New Year's Eve's Eve Tea.

A very impromptu tea this afternoon...... put together in about half an hour. Our down-the-street neighbor C brought us a beautiful potted orchid yesterday afternoon while I was out having tea at another neighbor's house.

The orchid is beautiful, with pinkish-purple flowers and very dark green leaves. Very delicate, very rich in color. When I called C to thank her, she gave me a list of instructions on how to take care of this beautiful flowering plant. As she recited the amount of water and sunlight it needed, all I could think of was how to keep this orchid away from the cats. Surely, the bright color will attract them-- especially ShadowBaby, who loves anything growing from a pot-- he thinks it's a snack and he will chew on the leaves and the petals-- whatever he reaches first.

I have no idea if orchids would be harmful to cats, and I don't want to find out. The orchid is now on top of one of the bookcases in the living room-- much too high for the cats to get to, and it gets the proper light which C suggested. Only problem will be remembering to water it once a week, and having to get the step-stool to reach it. Hopefully, I can keep this alive long enough so the next time C comes to see us, the orchid will still be flowering and as pretty as it is now.

So..... the tea. I called C this morning to thank her for the plant, and suggested that get together for tea for the New Year. As soon as I said that, I remembered that I had told her the same thing after the Halloween party, and we never did have tea. I asked C if today would be a good day for tea, and told her that as soon as I went to the post office and to the supermarket, I would call her to come over.

The post office was a horror..... so many cars in the parking lot that I didn't even try to park. Off I went to the post office across the road from the Johnson Space Center. Everyone must forget about that post office tucked away on a side-street because there were just two cars in the lot there. I mailed off a very ornate thank-you card to my cousin L, for sending me my dad's Nativity set. This card was so delicate that I put it in a box, and hopefully the post office will treat it kindly. I mailed a special Victorian decoration to my friend F in NY and she told me that the postal workers must have been playing football with that box. The contents were fine, but the box was nearly destroyed. We'll see what happens with this one.

The consignment shop is right close to the Space Center, so of course I had to stop there on the way back..... precious little is left of their Christmas items, and what's there is 50% off. Not that I needed anything, and not that I bought anything, but I just had to look. Now that our Christmas decorations are packed away in the closet, my mind is already set to thinking about our Valentine's party.

The supermarket was another horror..... everyone there stocking up for New Year's Eve and Day. They also had tons of holiday items left over, at 75%-off, but I didn't buy anything there either except the few groceries that I went there to get in the first place. Few groceries? Who walks out with just a few things? One thing leads to another... you walk up one aisle and down the next and before you know it, your cart is half filled and you've spent more than you thought it all should cost.

I called C after I got home and had put the groceries away. She told me to give her half an hour..... and in that time, I called up two other neighbors, set the dining room table, put out pumpkin pie, cookies, plum pudding, and a box of assorted teas and chocolates. I had a look-see into my box of New Year's Eve decorations and found noise-makers, then silver Mardi-Gras-type Happy New Year necklaces. I also had miniature plastic champagne glasses from a New Year's Eve party we had a few years ago-- I filled those with chocolates at each place setting. Then I remembered that I had little place cards imprinted with tea pots and cups and saucers, and all I had to do was write out the names and I even had little stick-on ornament embellishments. By the time I was done with that table, it looked as if I had been working on it for an hour. It would have made my Aunt Dolly smile.

We had a nice tea, lots of laughs....... and dear C-- I told her this was casual, come-as-you-are..... and she got all dressed up with a beautiful blouse and slacks, with matching jewelry. She told me that if she had come as she was, her sons would have had a fit. Before the neighbors left, they said we should get together for tea more often...... at alternate houses..... and invite more of the ladies. (Translation: if I don't invite them all over for tea again, it's not going to happen.)

Out on the curb....

That's where our big tree is at the moment-- on the curb, waiting for tomorrow morning's trash truck. All the ornaments are packed away and counting down the days till next Christmas-- which will be here in a heart-beat, believe it or not.

I was just going to un-decorate the big tree, but once I got started... plus yesterday and today were both cold, cloudy, rainy days. Perfect two days for de-Christmasing (is that a real word?) the house. All the little trees are up on the long shelf in the closet... pink, red and gold, green and red, green and ivory, gold feather tree, and a blue and silver. Plus the little beaded tree, the very tall contemporary-beaded tree, the feather tree with seashells, the teacup tree, the green tree with the International dolls and candy canes, the porcelain tree with the tiny red birds, the tree with the velvet cardinals, the tiny tree trimmed with old costume jewelry and set into a teacup, and the cone-shaped tree covered in white pearls. And the 1950s aluminum tree is packed away in its box-- I happened to look at the bottom of that box and the original price of $5.88 was written in pencil. Less than six dollars for that glorious tree when it was first purchased, then we found it for $35 years ago in a resale shop..... and we saw them for sale in the antique shops a couple of weeks ago, for hundreds of dollars.

I left up all the gold stars in the dining room, and the mantel in the living room is still covered with all the stars-- looks festive for New Year's Eve. Plus I took out the box of New Year's decorations and hung up all the silver "disco" balls in the dining room. We had talked about hosting a dinner here for New Year's Eve, but then never got around to inviting anyone. Seems like we've had everyone we know over here all during the month of December. I think I'm all invited out, at least until we (I) start getting ready for the Valentine's party.

The weather turned cold again..... from nearly 80 a couple of days ago to barely 60 during the day, and down to 48 at night. Too cold for me to keep the cats on the screen-porch, so they were all in here last night. Translation: they wake me up before dawn. Or at least one of them does, which wakes up the other two.

I wish I had thought to attach that little pedometer to my slacks today and yesterday as I took down the Christmas decorations. Seems like all I've done for the past couple of days is walk from one end of the house to the other, from closet to closet, out to the garage for a few extra boxes, back to the closets, then walked around the house deciding what goes where. (Just who put up all those Christmas trees, Santas, and angels in the first place?)

According to my spell-check thing in this machine, "de-Christmasing" is not a word. Well, get over that..... I've decided it's a word, at least right here.

Merry Christmas!

Very warm day today-- we were all in summer-y clothes for this Christmas dinner, which was fine with me... the cats were very content to be on the screen-porch until dinner was over and our friends were gone and the little Christmas elves came out and cleaned everything up. (Ho! Ho! Ho!)

We all had a wonderful dinner. Started off with cubes of cheese and fresh green grapes and blueberries skewered onto the little gold Napier mice servers. I sprinkled the serving plate with grated cheese and it looked like the mice were having a snack themselves. Next came the crawfish bisque--- delicious, and it came out better than ever because as soon as I put the crawfish in that pot yesterday, I shut off the gas and let the soup cool down and then put it in the fridge. When I finished cooking it today, it was nice and thick and the crawfish were cooked through without being over-cooked.

I used the bread machine to make a loaf of home-made bread, which I had timed to be ready when my Aunt Dolly's little cheese-mice were put on the table. The aroma of the bread goes all through the house and out the door. I swear you can smell the bread baking on the front porch.

The main course was a roast loin of pork, which L & S brought over. L cut slits into the meat and filled them with sliced garlic cloves. As the meat cooks, the garlic gets very sweet as it flavors the pork. I just tasted a bite of the roast... very good, but I'm not much into eating meat.

Side-dishes were my husband's mashed potatoes (with cheese & bacon), his neighborhood-famous oyster dressing, sweet potatoes with pineapples, and a spinach and feta cheese casserole (made by L -- she made the same thing for Thanksgiving and other holidays, and it's always good). The sweet potatoes were the best and the easiest I've made so far: I baked the sweet potatoes in the microwave till they were almost done, then peeled them and cut them into thick round slices. Into a baking pan they went, layered with chunks of pineapple. I sprinkled everything with brown sugar and a little bit of maple syrup (no butter!)-- I did all of that yesterday, then covered the pan with foil and put it in the fridge. All I had to do today was re-heat them, and they finished cooking and the top got browned as they were heating up.

For dessert, we had my husband's home-made Plum Pudding (a Christmas tradition here), and I made a pumpkin pie. L & S brought over some home-made Greek pastries from a friend of theirs, and I also had the coconut-dipped sherbet cups for a little bit of ice cream. I was going to make hot apple cider today, but it was so warm outside that I didn't think anyone would want that.

About ten minutes before Miss C and her parents came over, V next door stopped in to say Merry Christmas and give us a gift (a book about Christmas in NYC). V also walked into the dining room to see the table settings, and the place cards I had made. She's been doing this now for the past few holidays. I keep telling her that I will show her how to make the place cards, but I don't think she wants to make them-- she just likes looking at ours.

As always, Christmas comes and goes too quickly every year... which is exactly why I decorate early, right after I take down the Halloween decorations. This way, we can enjoy our holiday decorations for all of November and December. You can also enjoy the holiday itself when all the decorating details are done ahead of time. The large fresh tree in the living room, up since the day after Thanksgiving, is now not so fresh. We will probably take that down this weekend.... it will be a two-day job, I'm sure.

One thing is for sure--- unwrapping Christmas decorations and putting them around the house is a lot more fun than taking them down and packing them away. Maybe the same little elves who clean up my kitchen would like to un-decorate the house? (Ho! Ho! Ho!)

Christmas Eve afternoon.

I need a break from that kitchen. Seems like we've been in there since eight this morning, and it's nearly three o'clock now. My husband made the mashed potatoes for tomorrow... they are in a shallow baking pan and will re-heat in the oven tomorrow afternoon. Same with the oyster dressing. He was going to make his "usual" Christmas stuffing with Greek gyro meat, but since we're having meat as a main course, we all asked him to do the oyster dressing.

L is bringing a cooked pork loin roast. She was going to prepare it at her house and bring it here for me to roast, but I asked her to cook it in her oven-- I'm not great at roasts, and I don't want to over-cook a holiday dinner. She's also bringing the spinach souffle that she made for us on Thanksgiving.

I've just finished making crawfish bisque, and I've simmered it till it's nearly done. It will finish simmering and thickening when I re-heat it tomorrow. The kitchen now smells of pumpkin pie (just out of the oven) and baked sweet potatoes with pineapple chunks. Tomorrow is going to be easy-- turn on both ovens, and let everything cook together without all the last-minute preparation. (A long-ago trick learned in my Aunt Dolly's kitchen.) All I have to do in the morning is put the ingredients into the bread machine so we'll have fresh hot bread with the soup, and I will also cut up some cheese into small cubes and stick them on the cute little gold mice from my Aunt Dolly's stash of kitchen treasures---- small golden metal mice (vintage, made by Napier) with long thin tails sticking up into the air... you use the tails as skewers for grapes and cheese and they look darling on the table.

For dessert tomorrow, we'll have my husband's Plum Pudding which he steamed last week, and I know we always say this, but this year's Plum Pudding is the best ever. We'll also have pumpkin pie, plus I'm going to coat red-rimmed sherbet cups with honey and flaked coconut and serve ice cream in those. A pretty, festive way to serve ice cream and everyone always loves the coconut-coated cups on the table whether or not they are filled with ice cream.

Very warm today...... and a little bit of rain. The cats have been sleeping the day away, and I'm so glad that the weather is warm for them to be on the screen-porch. I've got the dining room table all set and ready for tomorrow's dinner, and I've got the smaller table in the living room set up for the two of us for tonight's lobster dinner. Way ahead of my own schedule, which is just how I like it.

C and her dad stopped by this afternoon to give me a container of their home-made split pea soup, which I had for lunch. Delicious...... I told them all about Lou and his coffee shop up in NY, and how Thursdays was always split-pea-soup day there. C and her dad came through the back door and into the kitchen, and C made it a point not to look too closely into the dining room. She wants to be surprised tomorrow when they get here for dinner. That's one of her favorite parts of holidays here-- to walk around our dining room table and look at all the place cards and surprises that I've made for us all.

Jingle bells....... it's Christmas Eve. Have a merry one!

UPS deliveries.

We were expecting one package to arrive today, sent by my cousin L up in New York. Not only did that get here, but UPS delivered another package with it. As I type, my dad's 1940's Nativity set is here, all set up now on the fireplace hearth. I have candles inside the fireplace, which will light up the inside of the manger when they're lit. My cousin L reminded me that my mother always put a blue light bulb inside the manger because it was a soft light. I do remember the blue light, because every Christmas, my dad would ask her if she wanted a white light bulb, but she always wanted a blue one. If I can hook up an extension cord to this manger, I will get a blue bulb for it.

My cousin L brought all twenty-two pieces of this Nativity set to UPS, and they packed them for her. The box is big enough to hold a huge television set or a small piece of furniture. They packed each piece in bubble-wrap, which made them three-times their size, then put in enough foam peanuts to fill up a bathtub. Overkill on the packing, but everything got from NY to TX safely. Considering that this set was purchased in France by my dad before he came home from WWII, my cousin L was concerned that it would get broken along the way.

I remember this set so clearly. As I unwrapped each piece, it was like being four years old again. There are six sheep in this set, and I used to take them out from under the tree and bring them in the living room while we watched Walt Disney on Sunday nights. My dad used to put straw all around and inside the manger, so when I picked up the sheep I had to be careful not to bring any of the straw with them. My mother saved the bits and pieces of straw from year to year-- she wrapped it all up in tissue paper and put the straw in a separate box with the angel.

The three wise men are very elegant, and so is the camel with its saddle and tapestry. There's also a shepherd for the sheep, a young boy for the cow, an old man (who daddy always said was the owner of the manger), and a servant to take care of the camel. The angel at the top of the manger has her wings spread out and it looks like she's just hovering over the roof of the barn.

Funny how when you're little, everything seems so much bigger. The camel is the largest animal in this Nativity, but when I unwrapped it, it didn't seem as big as I remembered it to be. It's all perspective and proportion-- my hands were a lot smaller (and my eyes a lot bigger) when I was three years old. When I was a kid, my hands fit easily into the front windows of the barn, which of course looked larger in my memory than it actually is. I had to be very careful tonight as I was arranging the figures of Mary and Joseph and the Baby-- and I put the donkey inside the barn with them, just the way my mother always did. She used to say that they wouldn't have left the donkey outside because Mary was riding on the donkey to get to the manger.

This Nativity set is nearly 60 years old. Originally from France, brought home to South Ozone Park, NY by my dad. Then taken to our house in Woodhaven when I was not even two years old. Then the set went back to South Ozone Park to my grandparent's house when my parents split up in the early 1960s. My Aunt Dolly used to set up this Nativity either on the front sun-porch underneath the Christmas tree or on top of the TV console in the living room. In the early 1970s, it went to Suffolk County, Long Island, to my cousin L when my dad gave it to her so she could enjoy it with her two little girls because they didn't have money to buy their own Nativity.

L has had it all these years, and displayed it every year except for the past five years since her mother passed away. It sat in a box in her storage closet but she felt it needed to come out of there this year, this first Christmas with both my dad and my mother gone. Now it's here in Texas with me, the original "little" girl who used to play with the sheep while the three of us watched Walt Disney in a house in Woodhaven. Looking at the manger, I can see my mother fussing over the angel and the blue light, and my father re-arranging the straw after I was playing with the sheep.

It is amazing to have this here. It's like having a little piece of my parents here in this house-- and not my parents as they were when they were old and gray, disheartened and very ill. It's just the opposite. I look at their Nativity set and see them as they were in the mid-1950's. My mother was the prettiest mom on the block; she dressed up every day and wore high heels even in the house. She planted daffodils and tulips by the front steps of our house, baked cookies even in the summer, and bought extra carrots at the A&P when I had a pet rabbit. She taught me songs while she cleaned and read me stories at night. My dad was handsome and funny and all the kids brought him their broken toys because they all knew he could fix anything. He walked down towards our house from the corner after a day's work and had a bag of M&Ms or a Hershey bar in his shirt pocket for me. Without fail, without fail, from when I was little until the last time we were together, his eyes lit up and his arms opened wide whenever he saw me. Even when we talked on the phone, hundreds of miles apart, I could hear the joy in my dad's voice. That's how I remember my parents; that's how I see them through the little windows of this manger.

I can't thank my cousin enough for taking this Nativity out of storage and sending it to me. She didn't understand when I told her that it had more of a nostalgic meaning to me than a religious meaning, but she knows that I love it and it will be part of all our Christmases from now on. I have also put my own little embellishments on the manger-- I found a package of gold and ivory straw that I had saved from a gift basket-- I sprinkled it inside the manger and on the roof. (That little touch not-quite but nearly matches the thick brown straw that my mother used to spread inside the manger.) And then, on the sill of one of the front windows of the manger, I put a little brown porcelain cat. The little kitten is totally in proportion to the other animals, and is one of the miniature animals that my dad used to buy for me at the local ice cream shop when I was a kid. (These little Hagen-Renaker porcelains cost just pennies when I was little, and now sell on eBay for many dollars.) There never was a tiny cat sitting on the windowsill of my parents' Nativity set, but there's one there now, looking quite content. =^..^=


The other package that arrived was a surprise from my cousins up near Chicago. When we went there this past summer, they brought us to Lou Malnati's for authentic deep-dish pizza. We loved it, and would have eaten there every night if we could have. So what was in that box from Chicago?--- four frozen deep-dish pizzas from Malnati's. Unbelievable... we were really surprised. We had spoken to them not too long ago and they asked us what our favorite thing had been during our visit-- and we told them "the pizza at Malnati's." (That and the Cubs - White Sox game at Wrigley!) So that's what they sent us for Christmas-- they couldn't get the Cubs, so they sent pizzas. Into the freezer they went. We bought lobsters today for our Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow night-- had we not done that, I'm sure we'd be eating deep-dish pizza tomorrow night. I'm really surprised that my husband hasn't already turned on the oven for one of those pizzas.


"No matter what happens in this world, life does go on in a sensible way," said a wise woman named Audrey.

It's going to be a great Christmas. It already is.

Happy Festivus.

My husband woke up before 5:00 this morning. I heard him getting out of bed, and the first thing he said to me was Happy Festivus. Anyone who watches "Seinfeld" knows that the day before Christmas Eve is Festivus-- the holiday for the rest of us. We don't celebrate Festivus (does anyone?), but there hasn't been a year that my husband hasn't remembered it.

We've both been up and awake since my husband's declaration of Festivus. The cats all woke up, and Gracie followed my husband out of the bedroom as soon as he got up. Time to start the day-- and it's a warm one. Not even daylight yet and it's warm enough for just a light sweater out there. About 30 degrees warmer than yesterday. Stupid weather.

I've read The Chronicle already, and they printed pictures of the snow in the midwest and northeast. We keep thinking of our friends C & R who have just moved to Pittsford, in upstate NY. Poor C must be frozen solid... that Texas-born man who is now experiencing his first northern winter. He just might be hibernating till Spring.


I just happened to look down at my keyboard and I see that there is no longer an "E" marking on the E key. Every bit of the E letter has been worn off from all of my typing-- proof that the letter "e" is the most-used letter in the English language. The only part of the T that is left is the top of it, and only about one-quarter of the top of the R is left on that key. Three-quarters of the D is still showing, and about two-thirds of the F is still visible on that key, and the B key is about the same as the F. The C key is missing just a smidge of its top curl on the letter. All of the other keys look just fine. None of this means anything at all... just an observation. (Sounds like an Andy Rooney segment on "60 Minutes.") I'm wondering if everyone's keyboards get this way, or is it because I have long nails which click against the printing on the keys.


More pajamas arrived yesterday afternoon, courtesy of a company connected with the Johnson Space Center. They had hosted a Pajama Drive after seeing a re-run of the Pajama Program segment on Oprah. One of the girls who arranged the drive came here with a huge box of pajamas and a smaller box filled with books. I spent the afternoon counting and sorting, and cutting off the store tags from the pjs. I always do that so all the pajama sets can't be associated with any particular store. I don't want one child to receive a pair of pjs with a tag from Wal-Mart hanging on them, and the next child to get a pair from Dillard's.

We delivered pjs and books to a local children's shelter yesterday afternoon. I had never heard of this particular agency before, but there was an article in The Chronicle about it because a former pro-football player spends all of his time there, working with the kids. I had extra pjs and books because of all the holiday Pajama Drives around town, so off we went to the little waterfront town near the Bay. It's called Boys and Girls Harbor, and kids can live there 24/7 if their families are in financial or emotional crisis. They work with the department of children's services, and kids are brought there if they have to be taken out of a home for safety reasons.

When we got there, the kids were all on holiday time-- with "host" families who take them in during the holidays, as well as weekends, so the kids can have a taste of what real family life is like. We left the pjs and books, and the kids will get them all after the first of the year when they return from their visits with the host families.

The Harbor was an impressive place in its set-up...... little cottages on the grounds where the kids live with two adults who are house-parents for them. There's also a working farm on the grounds, where kids can raise livestock to be shown at the rodeo in the Spring. The entire complex is 150 acres, so the kids have plenty of room to explore, and there's various out-buildings with different activities for the kids. Some of the buildings need repairs, others look just fine. The ones closest to the Bay look like they had some water damage from the latest hurricane in September, and they have a posted list of repairs that need to be done, as soon as they find volunteers and the money to do them.

I've added The Harbor to my list of children's agencies, so I will make sure they get pjs and books on a regular basis from now on. We left there with some of their brochures and literature. I was reading it in the car on the way back home and it just made me cry. It made me so sad to think that we take better care of our pets than some people take care of their children.


I just did a spell-check on everything I just typed. Festivus came up as misspelled. I guess The Powers That Be who wrote the spell-check software never watched "Seinfeld."

Cold-snap Sunday.

Wasn't I just hoping that we wouldn't get hit with a cold snap? Yesterday, everyone was walking around in shorts, today it's at least 25 degrees colder-- no shorts to be seen. Oh well.... according to The Chronicle, the weather should be warm again by Wednesday.

I hate this cold weather. But seeing what's happening up in the northeast and the midwest, this is nothing to complain about. Our friends C & R are now both in their new upstate NY home-- C arrived just the other day and when he called us, he said that he's never seen so much snow in his entire life. R has been up there since August because she had to start her new teaching job then. C stayed on here to finish up his teaching job, then off he went in his little Texas car that has never been driven in snow. We had asked him if he bought chains for his tires and he looked at us with a blank look on his face. Chains? Why would I need chains? I'm sure he knows by now.


Young Miss C was over here after dinner tonight. She had called me this afternoon and asked if she could come by so I could teach her how to make the Victorian Christmas cones. She came over with a shopping bag filled with papers, ribbons, stars, pom-poms, plastic "googley eyes," and every bit of wrapping paper and package decoration that came from gifts we've given her throughout the years. That child had saved everything. Every last bow, every gift tag, every bit of wrapping paper. Everything. Amazing.

By the time we were all crafted-out, C had made three large cones and two small ones. I made another large cone for our decorations, and a small one using some of C's Oriental papers. She had been to a yard sale this past summer and bought a huge box of Oriental scrap paper for just a few dollars. Before she left here, we traded some papers--- I gave her a batch of my Christmas card-stock papers, and she gave me some of the Oriental ones.

I made a beautiful small red cone using C's red and gold Oriental paper, and I put it with my little red and white Chinese tree and the vintage Chinese statues that belonged to my Aunt Edie. C made a small pink cone trimmed with part of an old rhinestone necklace that I had in one of my boxes of craft stuff. She decorated the cone with pink rhinestone hearts, then told me she didn't want to take it home because it would look perfect on the large pink Santa in my sitting room. So my pink Santa is now holding a pink Victorian rhinestone-trimmed cone. He looks precious, said C.

C now wants to make the cones for Valentine's Day, Easter, birthdays--- the possibilities are endless, she said. Indeed. C loves to do crafts, and she always looks for supplies at yard sales and resale shops. Even if she doesn't know what she'll eventually do with something, if she likes it, she buys it, and into her treasure trove of "good stuff" it goes.

As we were quietly making the cones (neither of us gets to chattering too much when we're busy with something), C told me "When you were little, your Aunt Dolly taught you to save whatever you liked if it could be used again, and you taught me the same thing, and now we both have boxes of good stuff to make things with! Isn't that cool?!"

Cool indeed.

Antiques and lobsters.

When a man wants to go shopping, just say yes. I thought we were finished looking around the antique co-ops yesterday, but today my husband said he wanted to look at two more large co-ops that we hadn't been to in a while. So off we went after lunch, to two large resale co-ops in Pasadena.

The first shop is in the process of scaling down from two buildings to one. The inventory in the building they're keeping was over-priced and not offering discounts; the inventory in the other building was 50%-off. Not much to buy in the discounted building-- I'm sure all the good items had either been sold or removed by the dealers. I did find a replica of my Aunt Dolly's cookie jar in the first building--- a little Dutch girl dressed in yellow and brown. That identical cookie jar was on my grandmother's kitchen table before I started to walk, and it was on Aunt Dolly's table when they were packing up her home to move her to Florida last year. The price on that cookie jar was $135-- way too high. Another dealer too in love with her inventory-- the price was so high that the layer of dust on that cookie jar was at least a quarter-inch thick.

In the second (discounted) building of that co-op, I did find a plastic Santa pin from the 1950s. It's not even three inches tall, and Santa's arms and legs move up and down when you pull a thin little thread between Santa's legs. (I'm not making this up.) I distinctly remember those red plastic pins-- we would buy a new one every year because after a month of pulling that little thread, it would break off and Santa's legs and arms wouldn't move anymore. So for the grand sum of one dollar, this little Santa pin is now mine.

We drove to the second co-op, further down into Pasadena. I had forgotten all about this shop, and we hadn't been there in years, but my husband remembered it because he had found some vintage Christmas lights there. This co-op has a large number of dealers, and all the dealers have shelves upon shelves of inventory--- so much so that the aisles in their selling spaces are very narrow. So narrow that if you were wearing a bulky coat, you'd never make it from one end to the other.

Lots of interesting stuff in this Pasadena co-op (Antique Junction, I think it was called). Once again, a lot of dealers too in love with their inventory, because we saw some very high-priced items. While we were browsing, we heard some of the dealers talking, one telling another how an item similar to his just sold on eBay for $156. Well, I would bet that that dealer was marking his item up to the eBay price at that very moment. Do they really think they can get an eBay price in a resale co-op in a tiny town in southeast Texas?

We had fun looking, and I did find three small Santas, each under $3.00, which have now joined my Santa parade in the breakfast room. I know that when it's time to be packing all the holiday decorations away, I'm going to be saying "Just who bought all these Santas anyway?"

Before we came home, we went to the local HEB supermarket. They had fresh lobsters on sale, for just $7.99 per pound. Most of the lobsters were about a pound and a half. We bought and steamed them for dinner. And we'll probably go back and buy four more and have them for dinner on Christmas Eve. The store was offering to steam them for free, but they had the air-conditioning turned up so high that we were freezing in there, so we just took them home and did the steaming in the big red lobster pot.

I kept the cats out on the screen-porch while we were eating the lobsters. No way could we have enjoyed that meal with six little eyes looking up at us.

Very warm today.... up near 80 would be my guess. I'm hoping this warm weather holds till after Christmas. I will have to keep the cats on the screen-porch on Christmas day so I'm praying we don't get a cold snap.

My cousin L mailed me a package this week with gifts for each cat, and for Gracie. The cats love their new little toys, and they have been carrying them all over the house. Mickey Kitty's little bird toy makes a chirping noise when he plays with it, and he keeps hiding it in my husband's shoes.

L also told me that another package is on its way to me. She sent me the French-made Nativity set that my dad brought back from France after the war. When my parents split up, my dad brought the Nativity set to my grandmother's house, then he gave it to my cousin L so she could enjoy it every Christmas with her two daughters. My cousin L doesn't do much holiday decorating anymore, so she thought daddy's Nativity set should come back to me.

I vividly remember that set..... very detailed, handpainted, and there's a window on each side of the manger where we would have either the camel or the cow peeking though. My parents would set it up underneath the Christmas tree every year when I was a kid. My dad thought the manger should have a white light shining into it; my mother thought blue was better because it was softer. Blue it was, and my cousin L also kept a tiny blue light in it.

Our Christmas tree was always set up in our dining room when I was a kid.... in the corner by the doorway, opposite the wall where my piano was. I always thought we had the tallest tree on the block. When I got older, my dad told me that our trees were never any higher than six feet... I guess they just looked so much bigger because I was so small.

I'm not a Nativity-set person, as a rule, but this Nativity will be set up as soon as it gets here, and set up every Christmas for as long as I'm able to decorate. In my mind's eye, I can still see my dad unwrapping every piece of that set (more than 15 pieces in all), then handing the pieces to my mother so she could place them under the tree. It was my job to turn the switch on the little blue light which lit up the inside of the manger. As the little light came on, I would say Taa-daaah! -- I learned that phrase from watching an old movie with my Aunt Dolly. I have no idea what the movie was, but I remember one of the women in the movie saying Taa-daaah! and I just loved saying it.

Merry almost-Christmas. Taa-daaah!

Christmas shopping.

My husband and I spent the day driving to antique/consignment shops in the downtown area. Today was his Christmas gift to me-- taking me to shops I don't get to very often and letting me pick out holiday gifts. He kept asking me what I wanted, and I couldn't think of anything.

What I did think of -- 1950's-era Christmas items -- I couldn't describe to him, but I knew where we could find them: at the larger antique co-ops downtown. I don't drive there myself because the downtown area is very confusing, and with all the construction they're doing, you never know when you're going to have to detour. I don't know the inner downtown Loop from the outside Loop, and as much as it's been explained to me, I just don't like driving there.

So that was the "gift" that I thought of-- take me downtown to those shops and I can look around and see what they have. Most of what they have is expensive--- I picked up a lot of Santas and vintage ornaments and put them right back down. The dealers in those co-ops are in love with their inventory-- it's priced so high that most of it doesn't sell, and not one dealer had discounts on their Christmas items. It's the week before Christmas-- do they really want to pack it away and keep it till next year?

I did find two small Santas to add to my Santa parade (both for $5), and two Santa ornaments. We also added eight dessert plates to our Christmas dinnerware. I was going to buy the sugar and creamer, but they were so overpriced that I decided we didn't need them that badly-- I have a gold & ivory set that works just fine. In one of the kitchen displays, I found a set of silver measuring spoons which are imprinted with pretty teapots... very unusual, and if you're going to go to the trouble of using measuring spoons, they might as well be pretty to look at.

In the Smith & Hawken garden store, we found beautiful tree ornaments that were all 30% and 40% off the original price, which made them reasonable. You can't buy anything in that store that isn't on sale because everything is overpriced, in my opinion. (Rents in those downtown areas are expensive, and the prices reflect that.)

I also found four pretty Christmas mugs which are perfect for hot cider. I really didn't need four more holiday mugs, but they're vintage china, made in England, and too reasonably priced to leave there. I told our around-the-corner neighbor V that my obsession with Christmas mugs this year was due to her own collection of holiday mugs. V doesn't like to use paper cups with hot cider, so she has enough Christmas mugs for thirty guests. She doesn't invite 30 people at once, but if she did... they'd all have their own mug.

One of the best things I found today was a tiny little porcelain angel bell, which still has the blue and white "Japan" label on the inside. Sweet sound from this tiny bell, and a sweet face on the angel. Now how could I have explained all these things to my husband when he kept asking me what I wanted for Christmas? I kept telling him I'll know it when I see it, and that's just how it worked today.

We had lunch at a German restaurant downtown... delicious food, excellent service, a warm and cozy atmosphere with German-style decor. Except for the fact that our waiter's name was Juan, we could have been in Germany. The waitresses there were dressed in German-style blouses and jumpers, and the waiters did have nice uniforms. Juan was an excellent waiter, and I guess he couldn't have passed as a Hans. Definitely worth the drive downtown for that meal, and we took half of our meals home-- very generous portions of delicious homemade German food. My husband ordered the weiner schnitzel, which he said was nearly as good as what he had in Germany, and better than the fancier German-European restaurant we went to last week on the other side of downton with K & B. My dish was a salmon stuffed cabbage roll, cooked in a lobster sauce-- delicious. We also ordered potato pancakes, and just tasted them and brought the rest home because we also both ordered a cup of soup (onion soup for my husband, swiss cheese & wine soup for me). Everything was too good.... and how in the world do I cook a meal here after having a meal like that there?

An extra surprise when we got home-- three boxes of pajamas and books on our front porch, delivered by a volunteer who collected them for my Chapter of the Pajama Program. I knew she had been collecting pajamas, but didn't know when she would drop by with them. I had told her to leave them on the porch for me if I wasn't here, and that's just what she did... three huge boxes that were filled with pajamas and books, warm socks and little toy cars. I've already counted and sorted everything, so I will be busy delivering them next week. Jingle bells... Christmas surprises for all those kids!

Lunch for the secretaries...

We had our Christmas lunch for the secretaries who work in my husband's office today. Just for two out of the three-- the third took vacation days this week. We've been doing this for a bunch of years now, and the ladies look forward to it.

This year, especially after Hurricane Ike blew whole neighborhoods away, the secretaries were very happy to be invited. Neither one of them is doing much for Christmas in their own homes. The older secretary lost her entire house and its contents to that hurricane. She's been living with her daughter, trying to decide whether to re-build where she lost her home, or move to another town. I'd be moving to another town if that were my decision to make. The younger secretary lost parts of her roof, and some of the enclosures for the animals she keeps on her property. She has nearly every animal that you can possibly keep on a residential non-subdivision property-- a goat, rabbits, dogs, cats, and birds.

We had a nice leisurely lunch, much longer than the one hour they usually get, which of course they liked. I made place cards and candy baskets, which they always take with them, plus we gave them gift bags filled with goodies for the holiday. I had shopped for them at the World Market store a couple of weeks ago, so I'm hoping that the things I picked out will be items they hadn't seen before.

Very warm today, and very muggy and humid. The sun came out for about an hour this afternoon, then quickly faded into a heavy fog. Oh well..... I'm not complaining. I'd rather have it warm and foggy than cold and snowy.

Birthday lunch & Christmas tea.

Busy day today........ young Miss C came over for lunch, to belatedly celebrate my husband's birthday. She was busy at one of the cattle shows over the weekend, so she missed both his birthday and our Christmas party. But today was a short day for her at school, so she came here right afterwards for lunch and hot chocolate, then went to the NASA grounds to take care of her cattle.

C's birthday surprise for my husband was a handmade pillowcase. She's taking a sewing class at school, and she's quite good. Last year, she made him a pair of pajamas. This year's gift is a pillowcase-- bright blue fabric with red lobsters all over it. My husband loves fresh lobster, and C was so excited when she found that material in the fabric store that she ran over here with it to show me. So now he has a personalized pillowcase, and she said he can dream of lobsters while he's sleeping on it.

The birthday lunch started at 11:30, and we had turkey and cheese biscuits, hot chocolate, and slices of the carrot cake that we had for the Christmas party this past weekend. C had to be back on the NASA grounds before 1:00, so that worked out very well for us because we had invited two of our neighbors over for tea at 2:00.

This morning, I set up the table in the living room for our lunch with C, then set up the dining room table for the tea. C loved the gold-stars holiday plates and cups that I used for the lunch settings, and she peeked in at the tea table in the dining room which was set with the Lenox Christmas china. She really appreciates all the different patterns on plates and cups, and she seems to like the older ones the best.

Our neighbor S (at the corner) and J (two streets up) came over for tea and plum pudding. My husband bakes his traditional plum pudding only in December, and that was the star on that table. I set the table with Victorian "crackers," which we always have for Christmas. J and S loved snapping the crackers and finding the little gifts and paper crowns inside. We all sat there finishing our tea with gold paper crowns on our heads. Being that our local Marshall's store always sells packages of these crackers, we must not be the only ones in the area buying them and wearing paper crowns.

After our tea, we walked to the corner to S's house, to see her collection of Santas and her little table-top trees. We had no idea she was so "into" Christmas. S is our corner-neighbor who tosses out one strand of multi-colored lights onto her front lawn every December while the rest of the neighbors are stringing up miles and miles of white lights. The multi-colored lights were a private protest of S's, years ago when one neighbor who no longer lives here kept insisting that she use "white lights and only white lights." S says she tossed out the strand of multi-colored lights just to make the pesty neighbor nuts, and it became a tradition with her. She loves Christmas-- and the inside of her house shows it even though the outside of her house says "Bah humbug!"

S is also the same neighbor who never much bothered with any of the other neighbors on the street. When she worked, she was a principal at a local school and never really had time to socialize much. Now she's retired, and she has also been "mom" to her son's dog for the past few years. Well, when you have a dog, it has to be walked, which means you get out to see your neighbors. While walking her son's dog (who is now more her dog than his since he lives in California) she met all of her neighbors and has been coming to our Charades parties for over a year.

Contrary to what we thought, S is a very friendly lady with a wonderful sense of humor. Every time she comes here, she brings us home-baked cookies or cakes, along with a bag of dog biscuits for Gracie. In her home, she had more than half a dozen small Christmas trees, each decorated with a theme-- Santas, snowmen, angels, dogs. Her son is a director of cinematography for Hollywood movies, and her family room is filled with posters from the movies he's made. For each of those movies, she has put together a small Christmas tree filled with ornaments representing each particular movie.

Amazing how having a dog can change your life, and change everyone's perception of you. Also amazing is how not having a dog any longer can change you--- as in our friend J's case. She's our neighbor who had to put her little Yorkie to sleep a couple of weeks ago, which resulted in her going to the hospital for a couple of days. J misses her dog terribly, needless to say, but she hasn't talked about getting another one yet. I'm sure it's too soon for her to be thinking about that. The sparkle in J's eyes is gone, and I think it's more from losing her beloved dog than from being in the hospital for a few days.

I recently received a card from neighbors who used to live on the other side of our street. They left here a few years ago and moved up near Austin. Their dog Fred passed away last year, at the ripe old doggie-age of 18...... amazing! Now that's a testament to the love and care that Fred was given for all those years. I think that's the oldest age I've heard of for a dog. When I mentioned that to my husband, he said he hopes we're just as lucky with Gracie.

The neighbors with Fred, H and M, also loved Christmas. H got together with my husband one year and suggested that everyone on our street have lighted white reindeer in their front yards. Then, also with white lights, everyone could string together all the deer, breaking the strings of lights when you got to the driveways. My husband thought that was such a great idea, and we set out looking for those large white metal reindeer strung with white lights. I found a couple for us at a yard sale, then found more yard sale deer and "sold" them to the neighbors for the price I paid for them at the yard sales.

Before all of the neighbors could get the reindeer, H and M decided to sell their house here and move up to Austin to be closer to their son and his family. When December comes around, we all think of H and M, and tell the story of the reindeer that could have been all strung together in a circle around our cul de sac. Some of the neighbors have reindeer, most have white lights. If H and M hadn't moved, I'm sure H and my husband would have seen to it that every house had at least one reindeer in front of their house.

I still have the gold glitter holiday bells from H's yard sale-- I helped with their yard sale before they moved, and H let me have a look-see at what she was selling before the sale actually began. As soon as I saw those 1950s gold bells, I knew I had to get them...... they've been hanging on our front porch every Christmas since, and they're the first things I put out when I start decorating for the holidays.

Eight more days till Christmas. Jingle bells....... jingle gold-glitter-bells!

Yes, Virginia....

... there really is room for another Christmas tree.

I really need to stay out of the consignment/resale shop. I stopped in there today, to bring a shopping bag of items that I had taken out of the house, keeping with my one-thing-in/one-thing-out rule. The things I brought in were my things-out for last week's purchases at that shop. And that's when I saw the green tinsel tree, about two feet high, bright green-- the perfect tree for my Lenox ornaments.

The Lenox tree ornaments didn't make it onto the big tree this year-- they always seem to get lost on that big tree because of their delicate ivory color. Somehow, they just don't "go with" all the colorful glass ornaments and vintage lights. At our Christmas party this past weekend, our friend C gave us a Lenox ornament in the shape of a snowflake. She asked me to open the package when she gave it to me, so of course I put it right on the big tree so she could see it there... which reminded me of the shoebox in my storage closet filled with the other Lenox ornaments I've had through the years.

As soon as I saw that bright green tinsel tree today, I knew all the Lenox ornaments would look perfect on it. I used the snowflake from C at the top of the tree, for the star. All the others are arranged around the tree, which is weighted-down in a gold star-shaped box. (That box was from a yard sale-- I knew I could use it for something.) Those delicate ivory ornaments, all with the gold-tassels for hanging, look so pretty on that little tree, which is now a centerpiece on our dining room table.

Of course, the large light-filled star that was the centerpiece there had to be moved to the table behind the sofa in the living room, which meant that the angels that were on that table had to be moved to the bedroom.

And while I was in the consignment shop today, I had to buy another Santa because today's 20%-off discount was on anything that was square or had a square on it, and this Santa is climbing out of a square chimney. And then there was another Santa, a small round cookie-jar, with a gold square belt buckle... which is now the centerpiece on the table in the breakfast room.

So three new things came into the house today. According to my one-thing-in/one-thing-out rule, I have to give three things away, or bring three things to the consignment shop. I decided to go through my closet and take three blouses or sweaters that I haven't worn lately.... I will put those into the donation box. Three in, three out.... I never did specify just where the items had to come from.

Potluck party food.

I'm so tired from yesterday...... but I forgot to mention all the food that everyone brought for our potluck dinner. Everyone is getting more and more creative with each party, I swear.

There was a huge glass salad bowl filled with bright red chunks of watermelon that had been soaked in lime juice and sprinkled with cilantro--- so Christmas-y looking, and very good as an alternative to a tossed salad.

Our friend C made dozens of bite-sized meatballs that had been cooked in a tomato sauce spiced up with a bit of chili powder and sweetened with half a cup of grape jelly. That sounds so crazy, but the result was a sweet and sour meatball that melted in your mouth-- and the sauce was very thick and syrup-y. She also made a pineapple casserole--- chunks of pineapple drizzled with cheddar cheese and sprinkled with a streussel topping and baked till the top was crisp-- delicious..... only one lonely chunk of pineapple left in that huge baking pan when the party was over.

V's friend brought deviled eggs stuffed with crabmeat, and V brought a taco casserole--- all the fixings you would find in a taco layered into a casserole dish and baked in the oven. I didn't taste that one because I don't like sour cream but at the end of the night there was precious little of that left over.

Miss C's dad made garlic bread--- two huge loaves, one with onions and red and green peppers, and the other with artichoke hearts and cheese. I didn't think anyone would bring bread, so I made dozens of biscuits stuffed with pesto and parmesean cheese. The breads were all so good that everyone tried all three.

I also had lots of canapes--- crabcakes, mushroom tarts, little quiches, cheese puffs. Other neighbors brought a couple of other casseroles that I really don't remember because I didn't taste them-- everything looked so good, but when there's so much food, you just have to pick and choose. K and B made their famous pecan pie, plus they brought a carrot cake for my husband's birthday the day before. The band played Happy Birthday and we surprised him with the cake-- two red and green star-shaped candles on top of that cake.

Our neighbor S made a delicious strawberry shortcake, and our neighbor C baked Mexican cinnamon cookies. There was a green Jello salad (there's always something made with Jello at our potluck parties). J and L brought cheesecakes---- apple, strawberry, chocolate, and plain. J and S brought tiny little fried egg rolls with a dipping sauce, and a bag of just-picked oranges from their fruit trees.

I made hot apple cider (with orange slices, cloves and cinnamon sticks) which everyone was drinking even though it was nearly 80 degrees outside. I also made the Christmas punch-- equal parts pink grapefruit juice and 7-Up, then you add spoonfuls of pineapple sherbet. As the sherbet melts, the punch gets thickened a bit. (Vanilla ice cream makes it thicker, but it's also more calories.)

There was more food on that table, but for the life of me, I can't remember it all. The night was so much fun, and such a blur at times because it all seemed to go by so quickly. I'm usually the last one to sit down and have something to eat because I go from table to table making sure that everyone has enough to eat, plus punch or hot cider or coffee (best investment was that 42-cup coffee maker).

I think I'm even more tired tonight than I was last night. I didn't get to bed till nearly two o'clock this morning, and I was so wired up from the party (or maybe from the carrot cake and pecan pie) that I couldn't fall asleep right away. I think my eyes are going to close as soon as my head hits the pillow tonight. And as warm as it is, the cats can sleep on the screen-porch, which means a really good night's sleep for me.

The party is now a memory...

We all say it each and every year... Christmas comes and goes faster and faster as you get older. And our Christmas party, after all these weeks of decorating and planning, has come and gone. The party was wonderful... we have such a great group of friends here, and some of our friends brought friends of theirs so we had some new faces here.

We also had the Jamaican steel drum musicians..... a brother and sister who played here for another one of our Christmas parties a few years ago. Beautiful music-- they played holiday songs and Beach-Boy Caribbean tunes. So very pretty, everything they played for us. They were here for two hours, with a break inbetween when they got to talk to everyone and have something to eat and answer everyone's questions about their music and the instruments.

And, as it always happens, no one wanted the party to end. Our friends who live downtown are always the first to leave, because of the long drive home, and then our older friends are always the next to say goodnight. The friends and neighbors who live the closest are usually the last ones to leave, and we all just sit around talking about the party, or the last party, or When's the next party? Before our friend J walked out the door, he asked us if he should mark his calendar for the Valentine's party in February. And we told him the same thing we always tell him: "What time should we be at your house for that, J?"

Our neighbor J couldn't come to the party because of her recent hospital stay last week, plus the passing of her little dog, which is what put her in the hospital in the first place, I think. I went over to see her today, along with some canapes and desserts from last night, and a couple of little holiday gifts to cheer her up. She was very sorry to have missed the music and the party, but I told her to come by for tea as soon as she's up to it, and we're hoping by the end of the week she'll be able to do that. She's just a couple of streets away, but she just wasn't "feeling 100%," as she calls it. She truly misses her little dog, and I have to say that her house seemed terribly lonely today without little Babe running around by our feet. J had that little Yorkie for over 14 years, so it's going to take a while for her to get used to not having her.

Our around-the-corner friend V stopped by today with a friend of hers, to show her our tree. This is about the sixth friend of V's that I've met this way-- when V wants to show off our tree, as she says. I told V it isn't that she wants so much to show her friends our tree-- it's that she is missing having a tree of her own this year, so she's making up for it by visiting ours. V's son and his big dog are there visiting, and so far the dog is well-behaved, but V just doesn't want to take a chance by putting up a big tree. V says that "the big dog's big tail is like a weapon-- knocks over everything in sight." So she's "making do" with all her little table-top trees, but it just isn't the same.

Very warm yesterday, and today as well. The cold snap has snapped itself out, and it's been humid and muggy and nearly summer-y. And wasn't it just a few days ago when we had nearly half an inch of snow on the lawn?

Space Shuttle

While we were on our way towards the Gulf Freeway to drive downtown yesterday, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was piggy-backed on top of a Boeing 747 and flying low over Clear Lake. They were making their way towards Ellington Field, just a few miles north of us. I told my husband that they were flying slow and low so all the residents could get a good look at where their tax money is going.

It was amazing to see, and yesterday was a perfect day with a warm sun and blue skies. The 747 was so huge that the Endeavour looked like a toy. As we were driving on El Dorado, we pulled to the side of the road and stopped to watch as it went by, as did other drivers who noticed it. How could anyone have missed it?

When we got to the Gulf Freeway, the 747 was cruising slowly right in line with the freeway, giving all the drivers a good look-see before veering off to the right to land at the Air Force base. Of course, we didn't have the camera with us. It would have been a picture-perfect opportunity.


I've got everything just about set for tomorrow night's party. I was in the breakfast room re-arranging all the furniture, then I put it all back just the way it was in the first place. With all the floor-to-ceiling windows in there, my placement choices are limited. When I started setting up the tables in the living room, I realized that the table that usually goes near the fireplace can't go there for this party because that's where the band will be-- right near the fireplace. (Which will be filled with lighted candles, not burning wood.) So-- where to put that little round table? I decided that the best place for it is right in front of the door to the screen-porch. The cats will be in the porch (and not coming out till after the party) so after they're set in the porch in the morning, I can set up that table. If I need to get to them, I can just go around the back deck and go through the screen door. All these logistics at party-time...... the dog, the cats, extra tables and chairs.... somehow, it all just works.

Today is my husband's birthday. I surprised him with a new watch, which he loved. I had my fingers crossed with that one. He's very conservative-- not a sparkle of bling anywhere near him (not counting me), so I tried to find a watch similar to the old one he has, just more sophisticated and updated. Found the perfect one in Macy's a few weeks ago. My one foray into the Mall this year-- into the door to Macy's, and out without having to go inside the Mall.

Gorgeous day today... nice and warm this afternoon, and perfect walking weather, but I've been so busy I didn't have the time. I'm hoping that the temperature stays mild enough tonight to let the cats sleep on the porch so I can put the tablecloths on all the tables and arrange the centerpieces. If not, they'll just have to sleep inside tonight and I will do all the set-ups in the morning. All the centerpieces for the tables will be our own holiday decorations---- yet another pick-and-choose project, and re-arranging Christmas decorations.

Let's face it.... I will be arranging and re-arranging Christmas decorations from now till New Year's, what with the holiday lunches we have planned, plus Christmas day dinner. I should attach that pedometer to my capris and see how many miles I walk around this house when we're getting ready for a party.

Snow? What snow?

The temperature has risen at least ten degrees since yesterday and there isn't a snowflake in sight. The front of our house sure did look pretty last night, and it was weird to see all of the houses and lawns covered with snow. Tomorrow, it will be ten degrees warmer, and by Saturday we will be up near 80 degrees again. (Just in time for our party-- perfect.)

Luckily, our plants and flowers didn't freeze underneath the snow, which accumulated to about an inch (so hard to believe). I think the warmth from the Christmas lights helped protect the plants, and the rain had quit before it started snowing, so everything didn't turn to ice. The azaleas and impatiens look just as fine now as they did before the snow, but the climbing roses are still drooping, and there's a puddle of red petals underneath the bushes.

We drove downtown early this afternoon, to have lunch with K and B-- an early birthday lunch for my husband. They had asked him where he'd like to eat, and he searched the Internet for a German restaurant. He found a European-style restaurant near the Museum District. I forget the name of it (something I can't pronounce, let alone spell) but the selections on their menu were a collection of German, Bavarian, and French recipes. And the bread... tiny slices of homebaked breads with such a dense and rich texture-- outstanding. We all started with their soup specialty-- Pumpkin Lobster Bisque. Unbelievable taste, and very elegantly presented, with a tiny dollop of fresh cream floating on top of the soup. K, B, and I had each originally ordered a cup of the soup, and my husband told the waitress he'd "pass on the soup." K told him that he'd better get his own order, because he wasn't getting a drop of hers. Same here, said B. Me too, said I. He got his own soup, and was glad he did.

My husband and K ordered the Weiner Schnitzel (spelled correctly?)-- it was made with pork, not veal, and delicious. B got a dish of German noodles (thinner than spatzle) with thinly sliced vegetables, and I ordered what I ate all over Germany in May-- salmon. Delicious food, a beautiful restaurant with carpeting on the floor, drapes to keep the sun from blinding you through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and tablecloths and linen napkins. You pay for all those nice extras, but it sure makes for a quiet and cozy restaurant. (Most of the restaurants here have floor-to-ceiling windows, but they're not covered-- if you're sitting by the window when the sun shines through, you're blinded if you don't have sunglasses.)

Because we hadn't been there before, and because it was a birthday celebration, we had an excuse to order dessert. Instead of a printed dessert menu, four of their wait-staff came to the table, each holding two home-made desserts. Gorgeous cakes, tarts, pies... each one prettier than the next. My husband ordered a chocolate, fudge-y torte, I ordered a fig tart. Neither K nor B ordered dessert-- they had been there before, plus they ate all their food and were stuffed. I left all the white potatoes on my plate, knowing I wasn't going to leave that pretty restaurant without something sweet at the end of the meal. They also served jasmine tea, which smelled like a bouquet in a teacup.

Great lunch.... a nice birthday celebration. We'll have to go back there again, to try some different items on the menu. K told us that the chef gets very creative with the soups, and their salads are always intricate and interesting.

After having such a gourmet meal, it's hard for me to put together a dinner in my own kitchen. How do you compete with that kind of a chef? No dinner tonight, though.... the food we had at lunch-time was enough for the rest of the day.

Still snowing....

Nearly 11:00 p.m. as I'm typing now, and it's still snowing. The flakes are larger, and they're sticking to everything except the streets and sidewalks.

I turned on our outside Christmas lights-- we put them up wearing shorts, and now they're all white and bright and sparkling on top of snow-covered boxwoods and azaleas. When I went outside just now to put some trash out to the curb, one of our neighbors was standing in the street in front of our house looking at the lights. He has lived here for 34 years and this is only the third time he's seen snow in southeast Texas. Charlie said it was "purely way past" his bed-time, but he didn't care. He's been walking around the neighborhood looking at the snow and the holiday lights.

My cats were sitting in the screen-porch and watching the snow falling. AngelBoy's blue eyes kept going up towards the sky, then down towards the grass, then up again, then down. The moon is quite full, and the yard is lit up and bright with all the snow on the lawn and the bushes. The rose bushes are bent over, nearly touching the grass, and the heavy red rose blooms are peeking out from the snowballs that have covered them.

A few years ago, we had a light dusting of snow on Christmas morning. It had gotten cold on Christmas Eve when the snow fell, but by noon-time on Christmas day, the temperature had gotten back up towards 78 or so and it all melted into a memory.

If it stays cold tonight, this snow will still be here in the morning. I have to admit, it does look very pretty. Doesn't look like southeast Texas, though. Just goes to show you--- wherever you are, snow happens. Jingle bells, y'all.

What's that white stuff?

As I type, it is snowing. Snow. Snowing! The weather gods have lost it. Our temperature was nearly 80 degrees just two days ago. It was so cold today that I didn't even go out, except to walk Gracie-- and short walks they were because she turned herself around as soon as she did what she was out there to do. Not even curiosity about the daily 20%-off discount at the consignment shop could get me out there today.

The flakes are small, and falling slowly, and I have to admit that it looks quite pretty. There are red azaleas and pink impatiens in the front yard, all dusted with snowflakes. The red roses in the backyard are dripping in white, as if tiny feathers were tossed on them. The leaves of the white lilacs are filled with snow and they look like bushes of ricotta-filled shells. The snowflakes are sticking to the grass, but not to the streets and sidewalks because they're too wet with all the rain we've had since last night.

There is a message on our answering machine, from our Miss C-- "It's snowing! It's snowing! Where are you?! It's snowing and it looks so cool!" And where was I-- outside our house, watching the three little kids from down the street trying to scoop up handfuls of snowflakes so they could make snowballs. The kids are five, four, and three-- it's the first snow they've ever seen. And if the weather gods don't get their act together, it won't be their last.

Stupid weather/stupid computer.

I don't know which is more frustrating-- waiting for this computer to decide if it wants to type what I want to write, or waiting for the weather to decide if it wants to be Spring or Winter. My vote is for Spring. Better yet-- Summer.

I got so mad at this laptop a little while ago that I pounded my fist so hard on it that AngelBoy ran out of the room and sped to the other side of the house. The pounding didn't make the laptop any better, but it made me feel better--- except for the side of my hand, which still hurts. (Note to self: Don't pound so hard next time.)

My husband asked me if I wanted any help-- I told him all I needed to do was to set this laptop down in the driveway before he backed out to leave for the office. All I wanted to do was to shut this blasted thing off, which it didn't even do. It kept popping up windows and asking me if I wanted to Cancel? or Continue Shutdown? The only thing worse than a stupid computer is a stupid computer that asks you questions.

As for the weather..... we have one day of warm weather when a pair of capris and a short-sleeved top is all you need (yesterday). Then we have a day when four layers of sweaters and a scarf just isn't enough (today). The temperature has dropped from nearly 80 to barely 50. How is that possible in less than twelve hours? The weather gods need to get a little Christmas spirit.

On the warm nights we've had, the cats sleep on the screen-porch. On the cold nights, they're inside, with AngelBoy in the laundry room, ShadowBaby on our bed, and Mickey Kitty either on his favorite chair in the TV room or his favorite chair in the living room. Halfway through the night, one of the cats will wake up and decide it's time to start the day, and then the other two wake up as well.

I can let AngelBoy out of the laundry room as soon as he uses the litter box in there, and then my blue-eyed cat will follow me back to bed and sleep by my pillow. Then Mickey Kitty runs through the cat-window into the screen-porch, decides it's too cold out there, then speeds back through the window and runs around the living room with his feet barely touching the floor. ShadowBaby gets up and meows in the kitchen for breakfast. My husband sleeps through all of this. When I get back into bed, I'm half awake, listening for any sort of jingle-jangle of the Christmas decorations which Mickey Kitty may decide to play with. I have to say, the cats have been really good-- ShadowBaby and AngelBoy never touch anything at all on the tree or around the house. Mickey Kitty is fascinated with the set of pink Russian nesting dolls that I have sitting beneath a pink Christmas tree. Mickey has discovered that if he pushes one of those little dolls to the floor, they will spin in circles when he moves them with his paw.

I really need to quit arranging and re-arranging Santas and angels and Christmas books around this house. The closer we get to our holiday party, the more I tweak things around here, though. Can't have delicate angels too close to the table edges where I know our friends will be standing around to get a look-see at the big tree. Can't have too many Santas where there will be people walking around with punch and hot cider in their hands.

Tomorrow, I will start with the tables.... opening up the dining room table to its full length, which means adding two leaves. Setting up a second table in the living room, and re-arranging chairs and small tables all over the room. Then there's a third and fourth table in the breakfast room, and still more chairs. I've checked the weather for Friday and Saturday, and it's going to be warm again... which is perfect because the cats will have to be on the porch for both nights. Thankfully, the weather gods have decided to quit their Bah humbug weather for party night.

Stupid weather. Stupid computer. And if this is my biggest complaint of the day, then it's going to be a great day.

A little holiday rhyme...

Oh Christmas tree........ oh Christmas tree......

How many spiders are in there looking at me?

Each time I lift your branches to give you a drink,

There's at least six pairs of eyes giving me a wink!

Oh Christmas tree.... oh Christmas tree.....

Please, please don't let your spiders fall down on me.


Ho! Ho! Ho!........

Holiday surprises....

.... both happy and sad.

We went to a dinner party last night at our around-the-corner friends V and S. V's house is always over-the-top Christmas-ed up, except this year V decided not to put up a big tree because her son and his big dog are visiting. V doesn't want to take a chance that A's puppy-ish dog will knock her tree down or damage her Radko ornaments.

Aside from the empty space where V's tree always stands, their house had a touch of Christmas in every nook and cranny, every corner, every spot as far as your eye could see. V's collection of Santa figurines must number over a hundred, no two of which are alike.

V's dinner was purely southern-- roasted chicken legs, country ham, green beans cooked with potatoes and ham hocks, cornbread, dirty rice (white rice cooked with sausage, so the end result is "dirty"-looking rice), and cold cucumber salad.

Between dinner and dessert, V asked me if all the ladies at her party could walk over to my house to see our trees and all the other holiday decorations. So out we went, bundled up in sweaters and shawls because the temperature had dropped from nearly 80 degrees to close to 60 after the sun went down.

V really misses not having a real tree in her living room, and all her little table-top trees look as pretty as they always do, but the tree filled with her half-price sale collection of Radko ornaments just makes V's Christmas very special. She has been here twice so far to look at our big tree, and I would imagine she'll continue to walk from her house to mine every time she needs a Christmas-tree fix.

So the happy surprise was a nice dinner party at V's house...... the sad surprise is the hospitalization of another friend and neighbor-- J had to put her 13-yr-old Yorkie to sleep just a couple of days ago, and she hasn't been feeling right since then. J has a heart problem to begin with, and once she began popping those nitroglycerin tablets, she knew it was time to call the ambulance and get herself to the hospital.

They're keeping her there for a couple of days, giving her tests to make sure her heart palpitations were due to the stress from the loss of her beloved little dog, and not because she needs another heart operation.

This hospitalization of our neighbor J comes right after the death of another neighbor, whose body just gave up and gave out after a hospital stay resulting from back problems and cancer operations. When we saw B's obituary in The Chronicle, we had no idea he was so active and well-known in this community. B always came to our parties, and his humility was very heart-warming... we read the article about his very active life with awe. And for all these years, we thought he was just a very nice older man who loved his dog and his cats and baked the best chocolate cake in the neighborhood.

Gold-Star Tea.

The pretty porcelain plates and mugs with all the gold stars got their first use today... we had a Christmas tea for our friends L and J. They were so disappointed that they won't be able to come to the Christmas party, so I decided to invite them over for tea. I broke my own rule about not serving tea in a mug, just so I could use the matching star-covered mugs with those beautiful plates.

I baked a carrot cake, using a mix from Duncan Hines. My first mistake with that cake was following the recipe, which calls for a quarter cup of vegetable oil. I hate putting oil in cake--- it's too heavy, too calorie-ridden, and can have an after-taste. I usually substitute pineapple juice or yogurt or applesauce. But I must have had a left-over blonde moment from that wig I wore for Halloween, because I read the instructions on the box and followed them to the letter.

The result was a carrot cake with an after-taste. Even the cream cheese frosting (also Duncan Hines) couldn't cover it up. That was another mistake--- I was going to add real cream cheese to the prepared frosting, but I forgot to buy it and I was too busy to go out for just one thing. My husband and I both noticed the after-taste in the cake, but L and J thought it was delicious. L took a second slice, and I gave her most of the cake to take home to her husband. L's husband will be here at the party, but L will be recovering from back surgery that night, and her mom J will be taking care of her until she can walk safely on her own. They both told L's husband to come to the party so he can go back and tell them all about it.

Oh well.... next time, I will make a carrot cake from scratch. The Duncan Hines box had a pouch filled with raisins and dehydrated carrots, which gave the cake a homemade texture. Still, adding oil to that mix was a mistake... the same amount of yogurt or crushed pineapple would have been so much better. I wish we had real bakeries here... not the supermarket bakery counters, but a real German or Italian bakery, like we had up in NY. People here just don't know what they're missing. The Kroger cakes fly off the faux-bakery shelves at the store, and box-mix cakes with pre-made frosting are gobbled up as if they were made by angels. I just don't get it.

Anyway.... the "gold stars" plates and mugs were on the table, which I covered with a gold tablecloth (yard sale find). Flatware was gold (from a moving sale). In the center of the table, I had a large gold multi-pointed star (another yard sale). We had the tea and cake, four kinds of canapes (Nancy's Gourmet, frozen, and delicious-- tastes like you handmade each one of them), holiday candy in those cute little crape-paper cups, and pumpkin ice cream (which I served in cute little sherbet glasses with coconut-coated rims).

L walked around our house looking at all the holiday decorations, saying that without thirty extra people in the house, everything just looked different. L also told me that she has her family playing Charades now, whenever they all get together for birthday and holiday celebrations. She told me she was sorry to have stolen our Charades idea, but I told her that we had taken the idea from our family in Arizona. And besides-- great ideas are meant to be shared. L said she was happy to hear that because every time she leaves our house, she goes home and rearranges something so it looks like what I've done here.

Twenty-one more days till Christmas. Ready or not, here it comes. We're ready!

Jingle bells....

I've got to stop looking in that consignment shop. Every time I go there, I find something else, either to give as a gift, or to work into the decorations already all over this house. Somehow, this house never gets too Christmas-ed up.... it just all works. (Then again, I like things over-the-top.) There are two gold-glittered reindeer now sitting in front of the fireplace screen-- and today's 20%-off special at the consignment shop was anything with legs. Twenty percent off of anything with legs, and that included legs on furniture, or legs on Santas and angels and reindeer. So the two gold reindeer came home with me and seem to be quite happy. Besides all the gold glitter they're sprinkled with, there are tiny bells hanging from their antlers and when you move them, the jingle is soft and sweet and very Christmas-y.

Some of our friends are bringing their friends to our Christmas party. When they called to RSVP, they asked me if they could bring along another couple. Well, why not? It's a party... and the more, the merrier. And there's a little jingle-bell ornament by our front door that says "The Merry Starts Here." Just in case we had extra people at the party, I had bought candles and holiday candy dishes and Christmas pins.... no one walks out of here without a gift from Santa.

When our next-door neighbor RSVP'd for the party, she asked me "Wouldn't you like some new friends for the holiday?" At first, I thought she was going to tell me that she had found some kittens and wanted me to take them. (I would have said NO!) But when she explained that she would like to bring along her friends who always share Thanksgiving dinner with her family, I breathed a sigh of relief and said Is that all? I thought you were going to talk me into another kitten! V said I'm probably the only person she knows who doesn't freak out at having a house filled with people. I told V that I had a lot of practice.... my grandmother's house was always filled-to-bursting at holiday time.

My husband has arranged for live music for the party... it's a steel-drum band that we had here a few years ago. They were so much fun, they really became part of the party and everyone loved them. So back they will come... it's going to be a great night.

One of our friends told me that she couldn't come to the party because her doctor has scheduled her for back surgery the day before party-day. There was no way for her to change it, because of the holiday and the doctor's schedule. She was so disappointed that I asked her if she and her mom would like to come here for tea at the end of the week. There won't be a band, but at least we'll get to see one another before she goes into the hospital, and she'll see the big tree, which she loves.

Our around-the-corner neighbor V is having a Christmas dinner next week for five or six couples, and we're invited. For dessert (unless V changes her mind) she's going to bake individual little Christmas-tree-shaped cakes, then put all kinds of icing and toppings on the table so everyone can decorate their own little tree and then eat it. When she asked me if I thought that was a good idea, I told that the women will love it, and the men might not enjoy something so kitchen-y artistic. V's answer: "Oh, they'll just have to get over that.... it's Christmas!"

V is just as Christmas-crazy as we are, except that she doesn't think she will be putting up a big tree this year. One of her sons is here from out of town, and will be staying with V and S for the month of December.... her son and his dog. V is afraid that the dog will either knock down the big tree, or damage her glass ornaments. V has been collecting Christopher Radko ornaments for years now, and she doesn't trust her son's big dog to leave the tree alone. V says she has "shopped sales long and hard to get those Radko's at half-price," and it would break her heart if the dog broke them. So... no tree. However, V has more than enough Christmas stuff to turn her house into a holiday heaven, even without the big tree.

With all the Christmas stuff that both V and I have collected over the years, we could open up our own consignment shop. Except that we wouldn't enjoy seeing our things go home with someone else. We could never have a 20%-off sale on anything--- we would probably pay everyone twenty percent not to buy our stuff!

Ornaments R Us.

The big tree is up and decorated, after a full day, from after breakfast till nearly midnight on Saturday, of arranging lights (my husband's job) and arranging and re-arranging ornaments (my job). Every year I say the same thing: Where did all these ornaments come from? Of course, I know exactly where they all came from-- we bought some, others were gifts, some came from yard sales, and still others came from little Christmas shops.

I've sifted through the ornaments every year, donating a bunch that we just didn't like anymore, or using some as decorations for the smaller trees-- like all the gold glass ornaments, which are now on the bright red tree, and all the tiny silver ones, now resting on the blue and purple tree. (Blue and purple? Absolutely... and it's bright and shining and right by the front door, and everyone smiles when they see it.) I've used some of the smaller ornaments as package decorations for gifts, and still others were taken to the consignment shop where someone else will fall in love with them and buy them for their own tree.

For a tree standing nearly ten feet tall, a lot of ornaments and lights have to be attached so the tree doesn't look as if it's half-dressed. I keep saying that we should count the number of lights and ornaments that we put up on these huge trees, but by the time we get to decorating that tree, we're not thinking of counting anything but the hours it takes to get the job done.

I've been spending a lot of time with the glue gun this week... making those Victorian cone-shaped ornaments out of heavy card stock paper, ribbons, rhinestones, pom-poms, tiny bells, and all sorts of holiday embellishments. I've also made a pattern for paper nut and candy cups--- I bought a few on eBay just because they were inexpensive and nostalgic and I needed to see them up close so I would know how to make them myself. My Aunt Dolly always did that-- bought things she liked that she knew would be simple to replicate. Usually, my Uncle Mino would make the pattern for her, then out would come her hat-boxes filled with ribbons and old greeting cards, and we'd get the tiny scissors and start cutting out pictures from the cards to decorate whatever we were making. These days, you can buy ready-cut embellishments for any holiday or celebration you can think of.

I've been making candy cups for holiday lunches, and paper cone ornaments for decorations and gifts, and even using old Scrabble letters and wooden letter racks to make Christmas decorations. I painted the wooden racks either red or silver, then sprinkled them with glitter while the paint was still wet. On the red one (with gold glitter) I spelled out the name SANTA, then glued on a little Santa on one end and a red and white candy cane on the other. On the silver one, I spelled out ANGELS, sprinkled with gold and silver glitter, then glued on a tiny angel, blue rhinestone stars, a tiny half moon and some little blue pearls. That one came out so well that I made another for our friend J, who collects tiny angels for her blue angel Christmas tree.

When the glue gun and the glitter comes out, the vacuum follows shortly after. Miss C stopped by over the weekend and saw some gold glitter on the floor and wanted to know what I was "up to now." I showed her the SANTA sign, and the ANGELS one..... but I didn't let on that I've made her one with her named spelled out and decorated with all the little things that she likes and sprinkled liberally with silver glitter. She's going to love it, and I know she will be searching yard sales for bags of Scrabble letters (which is how I got started on those signs). I also made a SANTA sign for our friend V, whose house is as filled with Santas as ours is.

Twenty-five more days till Christmas, according to my Uncle Tony's perpetual wooden calendar, which I've re-made into a Christmas-countdown decoration. With a glue gun and some scrap booking embellishments, just about anything is possible.

All of these arts-and-crafts projects are keeping me out of the consignment shop. Every time I go there, I find more holiday things that are just too inexpensive to resist. The other day, I found a set of four beautiful white porcelain plates and mugs with gold stars all over them-- made years ago for Macy's, and the entire set looks like they were never used-- less than a dollar for each plate and each mug. Of course I had to buy those... our fireplace mantel is all decked out this year with gold stars, as well as the top of the china cabinet in the dining room. Plus, I've got an entire set of gold flatware from a yard sale that will look perfect with those plates and mugs. I told my husband we'll invite a few friends over for cake and coffee and the table settings will look fabulous.

My husband looked at all the gold stars on the plates and mugs and his first thought was that they can't be put into the microwave. Well, who cares about that? It's Christmas, and this house is filled with gold stars. And Santas. And angels. And little red and white porcelain pixies. And way too much holiday stuff. But who cares? It's Christmas!