happiness and togetherness and joy, and i’m somehow a strange part of that too, and can find it in the most unexpected places. it’s always there, even when it seems to have entirely faded from view. old things leave and new things appear and in the midst of that turmoil and constant change there is always something to feel grateful for, and now at the age of forty i understand what thanksgiving is really about.

all the best to you and yours.

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