Christmas Update

Gary couldn't wait for the Christmas sales and now that eleventh tree is in place.

It's small but it lights up my bedroom at night.

Gary continues to decorate.  He bought some wrapping paper and is using it to wrap lampshades so that they glow at night.  Candles are everywhere with pine or cranberry scents.  

Three weeks ago I bought something I've wanted for years, a Christmas cactus. I selected one that was not in flower but was full of buds. Since then, I've been watching it anxiously, wondering if I would never have anything but buds.  Today it started to bloom.  These plants last for decades if properly tended, so I think it was a good investment.

Rascal the Cat is now in Christmas mode.  He explores all the new decorations to make sure they meet with his approval.  When Rascal does not approve of something Gary or I do or if the nosh is not to his liking, he usually sticks his tail straight up and stalks off.  In the holiday season, he retaliates by going straight to the nearest Christmas tree and bats an ornament until it falls to the floor.  Hey, a cat has to express himself! I don't put anything breakable on the bottom branches.

Gary and the squirrels continue to battle.  He is often in the basement designing a new squirrel-proof feeder.  Meanwhile, he has greased the poles.  This has no effect on them whatsoever.  They are getting fatter and he is running out of sunflower seed.  

I've been over at the Methodist church rehearsing.  The concert is tomorrow night.  I have no idea if we'll pull the thing off.  I never know, but there's no going back once the publicity is out.

This afternoon, I pulled out the short story I want to post on December 23rd, thinking it was a rough draft and was surprised to find out that it was pretty much finished.  When did I do that?  The 15th is my solstice party and for my contribution to the entertainment, I think I will read "The Pastor".

Tra la la la la! I love the holidays!

Trees, Cookies and Short Stories

I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't sleep anymore, thinking about the short story I had to post today.  It was still in rough draft form.  So I got up and set right to work. This is one of the depressing Christmas stories, about a woman and her cat who is considering eating her.  It is one of the nastiest stories I've written so far, but as I typed, I was singing Christmas carols. I am a strange woman.

After three solid hours of work the story was done. At 8:00 a.m. I sent it to Wade for a second opinion and went to work on other things.

A friend just got a job as an editor at a business magazine and we're talking about me doing some freelance work.  I used to have a financial column for a log home company so have some experience in that area.  So I spent some time digging through my files to find some tear sheets to send her and got them ready to "snail" mail.  At the same time, I e-mailed my resume to her.

By then, Gary was up and began to decorate.  We are up to ten Christmas trees counting the six on the deck, and debating whether or not to put up an eleventh. But that's not the end of it.  Every inch of this house gets the treatment.

This is what the dining room looks like so far, with ribbons and candles everywhere.  The Christmas cactus is carefully being tended to bloom by next week and through the holidays.  And this is just one room!

The day had turned cold with a brisk wind, so no walking for me. Instead, I went to the aquatic center for a workout in the swimming pool.  That was followed by practice time at church and shopping for more baking necessities.  I still haven't found what I need to bake pecan puffs, but there were chocolate "stars" at Don's Market, so I was able to make peanut butter and chocolate cookies to add to the frosted sugar cookies and banana bread.

By then Wade had checked out the short story.  I made a couple of corrections and posted it at Black Coffee Fiction at http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com

This evening, Gary and I went out in his van to check out the Christmas lights around town.  Down on Depot Street, the Seymour Historical Museum has its usual display of memorial Christmas trees.  For some reason the folks on Kuene Street are in some kind of lighting contest.  

I think this may have inspired Gary because we had to stop at a store and look at inexpensive trees.  He decided to wait until the just-before-Christmas discounts, but I expect that eleventh and perhaps twelfth tree are in our future.

And that was my day.  I wonder what we'll do tomorrow?

Advent Concert

It's my turn to write a short story by tomorrow for the blog I share with Wade Peterson (http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com) but as choir director,  I am also responsible for an Advent concert at the United Methodist Church on Sunday at 6:00 pm.  I wonder if I can get everything done.

Last night we held a rehearsal but it was poorly attended because the Cicero Methodist Church, whose choir plans on joining us in the concert, had a Christmas party instead.  The Praise and Worship Choir, the contemporary group, will be joining us, too, but it turned out they had a rehearsal at the same time as ours.  Our strongest tenor had to work and our strongest soprano was having health issues.

We charged ahead because there is no choice.  The concert has been advertised, so it must take place.

We did what we could.   By the end of the rehearsal, I had the concert program finalized, or so I thought.  Today, I had to run over to the church twice to deal with changes.  We added piano and trumpet solos.  One of the vocalist changed her solo.  The Cicero Sunday school deleted one of their songs. I learned I will have to play the piano for two vocal solos.  I'll have to practice some for those. Still, it looks like an interesting concert and we've pulled off miracles before.

I spent part of the day baking Christmas cookies because there is to be a reception afterwards.  I need to bake more, too.

But meanwhile, I need to get that short story finished. It has to be done so it will be.

Squirrel Wars

It is that time of year again when Gary puts out birdseed and suet for our avian friends.  We have up to a dozen kinds of feeders dispensing four or five kinds of treats.

We do get hundreds of birds in the cold of winter, most of them house sparrows (weaver finches) but we can expect four kinds of woodpeckers, several varieties of finches, blue jays, cardinals, doves, starlings, juncos, chickadees, and nuthatches. A Cooper's hawk keeps a careful eye out for all of them, but the birds avoid him by hiding in the many shrubs and bushes on this property.

It is a joy to see our friends on these cold days, but beware of the thieves!  The gray squirrels love the feeders, too.

Gary has an ongoing war against those fat furry squirrels.  He hangs the feeders away from trees and buildings because they can launch themselves from any high point.  He greases the poles the feeders hang from so the squirrels will slide down if they try to climb.

All of this is the theory.  This however, is the way things looked today.

This morning, our gray friend was seated on top of the feeder warning off the rest of the squirrels and any birds. As we ate our lunch, we watched as six squirrels lined up for their chance at the feeders.

I tell Gary that we are keeping those squirrels nice and plump and should the economy worsen, we can always eat squirrel stew.  He thinks that is not a bad idea.

No Stopping Christmas

Once Gary had the interior Christmas decorations finished, he stopped for a week and did other things.  Today, he resumed decorating, this time outside.  There are now six small Christmas trees on our front porch, bringing our total to ten trees, in and out.  There's a wreath on the door.  There will soon be more lights and boughs of greens along the porch railing. I expect him to keep adding things until the 15th, when I have my Solstice Party.

As for me, I've finished the Christmas cards.  I decided to order Evan's books on line, leaving only some small inexpensive gifts we'll get in a trip to Family Dollar the week before Christmas.  So shopping is taken care of.

Tomorrow, I begin to bake.  I'll start with sugar cookies and go on to peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses.  Pecan puffs will follow.  There will be sweet breads, muffins, caramel corn, and scones.  I already have banana bread in the freezer.

My mother's recipes are in a card file on my desk.  At this time of year, I remember the smells in that old farmhouse I grew up in.  At Christmas, she made cookies, yes, but it was her candy that was mind boggling.  She bought a big slab of chocolate every year and every bit of it was used up.  There were white creams dipped in chocolate, chocolate creams rolled in crushed walnuts, caramel squares, and so many more.  They were stored on trays in the little cold entrance at the back of the house.  We children went out that way to walk to the one room elementary school or catch the bus to the high school.  Of course, we always grabbed candy on our way out of the house and again when we came home.  It was so good!

That is what Christmas is about for me: memories, both past and in the making. So I bake.  

Clearing Files

Chris is planning on replacing this computer with a new (used) one.  His job, which I don't understand, is working with computers.  He always has the latest equipment, and when he buys something new, I get his castoffs which are still state of the art.

Before he brings the computer over, I have to go through my documents and delete the unnecessary ones.  I haven't done this since 2007 so there were many, many files.

About three weeks ago, I wrote a post about volunteering and how after thirty years, I intended to stop doing it.  This deleting process is an indication of how much work I was doing for the community.  I've deleted over 300 files so far and of those, at least 250 had to do with work for the organizations I've been involved in.

When I was on the city council, I wrote up reports to my constituents. I worked on grants.  When I worked with the Seymour Greenway planting trees, I wrote up agendas and reports.  I wrote publicity for various clubs.  I created posters for civic events.  I drew cartoons of Seymour's citizens from a century ago and wrote up their histories. With a couple of friends, I compiled a list of the birds that we see in Seymour.  And so it went.

One project after another, years of work for the community.  No wonder I never was able to find time to write!  Now the files are gone.  All that remains are the short stories, novels and essays I have been writing.  They will be transferred to the new computer soon.

I am free of all those commitments.  It feels so good.

Sometimes You Just Accept Things

I started trying to arrange an eastern storytelling tour in the middle of September.  I wanted to go to Rhode Island, Delaware and perhaps South Carolina.

I followed my usual system of selecting a route then sending e-mails to every library along the roads and highways.  I sent out ten e-mails every evening, cutting and pasting my pitch in each one.  This went on all the way into mid-November.  It was exactly what I did a year ago when I arranged a six-week, 19 library tour on the West Coast.

This time around I finally am admitting defeat.  After all that work, only two librarians showed interest in my services.

I was never sure what the problem was.  It might have been the economy.  Wisconsin is not the only state whose government is cutting funds for libraries.  However, I think the real reason was the summer reading program theme, which is the same in 48 states.

Last year,the theme was "One World, Many Stories," which called out to storytellers all over.  In 2012, the theme is centered around night.  I tried convincing librarians that they could have campfires or pajama parties, but it never worked out.  I expect there will be planetarium visits or astronomer visits.

So next summer, Gary and I will be camping in the national forests watching our own night sky.  Instead of telling stories, I will be working on my writing.

Things often work out for the best when you accept what life offers.