all that's past is prologue...

  Right now I'm sitting in the guest room with the stray kitty we found, giving him some love and attention after just dropping $100 to have him have an initial vet visit and get an FIV/FeLV test. Because his owners have not shown up yet despite posting everywhere and checking twice for a microchip and I don't know that finding him a home even begins to be possible without at least that.  Taking in this cat was the right thing to do but also an expensive conundrum we find ourself in (similar to a situation this summer where I tried to help a friend by paying to regain some of their stuff and and only apparently made the whole thing worse). And if that's not a summary for this year — the bad and the good completely intertwined — I don't know what is. I mean, the election totally sucked, so there's no confusion there. And our neighbor, John McCormick, pretty much the best neighbor you could ever hope to have, dying this summer is also a terrible thing and he is missed...

I wanted a Pomeranian for Christmas, and Beatrix was desperate for a puppy under the tree. It was not all that unlike the last time we were trying to lobby for a dog... So on Christmas Eve, after people had left, I kept hearing this meowing and was worried one of the cats was trapped. Patrick confirmed that all three were accounted for. But when Beatrix went up to her room she heard the meowing too, so we went outside and there was a poor, cold, meowing kitty in our neighbor's yard. It was afraid to walk on the snow, but Patrick eventually leaned over the fence and scooped it up, which is when it started to purr. We put it in the guest room with some food and water and a makeshift litter box. We asked Deb and it was not her cat. Christmas Day we posted him in all the neighborhood sites and lost cat sites we could think of. Today we bought him to the vet to have him scanned, but there was no micro-chip. Even the vet tech called it the "Cat Distribution System." Patrick wal...

As previously stated, my mom was the queen of the Christmas activities. A big tradition, since the time I was tiny, was to go shopping downtown, have dinner, and visit the 8th floor of Dayton's to see the big Christmas exhibit. As I grew older, and began to know the people who designed those exhibits (hat tip to y'all), they did not become less magical — in fact, they became more so, because I knew all the care and work that went into the shows. Even as shopping and dining became less prevalent downtown, we stuck with tradition. But then of course Dayton's closed. A local family, however, purchased 24 of the elves somehow (can you imagine that conversation? "Honey, you'll never guess what I bought today!") They began restoring them, and acquired a few more, and this year they set them up on the porch of their home at 1887 Saunders for people to visit. There's a FB page on it here . Patrick and I went last night and it was truly magical. What a holiday gift...

If you know anything about Patrick and me, it might be that we love our yoga class, Yoga and a Pint.  Usually we are there every Saturday and Sunday at 10:30. But we were out of town for Thanksgiving, and then it was the holiday shows at circus, and then Patrick had covid. So today (for holiday sweater day!) was the first time we had been all month. Despite feeling a little creaky, it felt great to be back on the matt! Especially in a holiday mood! I love you and love this class, so will meet you there anytime!

Between exams and Patrick having covid and me being stressed with work, it's been hard as hell to get ready for the holidays this year and I have been really sad with missing out on a lot of the fun and anticipation. Today we got to make up for it a little. We started out at our friends' Chip and Amy's (and Axel's!), which is a great holiday open house they throw every year. Great food (by Chowgirls and Marc Heu), interesting people from all of their connections, and a lovely vibe. Last year we stayed until the bitter end and the high end whiskey came out, but this year we were triple-booked. Next our friends Nancy and David were having an open house. Beatrix goes to school with their daughter, and the party was a mix of adults and teens. We stopped on the way at my aunt and uncle's so we could grab my Norwegian cousin's teens, so they could attend a party with American teens, and I think everyone had a good time. Then I headed out to my friend Marta's for a...

 Our Christmas tree this year is very elegant and pretty (it better be, trees this year cost a fortune!) As opposed to last year, which was very wide! In 2022 we actually remembered to put the top on (it's still gotta be around here somewhere): Pandemic tree that no one saw but us: All the way back to baby's first Christmas tree: ------ I keep on forgetting to mention in these posts that we will again be hosting "All Is Calm" this year — our Christmas Day tradition. Stop by any time between 1 and 5pm on Christmas Day for the most casual of open houses. We'll be hanging out reading, chatting with anyone who shows up, maybe working on a puzzle of playing games, we'll have some cocktails and leftovers and the like. Bring something to share if you like — or don't — it's the most anti-hype holiday event you'll be invited to this year!

Much as I have enjoyed the mild fall, up until last week I was beginning to lose hope that we would have a whole Christmas. So the forecast this week cheered me up, and it was right! As of two minutes ago: I mean, it will be a real PITA to shovel out four houses, especially with Patrick still hit hard by covid. But it sure makes everything look a lot more magical. It sure makes me miss this guy though. Christmas won't be the same without him:

Because of *all this* (waves arms around frantically), I was unable to get any coats in to my friend Lara's annual drive for the Odd Couple. But I did have one coat to donate, and donating to coat drives and toy drives is an important part of Christmas activities to me. So this morning, after I dropped off Beatrix for her chemistry exam, I finally made it into Cold Front for their coat drive. The coat drive goes until they close for their winter break on 12/22, so you still have time (they said they would probably collect again after they return on 1/17 as well, because "it will still be winter.") But if you go now you'll get $1 off any menu item, so I treated myself to one of the best eggnog lattes I have ever had (I also recommend the "Flannel.") --- Also, in an update to yesterday, making cookies (which Beatrix brought to school today) made me realize how dirty our oven was, so I devoted some time to cleaning it last night. I always forget to take "b...

What do you do when you are buried with work, your daughter is in finals, your husband has covid, and you are in no way ready for the holiday? You fake it 'til you make it! So here I bring you my first countdown to Christmas post — the cookies I made because we are low on chocolate desserts for Christmas Eve (plus Patrick's teapot of throat coat tea). There's a huge bowl of dough still in the fridge I have to bake and the oven badly needs cleaning, but here we are!

It's about this time every year that I freak out about Christmas. The tree is up but not decorated, nothing is wrapped (and there's plenty left to buy), there are not enough cookies, Beatrix is rolling into final exams, I'm sick (in what seems to be an unwelcome new holiday tradition), and it all seems like a ton of pressure. If you search "Christmas" on my blog, you'll find a lot of similar posts. Friends have advice - "Just pick one or two things that matter." "Trim back the decorations." "No one care about the cookie tray." I love that they care enough to say these things. But here's the thing. For my mom, Christmas was The Thing. She loved it; she loved decorating, going to holiday events, baking cookies, making lefse (ok maybe not so much), shopping, crafting, Toys for Tots, Christmas lights tours, luminary, cheesy Christmas specials, Dayton's 8th floor, poinsettias, holiday cocktails, parties, caroling (though she co...

 (uhh, yeah, it's been a minute since I've gotten a build post up...) Yesterday was really warm. So, after I had done some errands like getting the dog's nails trimmed, and going to the glasses store and getting some Christmas shopping done, I took a hot minute to get some outdoor ornaments up. I had gotten these bulbs on the free page on FB. I always want *something* on the porch. but full-blown garland is too much and there's no place to plug in lights (and solar lights look pathetic in the winter). I like how cute and delicate they look. Maybe if I get really motivated before Christmas I'll make ice luminaria. I also got the garage window boxes done. I do a different theme every year, and this year was inspired by the NOLA Thanksgiving parade. My friend Kristen dropped by some spare green or it never would have happened, after spending $100 for our tree (yikes!) Then I went off and hosted an event at circus for the holiday show and then to Beatrix's Pops Conc...

We've been doing New Orleans Thanksgivings for  a few years now. Enough so that we know our route and timing, have our traditions, do some new things, but most of all see friends and family. 2024, because it's a b*tch, had other plans. Yes, 6 hours before we were to leave, I tested on a whim and because I felt a little off and... We had a sleepless night and came *this close* to leaving me at home for a week with no food and no car. But then by morning my fever was gone and I was not too symptomatic, so we all masked up, opened the windows a crack, and drove down with me sleeping in the back seat (so glad for the new car and the heated back seats!) I mean it kind of sucked, and I missed a lot of our fun traditions on the way down. But by the time we got there I felt better, and by Tuesday I was more or less fine, though with some residual exhaustion that still lingers. But we still got to tour Tulane. And have great cocktails. (Nightbloom was half a block down the street from u...