Blogmas Day 24 – Crazy Christmas Eve

Well yesterday and today did not go entirely as planned.

Last night the condensate pump on the furnace turned out to be leaking.  I could hear the motor running when the furnace was off when it shouldn’t be running, went downstairs and found a hell of a lot of flooding.  My outdoor tent was soaked, there was a large puddle of water and a nice big headache.  Talked to my property manager, but of course with it being the holidays no one would be able to come out until after Christmas.  But he assured me that the motor and furnace would be okay and we’d just have to deal with the water overflow.  At least by that point it had slowed down and was leaking a lot slower.  So it could have been worse really.

Unfortunately what that meant was falling behind with my plans.  Ended up getting no baking done, fell behind on cleaning and had to make it all up today which was not the plan.  I mean what are you going to do, certain things needed to be done, but it was unfortunate.  Pinched my sciatica on top of it all, so I’ve been trying to rest my back as much as possible.  That’s a pain that doesn’t easily go away on its own.  And my dad was working today so didn’t get to see him either.  What a crazy Christmas Eve to end the year on.

At least it eventually got done.

So now mom and I get to enjoy Jólabókaflóð (pronounced yo-la-bok-a-flot), the Icelandic tradition of exchanging books and chocolate on Christmas Eve.  We’ve been doing it for several years now when a website I can’t recall published an article about it and it suddenly caught on.  And why not, it’s a fabulous tradition!  There wern’t a whole lot of books that caught my eye this year but I did get The Legend of Drizzt volume 4 to add to my collection.  I’m one of those that doesn’t just collect a series but has to have the same style too.  It’s a quirk.  Of course, I have to work my way through the rest of volume 2 and then get through volume 3 before I can even get to it but the point is it’s now on my bookshelf and that’s all that matters.  That and I have copious amounts of Ferrero Rocher to keep me company.

Blogmas Day 23 – The Day Before the Eve

I honestly can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve already.  These past couple weeks seem to have flown by (but don’t they always?).  The snow has paused for the time being, and the sun has returned!

For however much longer the sun will be up, anyway.  We’re also due for more snow over the next few days so I’ll enjoy the daylight as long as I can.

In the meantime, getting the last bit of details done before tomorrow since I want to do absolutely nothing except what floats my boat and a bit of food prep for Christmas dinner.  Also plan to visit my dad if he’s not working which is a tradition I’ve tried to hold onto as long as I can, and drop off a Christmas present to one of the ladies at my local Tim’s that I’ve become good friends with.  She loves seeing Dalila, so puppy will be getting a good bath tonight so she’s all fluffy for the holiday.  Also getting the urge to purge stuff which I’m trying super hard to ignore for the time being.  More important things to get done first.  I swear my flows are all wrong, I always get the inclination to clean house or go out into the garden or write at times where it’s just not possible at that moment or I hurt like hell.  Then again my life’s a chaotic muss of stuff so I guess it’s not surprising, haha!

Blogmas Day 22 – Snow Coming Down

Well today’s the first day of days getting longer, not that it’ll be noticeable with the current weather.  Lots of clouds and lots more snow.  Well they did say we’d get a lot of it this year.

I love the way everything looks in the snow.  The pine trees, the outdoor Christmas decorations, the lawns, everything.  We’ve had a few green Christmases in the past and I don’t think I could ever get used to it.  I’m sure it probably doesn’t phase anyone who’s lived in places where it doesn’t snow, after all you know what you know.  But no matter where I keep my roots or how badly global warming possibly fucks up our environment, this holiday season will never be complete without a dusting of snow.  If only winter didn’t linger as long as it usually does though…

The downsides kind of suck though.  Side streets take longer to get plowed out, and by then the snow is so packed down because of everyone driving that they don’t plow well.  Some people get pretty stupid when the weather goes bad and make problems even worse.  Going somewhere?  Plan ahead, traffic’s going to be slow.  Kind of sounds like first-world problems reading that, and I suppose it is since things could definitely be a lot worse.

I could live further north where they get far more snow than us!

Whelp, time to go get the shovel again…

Blogmas Day 21 – The Season of Jol

And so winter officially begins.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research to get ideas to do my own little thing tonight.  Couldn’t find a Yule log which I really wanted, will have to see if I can happen upon someone who decided to cut down a tree and re-purpose a piece of it.  Birch would be ideal, oak would be even better.  I have to watch what I bring in the house since the house panthers and the diva have a penchant for being too curious kitties and chew on things.  So no poinsettias, no holly, nothing that’s a health hazard.  I know some people will just keep those things out of reach but I don’t want to take chances if a petal or something happens to fall off.  Makes me too paranoid.  Besides, fake stuff lasts longer.  Still want a Christmas cactus though, still have yet to get one.  Maybe this’ll be the year?

It’s interesting how many old cultures revered this time of the year.  Especially with all the similarities, the acknowledgement of light.  You can see it in Saturnalia with the Greeks, Alban Arthan with the Celts, I haven’t looked beyond the European-ish areas of the world but it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if Asian cultures, natives and such had similar beliefs.  Often the beliefs revolve around a male figure but some reading I did into the Nordic beliefs point that belief may have been in a female deity as opposed to a male one.  I’ve been finding a lot of that lately, hidden female figures of the season.  I’ll definitely be spending a good chunk of the new year doing this research.

For tonight though, I’m going to enjoy the snowfall and light some candles, and quietly observe this most wonderful night of my year.

Blogmas Day 20 – Rough Times

Seems Christmas 2017 is going to be a hell of a time for a lot of people.

I’ve been seeing a lot of post from friends and acquaintances on Facebook and elsewhere having to deal with all sorts of things.  Health issues, the prospect of having to endure shitty family members, not having anyone around for the holidays, trying to get things done.  My DM called our game for the rest of the year because his brother was in a super bad accident and he’s going to be understandably spending a lot of time caring for him.  That’s got to be one of the worst in my opinion.  Hopefully his brother has a quick and full recovery.

I’m working hard on refusing to let the mounting stuff I want to get done get the best of me.  I’m so behind.  Cleaning that has yet to be done, baking that has to be done, gifts I wanted to whip up that I just don’t seem to have the energy for.  It’s frustrating but all I can do is pace myself and whatever gets done, gets done.  Sometimes you just have to accept your current best for what it is and make the most of it.

Blogmas Day 19 – Mail Woes

I realize that the further we get into December the crazier the postal service gets, but really.  I had a delivery due today, my new phone to be exact and was woken up to a knock on the door.  Ran as fast as I could down to the door, even gave a shout hoping whoever was on the other side could hear someone was coming…only to find that not only had there been an attempted delivery but that truck was long gone.  What the shit, there is a van in my driveway!  You’re telling me you can’t give people more than ten seconds to answer the bloody door especially when there’s a strong likelihood someone is freaking there!?

At least they knocked this time.  I guess.  But now I have to wait until tomorrow to pick up which is a pain in the ass.

Add to that another package hasn’t yet arrived.  We got Dalila a BarkBox for Christmas because we thought it’d be a fun gift for her and they had a special going where the first box was only $5.  So what the hey, right?  Well that box was supposed to be here by now and I’ve been religiously checking the mailbox the past few weekdays.  No Barkbox.  Really hoping it’s just late and not won’t-be-here-for-Christmas late.  Please don’t be lost in the mail!

Blogmas Day 18 – Christmas in the Mall

Who doesn’t love the malls at Christmas, at least from a non-shopping perspective?  Christmas shopping done long ago, Mom and I decided to visit the mall and have a look around.  It actually wasn’t too crazy although I wasn’t feeling too great, that put a wee damper on the day but the sights were worth it.  Santa had a great little setup this year, although noticeably smaller from previous years, which is strange.  I guess with all the work they’d been doing there wasn’t space anymore downstairs.  Still a great display though.  They also had giant lit Christmas ornaments hanging from the mall’s ceiling down at the spaces where you can look down to the first floor from the second, some silver and some gold and some even pink with twinkling lights so they looked like they glittered.  But the big focal this year were the giant lit figures throughout the mall, and I mean huge!  They were all so tall they could only be positioned in places where they could reach even past the second floor.  One was a beautiful Christmas three, the others were giant deer with antlers, the smallest was a Christmas ornament that you could actually walk through and wasn’t tall enough to reach the second floor.  Absolutely impressive this year for sure.

We didn’t go to every store but one we never miss when we hit the mall is The Bombay Company.  Oh the furniture in that store…all the beautiful expensive furniture and decorations.  I couldn’t help myself and snapped so many pictures.  Whoever is in charge of decorating in that shop has a hell of a good eye.  Ah, le sigh, to have the income to be able to go crazy in that store…

All in all, a good day.

Blogmas Day 13 – Season of Lights

Everyone’s finally bringing out the lights!

Walking Dalila at night has finally paid off.  Just around the corner from me there’s at least fourteen houses all decked out in lights and decorations.  Those projectors are really gaining popularity now, aren’t they?  So many houses have them not just as a single display but along with lights and decorations as well.  I got to say some of them are really nice looking, although my favourite will always be the red and green settings.  Reminds me of holly and evergreen and is just a very holiday pairing.  And I love that there are still so many houses that decorate, there have been some years were it seemed like the number of people doing such decorating were becoming less and less.  That could have been due to area of course, but it wouldn’t be the first holiday to suffer from lack of interest in some way.  I’ve noticed less and less kids trick or treating these past several years that at this point it’s not worth buying candy anymore, but that’s another post for another time.

I remember as a child there always seemed to be so many streets with many lit houses.  Perhaps that’s an inflated childhood memory, but that’s what I remember.  With the old school bulbs because we didn’t have LED or lifetime bulbs back in the 80s and 90s.  The sights always gave me a warm homey feeling that gets happily rekindled every season so much so that it’s downright depressing when we reach that point that the lights while beautiful have finally overstayed their welcome and have to come down.  But I guess they wouldn’t be quite so magical if we kept them up all year long.

Blogmas Days 11-12 – Not-So-Wet Winter

Well, the snow is back.  It’s been coming down quite well these couple days and from the look of things, looks like it’s going to stay.  So definitely a white Christmas this year for sure.

There’s a very unique silence that comes with the snowfall, almost like you can feel the world being asleep in that moment.  Not quite like the middle of the night in your house, or creepy middle-of-the-night silence, more like a hushed whisper.  It’s peaceful.  I love being out in it, and it doesn’t matter what time of day it is it’s there.  I’ll go out and shovel just to spend time outside in it.  And the night never gets totally dark when it’s snowing if you ever notice.  It’s like the clouds reflect light or hold a bit of their own so it’s almost more of a dusky night than a total one.

The downside?  Lots of shoveling.  Best way to mitigate that – more shoveling!

Yeah that kind of sounds counter-productive, but shoveling it repeatedly when it’s only a small buildup means you don’t have it up to your ankles (or higher) in the morning, with a nice giant pile in front of your car courtesy of the snow plow.  You gotta do what you gotta do.

Blogmas Days 8-10 – Wet Winter

Not a lot to write home about other than it’s been pretty soggy weather.  Showers and more showers.  If my tulips start popping up it wouldn’t surprise me in the least (I hope I remember to pull those bulbs up next spring).  It really feels like experiencing Christmas somewhere else, like I’ve moved to the west coast or somewhere more southern.  And it seems like this is to continue for at least another week.  Hasn’t made it easy for the outdoor strays I’ve been caring for, either.  I set up shelter for them in my shed, and while the one doesn’t seem to want to stay there she’ll still go in there to eat.  It at least gives her a break from the weather but I wish I could get her in.  Maybe there’ll be a Christmas miracle.

Spotted a few houses with Christmas lights up.  This season is where my bad habit of waiting until it gets dark before walking the dog comes from.  A bad habit to be sure but as long as Dalila gets to go up her favourite street (and boy does she know it when she sees it!) she doesn’t seem to mind.  Let the light hunting begin!