Snapshot 12.30.15

–Sorry for the unintentionally light posting schedule. I worked my everloving butt off trying to make Christmas happen with all the trimmings, and there was a degree of fallout one must necessarily deal with when one has a chronic illness. I was barely recovered from the yearly drunken singalong and goodtimes party when I had to prepare for three days of non-stop Christmassing at various families’ houses. We are so lucky to live near the lion’s share of our family. We recognize that, and in fact it was the reason I fought so hard not to move during my husband’s long months of unemployment after the layoff. It makes for wonderfully busy holidays, and since Anthony had to work during so much of it, the prep and organizing pretty much fell to me. Which, I love to do that sort of thing, but there is always the chronic illness fallout to pay. Added to this, Isobel is on winter break and Elias doesn’t nap when sister is around, so we’ve been spending lots of time together.

–Our Christmas Eve was lovely and stormy and full of rain. In Modesto, the town down the road that we drove to for dinner, it hailed, and it still covered the lawn at Grandma Marty’s house when we arrived in the evening. I picked up a handful and showed it to the kids; it looked like a dirty slushie. The balls of ice were irregular and the size of bbs. One of my local IG friends managed to create a snowman-like creature out of hail. It was a rare wonder. I thin it was Isobel’s first hail encounter. (Truth be told, I was awed, she was more interested in presents).

–I was having a bad day last week as I was convalescing, and out of the blue a friend of me sent me a message telling me not only that she loved me, but telling me why she loved it. It really turned my night around. Telling people you love them is really wonderful, but telling them why you love them is a rare gift.

–After spending much of this month feeling like a total scrub, I am accepting my friend Lindsay’s nomination for a selfie challenge. I’m hoping that will kickstart some effort to look and feel nice again. I nominate all of you! Especially if you’ve been feeling like a scrub lately.

—Isobel has been introduced to the magic that is Bob Ross and the Joy of Painting. The best part, besides watching her get into it and paint herself, was hearing her replies to the things Bob would say. For example, “I CAN’T THINK LIKE A TREE! MOM, HE WANTS ME TO THINK LIKE A TREE!”

–I discovered the best way to neatly store rolls of wrapping paper.

–So, Christmas! We did a bunch of handmade gifts for the family, and I am writing some posts about them. We went wild with shrinky dinks, and probably the best thing we made was the Pikachu & peace sign guitar pick for Grandma. We bought Isobel an ocarina, which means now I’m going to have to learn to play the ocarina so I can teach her. First up, Saria’s Song, naturally. One of her Grandmas gave her a Hello Kitty sewing machine that is perfection, and my uncle gave her a unique instrument called a strum stick, which is like a three-stringed guitar, and sounds like the instrument the hippie nomad plays in Cave of the Two Lovers. We spent much of the day strumming along while singing Secret tunnel! Secret tunnel Secret secret secret secret tunnel!

Holiday Card 2015. This year I made New Year’s cards because I’m not kidding myself.

Snapshot 12.23.15. Drunken Holiday Parties and toddlers dressed as Ewoks.

Christmas Light Fantastic. I love photographing Christmas lights.

FF Mother’s Day Estate Sale. My love letter to the internet!

How to spot all the cameos in Star Wars. Massive spoilers, obviously, but a really fun read, and I enjoyed SW the second time all the more for reading it.

Excuse me, sir. Do you have a minute to talk about global warming?

We all have things we are proud of.

The last line of every Harry Potter book.

My cat just sent this to me!

Thanks, but I’ll decide how many people are eating this.

This Smith’s song sucks!

There’s a musician on Twitter who will name your band for $35. I do it for free. Jeff is a fount of creativity.

This is what happens when you let Werner Herzog design a Pokémon.

15 minutes into Netflix and Phil.

Used bookstores are becoming a thing again. Hooray!

When your dad gets a label maker for Christmas.

So Apparently There Is Something Called A Salmon And It’s Freaking Adorable. Soooo cuuuuute!