Around Here

 Around here....

We are mourning the loss of Fetcher, spending a fair amount of time looking at old photos of him and remembering the good old days.  It's bittersweet.  And it's necessary.   One good thing about being older is that you know that time does help.

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We're all decorated for Christmas!  As Auntie Mame said, "We need a little Christmas, right this very minute!" 

This year we decided to simplify and not put lights up over the door.  We're just too distracted to get the ladder out and climb up there.

Good thing, because it took forever to get this little lantern planter looking decent.  The videos I watched made it sound so easy to take some greens, a light, and some red dogwood twigs and turn them into a welcoming planter for the holidays.  Well, not so easy to actually do!  When I'd get frustrated, I'd remember how much money I was saving by not buying something ready made.

I always love to get the mantel decorations up.

And all three of us picked out this lovely Fraser fir from Creekside Nursery and got it decorated.  Afterward Paul treated us to pizza!

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My sister-in-law, Dawn, and my nephew, Michael, and I went to see the musical White Christmas at the Denver Performing Arts Center, which was a lot of fun and put me in the mood for a white Christmas.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast is looking clear all the way past Christmas.  But you never know around here, and I'm hoping to have some lovely snow on the ground for the holiday.  

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After my experience making a print at the Denver Art Museum, I played with making my own rubber stamps.  I found it to be engrossing, but challenging.  This photo shows how I was playing with making stars.  Pretty primitive at this point, as I'm just getting used to using the nib on the carving tool.

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I've been distracted and having a hard time reading, so I was excited to find myself finally "captured by a book. "  I love that wonderful feeling of having something your just can't put down.  

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We think we've solved the problem of having too many mismatched containers for storing leftovers; these Rubbermaid glass dishes, which not only stack but have stacking lids as well.  Perfect for a small kitchen like ours.  Ah, how good it feels to solve these little difficulties!  

Linking to my friend, Lee Anna's "I Like Thursday" blog, celebrating the small but important joyful aspects of daily life as a counterpart to the constant drumroll of news and politics.