Have been slamming away on a quilt, so not too much to report or share.  I did manage to read a novel by Steve Martin, An Object of Beauty.

The book is well written, and is about the art and gallery scene in New York City.   It makes me very glad I have nothing to do with it!  I learned a good bit, including that the main character, Lacey Yeager, is utterly unsympathetic.  As a result, I can’t say I’d recommend reading this book, mostly because I can’t imagine writing an entire book about such a “yuck” person.

On the other hand, the writing was quite good—Steve Martin is turning into one of my heroes:  funny, good actor, musician, author, multi-talented, hard working, always exploring…these are things that bump people up in my estimation! (think Paul Simon and Paul McCartney!).  Anyway, I’d gladly read another book my Martin–hopefully one with a nicer main character.

However, one quote made the entire book worth it.  At the end of chapter 61, on p. 271, is this exchange between Lacey and her sort-of-beau, an FBI agent specializing in art fraud, about a painting by a Russian of a moonlit night, with the light reflecting on the water of the harbor:

“Tell me why you like it.”

“Well, it’s pretty.  Kind of lonely looking.  And it’s symbolic don’t you think?”

“Symbolic?”

“That’s where something in the picture stands for something else.  Like truth or something.”

“Thank you.  So what’s symbolic about it?”

“Remember, this is not my best subject.”

“I’ll remember.”

“Well, the water, to me, represents the earth and all the things that happen on the earth, reality.  And the moonlight represents our dreams and our minds.”

“And…”

“And the reflection…well, I guess the reflection represents art.  It’s what lies between our dreams and reality.”

WOW…. “art…it’s what lies between our dreams and reality”…how amazing is that?   That is SO IT!  Thank you, Mr. Martin!

And the birthday:  today is the 112th anniversary of my dear old Daddio-o-o-o-o’s birth in 1899.  He lived until 1995, and died two days before I was scheduled to arrive for a visit.  He hadn’t been in the nursing home for four weeks.  Mama said he asked every time she went to visit when he would come home.  After about two weeks, he stopped asking.  I think he realized he wasn’t going home, and he just gave up.  He lived an amazing, generous, long and interesting life.  Think of it…he was born literally during the reign of Queen Victoria, in the era of gas lights and horse and buggy.  When he died, man had landed on the moon and computers were on the rise.  Wow.  I hope I live long too, then that I get to see him and my brothers (his sons from a first marriage, and both gone) again and we can re-live it all.  Happy Birthday, Daddy.

The pug always gets top billing...and he loved his raccoon! See how proud he is!

The before:

Twas the night before Christmas, and the goodies were actually wrapped!

The stocking were hung by the chimney with care (using my new best thingies, easily removed “command strip” hooks):

I promise...the stockings really are there, just off to the left....

The during:

That's Paul's hand in the lower right--he tends to glare at the camera so I mostly take pictures of the boys, when they tolerate it....

We had a lovely Christmas and hope you did, too!  I recently killed my beloved Panasonic DMC FZ-30 camera.  The first death blow was when hiking about 3 years ago and I slipped and the camera banged against a rock hard enough to chip the metal on the rim…miraculously, the camera still took good photos…good enough that all the studio / in progress shots in my book are taken on that one “after the fall” (and no, I didn’t get but a scrape…I was a lot more upset about the camera)!…the final death blow was a couple weeks ago when it slipped off a pile of fabric on my work table.  I had moved it, foolishly, to the top of a not-terribly-stable or flat pile to make room to cut something.  Then I bumped the table.  Ooops.  Landed lens down, and that led to a repair that led to the front of the lens coming off.  Erg.  So I bought a Canon G12 as a carry-around camera (not one of the fits in a jeans or shirt pocket size, but fits in a jacket pocket or purse easily) and have discovered it takes AWESOME pictures.  These were almost ALL taken *without* flash and handheld…. I could never have done that on the old camera!

The not-roast beast:

Thumper had to check out Paul's gift of salami, which beloved SIL Joyce sends from California since we can't get this here on the East Coast

We will only touch briefly on the fact that Paul left the salami on the table and the next day the pug, temporarily persona non grata, helped himself to one of them.  Including a lot of the paper wrapper.  Astonishingly, the pug was not sick. Paul was a bit queasy about the loss of the one salami, but he didn’t ask the dog to return it.  Ahem.

Are you done taking pictures yet?

After snapping about a dozen pictures of the boys and Paul, I hit their limit….. but I DO like the camera!

Eli helped a lot… it is so wonderful to have someone else in the family who totally “gets” the tree thing, and the tradition, and is interested in which ornaments came from where (literally all over the world!) and when…. and that would be me and Eli!   We assembled the tree (more on that in a sec) and got the lights on over the weekend, and the ornaments on yesterday!

The tree!

Here’s a close-up.  Even *I* will admit my ornament collecting (it was supposed to be one a year, but is usually more what with gifts from friends and my inability to stop at one of the purchased kind too….).  We’re hoping in the new house (moving locally in late January, fates willing) that the tree will be in a spot where we can reach the back side of it so we can spread out the ornaments!

LOTS of ornaments! On the center right, a chola from La Paz, Bolivia, on the center left one Eli made, the red reindeer is from when I was in about 1st grade and to his left a painted lantern from my last overseas trip with the Foreign Service to Moscow. Tthe tin reindeer is from the Waterford Craft Fair in Virginia, Top right has an orca from when we lived in Friday Harbor; the cub scout is Joshua back in first grade (and it was a Cub Scout project). There's a trillium stained glass on the lower right from my assignment to the US Consulate in Toronto (Trillium is the official Ontario flower), there are miniature Bolivian hats here and there, and in the top right a wooden US capitol purchased when we lived in DC on Capitol Hill. And sort of in the center, Eli's origami bat (made in school) and a little foamie mousie he made, too! Our life, on a tree!

As for “assembling the tree.”  You might wonder why a family that lives in the Pine Tree State would have an artificial tree.  Well, when you are in the Foreign Service and live all over the world, you had best take your Christmas goodies with you.  La Paz, Bolivia, for example, was in the barren, nearly treeless, Altiplano.  The next overseas assignment was in Gabon, in Central Africa.  LOTS of trees….jungle!….there.  But Christmas trees?  Not quite.  So we had an artificial tree that traveled all over the world with us.  And by about 1995 it looked like it had been around the world.  We donated it to a charitable auction (they decorate trees and auction them) and bought a new one on sale after Christmas.  It was also larger, to better house the growing ornament collection.

Fifteen years later, I think I need to prune what goes on the tree every year! Even the larger tree is crowded.  That’s in part because Mom sent me ALL the ornaments I had sent mom and dad over the years.  The good news is that when the boys have their own homes, I can divide up everything into three piles, and each of the boys will have  a matching set since I usually bought one for mom and dad and another of the same for me—two sets!  Good thing we didn’t have three kids!  So that’s my story…  after nearly 30 years, we’ve had two trees.  I like them. They’re part of the family tradition just like the ornaments.  Enjoy the love and the lights of the season, Sarah

We woke up today to the first snow-misting (too light to be a true snowfall) of the season, so I’m celebrating by sharing this YouTube video with you.

The first time I heard the Hallelujah chorus was shortly after college when I was living near Washington, D.C.  I was friends with a Jewish guy (whom I wanted as a boyfriend, but alas he was coming off a serious break-up and wasn’t interested….sigh….don’t recall his name but his car was an ancient Pugeot named Ogg) who loved classical music and opera.  For Christmas, he gave me a gift of a ticket to go with him to the Kennedy Center for the holiday performance of Handel’s Messiah.

I was utterly mystified when everyone suddenly stood up!  The not-a-boyfriend explained that when first played for the King, the King was so moved that he instantly jumped up on his feet.  Since no one was permitted to sit while the King stood, everyone else in attendance at the performance also stood, and that tradition has continued now for what, almost 300 years?  So, I invite you to stand up with me and enjoy this—wouldn’t you have loved to be there?

Here’s to joy and sharing and the unexpected in life!

PS—just looked it up in Wikipedia, there it said about the King (George II of England) and standing during the chorus:

• He was so moved by the performance that he rose to his feet.
• Out of tribute to the composer.
• As was and is the custom, one stands in the presence of royalty as a sign of respect. The Hallelujah chorus clearly places Christ as the King of Kings. In standing, King George II accepts that he too is subject to the Lord of Lords.

Cool beans (as my teen would say)!  And I can sing along and my lack of ability to carry a tune won’t offend anyone except perhaps the cats and the pug!

A while back I learned something from Lisa W. (then at Curves, now at Quarry Hill where mom lives, first in assisted living and now in the memory loss unit…mom lives there that is, not Lisa…she works there!):  every day say what was a good thing or the best thing that happened to you that day.  And nothing backhanded (saying that the best thing was that the day wasn’t any worse than it was doesn’t quite cut it).  So I try (but don’t always remember) to give thanks daily.

At our local quilt chapter auction this past month I bought the adorable felted wool mat and --for the first time in memory-- remembered to bring out my Thanksgiving candles, which I have had since I was about 6! I believe these are now beyond "vintage" and headed towards "antique." And that is my October Angel (my birth month) in the background, a gift from gramma about 50 years ago!

But today is the annual U.S. feast and giving of thanks.  This year, I am so glad that despite our very small numbers, the four of us are here, happy, healthy and together.  As you can see from the photo, my pleas to “wait for the Thanksgiving photo” were this year greeted with “heck no I’m eating!” <grin!>

Wait for the photo? Apparently not this year LOL! PS--notice Joshua, on the right, wearing Elmo pants! Love 'em!

Here’s the repast in preparation….I try to clean as I go, otherwise it would be impossible in our no-counter-space kitchen!  After breakfast I started with the pie crust, then the cranberry sauce, then the pie filling, then the stuffing, then putting the hot pie filling into the just-baked crust (A recipe from The Cook’s Bible, where you bake the crust separately as if making a banana cream pie, cook the pumpkin pie filling on the stovetop, then combine and finish in the over for about 25 minutes.  Helps avoid soggy crust.) Anyway, once I get that done, I clear out and hubby does the turkey. I do NOT “do” raw birds or large meat…they need to be mostly cooked before I get near them!  Then I do the potatoes, veggies and gravy.

In progress...pie made, Turkey in the oven......

As far as I am concerned, the best reason for roasting a turkey is to make the gravy that goes on the potatoes.  Half the pan of potatoes is for me (ditto with the gravy, tho I usually get a fight on that one) and half for everyone else.  Can you tell I’m Irish?  Life is GOOD!

I hope whether you are in the United States celebrating also or elsewhere in the world that your lives are filled with goodness, love and light.  And thread and fabric and time to create!  Blessings be, Sarah