Since I stopped my volunteer activities, my time has been my own.  I wake up early then spend my mornings writing followed by long, lazy afternoons with frequent naps.   

Today wasn't like that. After last night's babysitting duties, I slept late, getting up after 7:00 a.m.  When I came downstairs, I began to struggle with the Nook Chris gave me.  It was a used device that came with no instructions.  I researched on line, and tried various things on the little electronic book.  No luck.

So I went over to the library to consult with Colette who understands all things electronic.  She didn't know much about Nooks except that once I had my Barnes and Noble account, I would be able to download books from the library and told me how to do it. I jotted down notes, but finally had to give up. I came back to talk to Gary about it.  

He checked the Internet and found the manual, all 167 pages of it.   I sighed and started working my way through it.  I found this tidbit and that piece of information, until I picked up the Nook and went back to pushing this button or that. 

Suddenly, it all came together and I had ordered a book for $2.99 from Barnes and Noble  which came with three classics, Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Pride and Prejudice. 

It's a start.  Tomorrow, I'll work on adding the library's e-books to the Nook.

But meanwhile, Chris, Tisha and Evan arrived.  Chris had a better computer for me and started to install it while I showed Evan the Christmas trees. 

At 3:00  we were at the Methodist church getting ready for Los Posadas, our version of the Mexican Christmas tradition.  The Mexicans have several nights of candlelight processions to various homes asking for a place for Mary and Joseph to rest.  We only do it one afternoon in December.  It is too cold here at this time of year to be wandering around on dark streets.  The school's Spanish classes joined us.  Our group gets bigger every year.

We had two donkeys this year, a pretty little mare and her foal.  They had been practicing with a member of the congregation, but she had been called away on a family emergency.  With people they didn't know the two little donkeys tended to balk. Each had someone pulling and another pushing t the back. Once the mare got way ahead of the foal and the little filly panicked, and tore away from her handler and took off down the road.  Both left droppings along the street.  (They were picked up later.)

We sang carols, visited homes, were turned away and finally returned to the church for the fiesta of tacos, followed by the smashing of three pinatas.   Evan loved it! 

Then it was home to chat with my family and wait until the computer installation was complete.

And here it is late, I am finally writing this post, and hoping for a quiet day tomorrow.

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Don't forget to check out the latest Christmas story at http://blackcoffeefiction.blogspot.com  Wade Peterson has outdone himself with his latest.



 

An Evening with Evan

I love eating out and going to a movie, especially when it is Chris and Tisha who do that, because then I get to sit with Evan, my grandson.  Gary drove me here to Appleton then went off to do some errands.

Chris and Tisha went off for their evening out after giving me all the necessary instructions.  Tonight was a special treat because Evan doesn't have school tomorrow.  We could play an hour and a half longer.

After he ate his supper, he played a Disney game.  These things amaze me, because by making the proper motions, he could ski with Goofy, throw snowballs at yetis, fly with Peter Pan, have a sword fight with Captain Hook or go down the rabbit hole like Alice in Wonderland. It was good exercise as he wiggled and waggled his arms and legs.  When each segment of the game was done, the system took a photo of him and showed it on the screen.

While he was doing that, I was playing with the new toy Chris found for me, a used Nook, the book reader from Barnes and Noble.  I still don't know how to use it, but will check on line when I get home then go to the Muehl Public Library tomorrow to find out how to download books.  I've wanted a Nook or Kindle for several years now.

An hour later Gary was here.  He became the caller for "Vowel Bingo", a game Evan brought home from school.  I won one game, Evan won the next.  Then it was reading time.  Evan read a book about Christmas to us.  He is an excellent reader for a six year old and only needed a little help on some words.

He changed to his PJs, brushed his teeth, took his medicine and vitamins.  Time for bed but first Gary asked him to show us how to use the rather complicated remote control.  Evan quickly switched the television on and went to "live TV" but then we ran into problems because it kept going back to "Star Wars, Part II".  This was suspicious because Evan loves Star Wars.

We finally decided we would not have television tonight.

Then came my favorite part of babysitting.  Evan sat on my lap while I read him three books.  There is nothing sweeter than a little boy hugging his grandmother as he hears his favorite books.

I chanted our little night time ritual.  "Love you, love you, love you.  See you tomorrow, see you tomorrow.  Night, night, night, night, night."  

"But I won't see you tomorrow," he objected

"Yes you will," I said and explained that tomorrow is Los Posadas at the Methodist Church in Seymour. "You get to whack away at the pinata."

Evan immediately made plans to catch more candy than anyone else.  "But then I'll share," he promised.

And off he went to dreamland.  

Plans do Go Awry

On Sunday night, the Packers threw a wrench in the works for our Christmas concert by changing the time for their game. The game started at 3:30 and we knew that the people of Wisconsin were more likely to stay home and watch the game than to hear Methodists sing. The concert was lovely, attendance was down. Nothing I could do about it

Tonight I'm holding my annual One Size Fits All Sing for Your Supper Solstice Party. I set the date way before Thanksgiving and invited all the writers and artists I knew.

The house is clean and decorated to the hilt. The meat for the tacos is simmering, driving Rascal Cat crazy. There are three kinds of cookies, banana bread, party mix on the table. I'll soon be making apple scones to add to the spread.

But who will be coming to partake of our largesse? We don't really know. I was fairly sure of eight party goers, but most of them live in the country or in surrounding towns and cities. The wind is kicking up with gusts of 40 mph. The temperature is dropping. Bad weather was nothing I could plan for. 

Gary, who originally was going to a meeting in Appleton tonight, has decided to stay home. It may well be that just the two of us will be making pigs of ourselves.

No matter what happens tonight, there's still Los Posadas on Saturday and all the company and church services on Christmas Eve.

What will be, will be.  

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Addendum:   As expected, the turnout was small, but it was a fine party anyhow.  Good food, good friends.  The highlight was the Skype from Betty in Colorado, all decked out in Christmas finery, laughing as we recalled past Solstice parties and getting caught up in the gossip.

Could be in the future we'll all just Skype ourselves to Christmas parties and stay at home! 

Another December Day

My car was leaking brake fluid so in it went to J J's Auto Clinic, Seymour's finest mechanics.  I've lived in several states and have been dealing with mechanics for decades, but the crew at J J's are the most honest, hardworking and knowledgeable I've ever had work on a car of mine.

Gary and I left the car with Dennis and went Christmas shopping.  I don't spend much time on such things.  When Gary and I want to give each other something, it is whenever the mood hits.  It doesn't revolve around holidays.  We've made an agreement with friends and families to forgo presents because after all, we have enough stuff.

I do, however, have a grandson who will be here on Christmas Eve.  I bought his books on line (I am the book grandmother), but it is absolutely necessary for a boy to rip open packages at Christmas. We went to the Dollar Tree, everything in the store a dollar, and found a dozen toys, everything from a periscope to a rocket. We spent $11 there and that included wrapping paper.

We stopped in at a Goodwill store where I found a wonderful desk calendar. Each page has the date, a section for my daily "to do" list, another section to keep track of exercise and diet, a quote of the day to inspire, and a sudoku puzzle.  It's perfect.

At the Habitat for Humanity store called "Restore" we looked through the donated items.  We want a new (used) bathroom sink.  One for $5 seemed to be perfect until Gary whipped out his measuring tape and found it was three inches too wide for the space we had.  We'll keep on looking.

Gary used to work at the Menards home improvement store on the east side of Appleton so we always stop to say hello to his friends.  There I found tea lights for tomorrow night's party.  They will be burning merrily while we dine on Gary's tacos and all the other food we are preparing.

We stopped to see Gary's sister and to abscond with two gallon bags of Chex party mix, her specialty.

When we returned home it was to pick up my car at J.J.'s.  The mechanics had fixed the brakes and replaced parts that were still under warranty.  That included the labor. While they were at it they changed the oil and replaced the air filter.  This cost me only $35.  As I said, I can always depend on those guys.

Tonight, I baked pecan puffs, one of our favorite Christmas cookies.  I made a half recipe, two dozen cookies.  Only a dozen are left.  Gary has powdered sugar all over his shirt.  I will bake more in the ten days left before Christmas.  We'll worry about the calories in the New Year.

Tonight, present wrapping and the Nutcracker Suite on TV.  The Christmas tree lights are on and the tea lights are lit.

The holidays are so lovely.

Timing

When Gary moved here,  I had been living alone for over a decade. I wondered if the two of us would get along in this little house.  Mostly I feared that I would never find enough time to do my work. That proved to be unfounded. 

Gary is a night owl.  He goes to bed long after midnight and doesn't wake up until some time around 9:00 a.m. 

I am just the opposite.  I am in bed at 10:00 p.m. at the latest and up by 5:30 a.m., some mornings even earlier.  I only need seven hours of sleep.  

Those morning hours are precious to me.  That's when I work on short stories or my novel.  Three solid hours in front of the computer is enough for me.  Later in the day, I work on storytelling projects.  Gary and I are thinking of taking the Circle Tour drive around Lake Superior next summer, visiting friends in the Thunder Bay area. I will be trying to pick up some performances at libraries and nursing homes to pay for the gas, so I am spending several hours a day working on that. It doesn't need the concentration writing requires, so there, too, I get quite a bit done.  Giving up volunteer work helps, too.  

I often take an hour's nap in the afternoon.  During that time, Gary is free to work on his own projects, plus he usually has three hours on his own after I go to bed. 

We each have the time we need to get things done.  

Photo Scrapbook

Each New Year's Eve I put together a scrapbook for the year.  Along with the photographs Gary and I take, I put in brochures, maps, and journal entries copied from this blog, or in previous years, newspaper columns I wrote.  I have forty of these scrapbooks in my living room bookcase. Every page is meticulously labeled.

This New Year's will be a little different because what a year 2011 has been!  This was a year of political turmoil in Wisconsin so I have photos from the Madison protests in March.  It was a year spent with nature from our first hike to Fanny Lake in the snows of February and ending in the final autumn camping excursion at Laura Lake in October. In between we observed flora and fauna all around the state.  We canoed, we swam. We counted cranes and guarded sturgeon. There was time we spent with friends from other parts of the country and the world.  There were improvements to this house and a garden to take care of.

Then there was my grandson Evan who lost his first tooth this year, learned how to read, flew a kite and watched hot air balloons with me.  Finally, it was the year of my six week western tour in June and July.

There were so many events in 2011 that there are far too many photos and mementos for one scrapbook. It requires two.  I knew I would never finish recording the year on New Year's Eve, so I started early.  As of today, my June-July western tour is covered in a purple bound book. I've printed out the blog entries that go with the photographs and made additional notations.

All of that work served two other purposes.  Beginning in February, I'll be presenting talks in Wisconsin libraries about my summer journey.  I need to have the photos in order on a CD so I can do a slide show. Most of that work is now complete.  Finally, I am planning on self-publishing a book on my adventures. I will work on that in January.  

That leaves the rest of the year to record. Tomorrow, I'll order some more photos printed up and then be ready to finish that second album as the year comes to a close.  

Finally, the Concert

As I often point out, I don't watch football games nor pay much attention to what the Packers do.  I knew there was a game today and that was it.  When I arranged our Advent concert, I checked the Packer schedule and called all the churches in town to make sure there were no conflicts and there weren't. The Packers played at noon which gave them plenty of time before they finished up.  It seemed we had picked the best night possible.

I wrote the press releases, made sure we were on every community calendar on local websites, newspapers and radio and television stations.  The posters were up all over town.

Then this morning in church, I found out the worst had happened.  The National Football League had changed the time of the football game from noon to 3:30.  The game would still be going on when our concert began.  We lost a tenor who of course went to the game.

When the Sunday school demanded use of our practice space, I'm afraid I blew up with a mighty hissy fit. We had not had the use of the church for two weeks and we had a concert tonight. Once again, the choir was forced to practice in the choir room. I announced this was my last concert and my last year as choir director.  (In fact, that is true.  I am ready to move on and had decided that a week ago.)

I came home with rising blood pressure, angry that what I had been working on for months was falling apart. Gary fed me lunch, took me for a walk, and then told me to take a nap.   I did and felt much better.  By 4:30 I was back at church rehearsing and running people through parts.  I worked out where my people would sit, talked several people into singing with us.

In the end, we pulled off the concert.  We had a nice mix of vocals and instrumentals with singers from the youngest Sunday school kid to the old timers in the choir.  We had a superb flautist,  pianists and some moving solos.  Our twenty voice choir rocked the place, especially on "Holy is the Newborn Child".

We didn't have much of an audience but the people who came enjoyed the concert and stayed for the reception.   But it was my last concert as choir director.  A relief.