As the Holidays Fade Out ...

Here we are, now two full days into the new year of 2009 and I'm reluctant to let our beautiful tree go just yet, though it's inevitable some time soon.... So here are a couple more shots of some favorites that hadn't made it up here yet this season. I call this one the "Double Dog and Dragon Dare," for rather obvious reasons, lol. The Jack Russell Terrier is of course one of my favorites (another find from the infamous Denver airport delay), as is the (now) antique flocked plastic dog (bearing a faded tree) at the upper right ... this one is especially nostalgic for me, as I used to love seeing it on my sister's tree back in the early 1970s when it was actually in fashion! Back in my single days, when all I had for a tree was a small artificial table top 2 ft tree, my sister went through a bunch of her old ornaments and gave this one to me ... much to my delight! He's been on every tree I've had since about 1992 and as long as he holds out (he has faded quite a bit over the years) he'll always have a place of honor on our trees. The dragon is of much more recent vintage, having come to our house for the first time in December of 2007, when I found it at World Market and just had to get it for Fernymoss, who of course was delighted to now have a dragon gracing the tree!
Here's another favorite making a tardive appearance this year, the seahorse I found a few years ago (along with the pink flamingo) and just couldn't pass up ... I think it's easy to see why, because he brings such a lovely sparkle of blue and gold to the tree, and when seen in just the right light, he really seems to glow! And if you look closely in this shot, you can see a bit of yet another dog ornament hiding in the branches ... a little plush black and white pup wearing a Santa hat, yet another World Market find from last year I couldn't resist tucking into the tree this year (Fernymoss had forgotten or neglected him, but not I).

Speaking of World Market, we both had the 31st off from work and since we needed to run an errand in that neighborhood, we decided to swing by and check out their "huge 75% off after holiday sale." Usually we avoid these kinds of sales, because at least for me, they're rather depressing as one peruses all the unsold items picked through and rejected for whatever reason, but then again, sometimes one finds unusual and delightful bargains. The store looked rather bleak (like many just after the holiday blitz) but they had an incredible selection of ornaments still left, all 75% off, so of course we couldn't resist at least looking! We ended up being pretty judicious and only purchased 3 items for the tree (one of which is a gift for my sister): A lovely red and gold pagoda with tons of sparkle magic, a Big Ben ornament (roughly the scale of my Eiffel Tower) and a small (really small!) cluster of sparkly mushrooms I picked up for Fernymoss. All in all, I thought we demonstrated incredible restraint, despite the major discounts. There were still some good holiday food items still left, so I got a couple of boxes of European style cookies and grabbed a couple of marzipan pigs for Fernymoss (he loves the stuff, I hate it) ... but the best discovery was a magnum of Cristalino Nature Brut Spanish champagne that was on sale for $15.99 ... based on the posted reviews I decided to give it a try and we were quite delighted with it as we sipped our way through it while watching Moulin Rouge! on New Year's Eve. In fact, we liked it so much I'd like to go back and buy a few more bottles while they have it in stock, just to keep around for special occasions or gifts.

Ok, with Moulin Rouge, I suppose Absinthe might have been more appropriate given the historical context, but we were really more into the bubbly mood than Absinthian contemplation, since it was New Year's Eve and all! If you're a fan of vin mousseux (bubbly wine, not technically champagne), the Cristalino Nature Brut is a good choice, especiallly for entertaining, because it won't break your budget! As much as I love the fine French champagnes (I usually spring for a Perrier Jouët or Veuve Cliquot, but not this year), I've become more and more of a fan of the more moderately priced Spanish alternatives (such as Segura Viudas) over the past several years. There are some really good ones out there, you just have to give them a try and see if they fit your own palate....

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël! Feliz Navidad!

Well the big day officially arrived here quietly tonight, as we were watching A Christmas Story, one of our annual holiday rituals, after we exchanged (per family tradition) one gift early ... Fernymoss got a microplush fleece blanket for those chilly times watching movies, and I got a 2009 Welsh Corgi calendar (yay!). As my year of Jack Russell Terriers winds to an end, thanks to Fernymoss I'm back to a Corgi calendar again, and there are some really handsome dogs in this one. I think it's safe to say we both liked these gifts, small tokens of promises for tomorrow morning.

All in all, it was a very relaxing (if a bit cold outside!) and warm evening spent with my sister and her boyfriend for our annual Nosh Fest and small gift exchange, after which I introduced them to the marvelous short film by Australian filmmaker, Adam Elliot, Harvie Krumpet, the 2003 Academy Award winner for best animated short subject. It's a very funny and poignant claymation short about a rather odd Polish man who emigrates to Australia where his life story is told from start to finish, alternately humorous and sad.... If you happen to have the Sundance Channel on your cable/satellite, keep an eye on the "Short Films" feature to see if this shows up (and they've been showing it again a bit recently) and give it a chance. You'll be glad you did....

Here's the spread I had prepared for tonight, nothing complicated, though I did putz around in the kitchen most of the afternoon preparing everything, but I managed to get two loads of laundry done and take frequent breaks to watch segments of the Food Network in between tasks, so it wasn't really a lot of work per se (unlike previous years ... I just wasn't up for that). So here's what we had ... from the left you can see the relish tray of Picholine olives, black olives and French cornichons, marinated artichoke hearts, shrimp cocktail and sauce, my (in)famous ham, cream cheese and green onion rollups, two baguettes I baked fresh just a few hours earlier, smoked salmon from Washington, and several of our favorite soft cheeses, Saga Blue, Italian Cambozola and a slice of Brie. I also had a crock pot of meatballs in marinara in the kitchen that didn't quite make it to the serving table in our dining room. And last, but not least, two bottles of this year's vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau, another of our Thanksgiving/Christmas traditions. This year's cuvée turned out quite nicely after a rather disappointing vintage last year, so we were all pleased with it and it went rather quickly. I didn't even end up doing the fancy hors d'oeuvre I had bought (crab cakes, mushroom and cheese turnovers and mini cheese soufflés) because everyone was content with making multiple trips to the serving table. Even though this looks like an incredible amount of work, compared to what I've been doing in the "real world of work" lately, this was a pleasure to prepare, especially for some of the people who matter most in my life.... We really enjoy having my sister and her friend over each year, because it's a very low key affair with no high expectations set, so we can just enjoy each other's company ... just what we were hoping for in this rather sad transitional phase at our house.

In any case, such was our quiet evening at home with family and friends ... And for you visitors and regular visitors, I hope you passed an equally enjoyable evening however you chose to mark it.... In this ultra consumerist environment of over inflated expectations (rarely met), we hope you found time to focus on the fundamental reasons why we gather together at this time of year and rediscovered the bonds that bring us all together, even if only briefly, due to life circumstances. Whatever the case may be, both Fernymoss and I send out our warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday season over the next few days, from our house to yours! It may be very cold outside (not to mention the way too regular snows!), but ultimately, the warmth comes from within, and that's where I've always thought it should come from!

IVG and Fernymoss

A View From the Top

Tonight, let's take a look at what's going on at the top of the tree, and as you can see, there's quite a bit! In fact, the tops of our trees are always really densely packed with all sorts of stuff ... faux fruit and berries and dried plants and whatever else strikes Fernymoss' fancy. He's fully in charge of the top, since I can't reach up that far anyway, so I just let him go wild....
Now, I'm sure you're wondering what on earth a witch is doing at the top of our tree ... it's simple, she's flying by the Blue Moon seen just to her left in this shot. Of course the witch has her story ... several years ago we were shopping at World Market near Christmas and Fernymoss spotted this one and immediately fell in love with her. He was, however, daunted by the price (I think it was about $15 or so), feeling a bit tapped out, so I convinced him to pass it by. Then, while he wasn't looking, I snuck back and concealed it in my cart so he wouldn't see it. Later, during the same trip, he decided to go back and spring for it, but alas, she was gone! (They only had one on display.) So he was a bit disappointed, but resigned to missing his chance ... I gave him my best 'Maybe we'll find one next year' (or some such subterfuge) and that settled that. All the rest of time in the store I was sure he'd spot it in the cart, but fortunately he didn't see her, even when I checked out in a separate lane from him.

So, I wrapped her up and saved her for Christmas Eve, when we allow each other to open one gift early ... when he got through the wrapping and found her, he was overjoyed to have her on board, but wondered how I'd managed to pull this off without him noticing (same reaction I had!) ... so now, she always has her place of honor flying by our Blue Moon for a few weeks every year. What was odd, was that year, World Market had all sorts of Halloween themed ornaments, such as Jack O'Lanterns, Pumpkin Scarecrows and Ghosts ... I didn't quite get it, but thought they were fun. This is, however, the only one who got to come home with us and we hope she'll stay for many years!
This shot is a view slightly down from where the witch is, and of course the mushroom commands all the attention here, but you can also get a good idea of what other organic sorts of ornaments we have packed in there.... That bit of feather you can see is the butt end of one of our many birds, in case you were wondering! We should get some better shots of the birds because I could do a whole post alone on the several types of birds that land in our tree ... that might still happen, but time is getting short and I can't be ornament blogging all the way into January, lol. Later tonight I'll have some more shots of the tree and the loot underneath it, as well as what we're having for our Christmas Eve Nosh-Fest ... maybe even a recipe if I still have any energy left after a day of cooking and baking!

In years past, I spent days baking cookies and making candy to give to friends and neighbors as gifts, but this year, I just don't have the energy or motivation, and since we've dialed down and have been strictly controlling our spending, we just decided to skip it this year. I feel a bit guilty about that, but I'll still struggle with the cookie press to make a batch of buttery Spritz cookies (the best!) and a batch of "Snowballs" (aka: Mexican Wedding Cakes), because I do like making them, but just not in the usual mega quantities I have in the past, so I'm hoping it will be fun this year. We're hopinig that 2009 will be a better year for us, less dark and unsettling than 2008, and when Christmas rolls around next year, with any luck I'll be in a better state of mind and energy to go back to my older, more generous ways.... And, with any luck, we'll also have a new, lovable pup in our lives come next December to bring joy and spirit to the season ... I'd be lying if I didn't say that is something that is sorely missing this year, the first time in 11 years together we haven't had dogs celebrating with us at Christmas. So, we'll mark this transitional period as best we can this year and look forward to the coming year, where at some point, the scurrying pitter pat of little paws will be heard in the house again....

More snow on the way tonight, after last night's new snow, so if predictions are correct, we should have over 6" on the ground by Christmas ... not a huge amount by Iowa standards, but these little storms have just been too regular of late that they've been wearing us down with all the shoveling taking time away from the more enjoyable holiday preparations. But, as I constantly remind myself, that's winter in Iowa!

A Little of This and That Ornament Blogging

I really intended to organize my ornament blogging thematically this year!
But after all that's been going on at work and on the home front, it just hasn't worked out like I planned. Something about the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley comes to mind...! Anyway here are today's offerings, a bit of this and that, each with its own story to tell....

This shot showcases another of Fernymoss' new finds ... the gold fish with blue stripes, who's swimming through a veritable sea of assorted companion ornaments, including my precious Eiffel Tower (I got that one about three years ago), various bauble type ornaments and one of the strawberries from our collection of fruit ornaments. In fact, this strawberry (and the others in the set) was among the ornaments we bought the year we got our first tree, way back in 1998 (the year we moved here to Casa IVG). Over the ensuing years, we've built up quite a collection of fruit/veggie ornaments, and are always on the lookout for new additions. So far we have strawberries, oranges, apples, grapes, and pears, but the artichoke and carrot ornaments still elude my efforts. You can also spot a few of our glass icicle ornaments, a gift from Fernymoss' mom from a couple of years back. She spotted them on a day trip one summer (of all times!) and they just begged her to get them for us, so here they are now; we think they're quite lovely and are great at catching the color from the surrounding lights....

Here's our frosty pickle, another of the ornaments I got in the Denver airport several years back during that long delay I mentioned in a previous post. Someone had told me it was traditional to have a pickle ornament on the tree ... there was some folklore associated with this, but it has long since escaped my memory. Something about an old poor woman or some such lore, I think? If anyone knows the precise tale, let me know! To the left you can get a backside glimpse of my Pink Flamingo, an absolute necessity for any diehard John Waters fan such as myself! It took me a few years to find it, but now it's got a front and center spot on the tree every year ... You can also spy one of our (many) decorated glass egg ornaments we went gaga over a few years back. They reminded us of the famous Fabergé eggs so popular during the reign of the Czars in imperial Russia ... these hardly rival their famous heritage, but they are quite pretty and add a lot of sparkle to the tree. We gave a lot of these as gifts the year we found them, and it's always fun to see somone else's tree sporting something that came from us originally....

Finally, these "teardrop" reflective center ornaments are very old fashioned, I think, and I can remember when I was a kid my parents had a bunch of these type of ornaments that they considered out of fashion, so they rarely got put on the tree unless I insisted I be allowed to hang one or two. We've found that they're definitely back in style, and we have several types and colors of them all around the tree, because we love the way they flash from the reflection of nearby lights, and in fact, they positively glow! Both Fernymoss and I have a fondness for retro looking ornaments in general, I guess because they remind us of our childhood memories of how beautiful and magical the family Christmas Tree seemed in our young eyes. So that's what we try to recreate in our trees every year ... a bit of magic, a lot of flash and sparkle to cheer us up in the dark of winter. Some of our ornamental traditions date back to the Pagan Yule (such as placing edible items or simulacra thereof on the tree), while others are purely reminders of childhood. It's all one big eclectic mix of course, but that's a perfect reflection of who we both are ... amalgams of all sorts of traditions and tastes and interests that all compete for attention at this time of year while they go on display on the tree for a few short weeks. It's always a bittersweet process to have to pack them all up and put them away till the following year ... but we enjoy it while we can and usually stretch out the season a while beyond New Year's just so we can continue to bask in the colorful glow just a little while longer....

Tomorrow we'll focus on the top of the tree, and you may be surprised to see some of what's lurking up there! So stop back and see what you think....

Monday Dog Ornament Blogging

It's hard to believe, but here we are, just a few days before Christmas, and fortunately, in the gifting department ... both of us are almost finished shopping (at least I am) and for me, only the wrapping remains and preparing and shopping for the Christmas Eve nosh fest we have planned. I tell you, if cold weather puts people in the spirit of the holiday, they should have been delighted, but for the rest of us who are less fond of dangerous wind chills, high winds and blowing snow, it was a miserable weekend weather wise. My sister took me on our annual final shopping blitz and when we set out, it wasn't too bad out --a bit chilly but not brutal-- but by the time we emerged from Target not long later, the wind had kicked up and was blowing snow all over and just plain chilling us to the bone! But since this has become an annual outing for us (which allows me to finish up without Fernymoss around), we decided to brave it and also stop by Big Lots and see what was left there, just for fun. I ended up finding quite a few fun little stocking stuffer items (mostly food items and fun doodads for Fernymoss) ... I also splurged and bought myself an electric warming throw blanket to have when we're watching TV after the heat has cycled down for the night. I tried it out last while we were watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it's a welcome addition for lounging around! I'm glad I broke our rule (e.g. no personal purchases of potential gifts after Thanksgiving) and got the usual scolding from Fernymoss, but I just couldn't pass it by!

On Sunday, our high temperature was -2F with a windchill of -17-20F due to the high winds, which also undid all the sidewalk shoveling Fernymoss had slaved to accomplish on Friday after our most recent sleet-ice-snow event ... So Sunday he set out to clear them again, only to discover that due to the cold, it was impossible to get all the way down to the walk due to refreezing. So at least they're not slippery and are passable again, and we just hope we get a bit warmer so that we can put the ice melt down and let it do its work.... But that looks to be (from the forecast) no earlier than Thursday (+27 predicted or Friday, +31), so here we are still in the deep deep freeze. Needless to say, we only ventured out Sunday to go to our nearby supermarket to stock up on what we need for the Christmas Eve get together with my sister and her boyfriend, a very small family gathering at which we exchange a few gifts, have some good food and wine and mark a very low key celebration. I'll have more details on that Wednesday night, so check back later in the week
Now, on to the dog ornament blogging! The two ornaments featured in this post are new this year, and Fernymoss picked them up a while back where he works now ... we had vowed no new ornaments this year (we have way more than will fit on the tree!), but he couldn't resist these and a couple more you'll see soon. I call this first shot "Terrier Ensemble," because though it features a clearly terrier breed (we think it's supposed to be a wirehair Jack Russell), you can also get a nice view of some of her neighboring ornaments ... namely, one of our (many) blown glass old fashioned baubles, one of our set of golden pine cones and one of my favorites, our cuckoo clock ornament. There are always stories about how we acquired certain ornaments, and this one is no exception.

Back in 2005, on December 22 or 23 (I don't remember which) during one of my many trips for work, I got delayed for several hours in the Denver airport ... due to a snow delay (no surprise!). So I was reduced to wandering through some shops to try to while away the time before my flight ... Now if you've ever been in the Denver airport, there are a fair amount of shops, though most are ones I'd rarely (if ever) enter, but happily I spotted a Discovery Channel Store, which kept me entertained for the better part of an hour or so. Also fortuitously, they had marked down their glass ornaments by 50% (sounded great until I saw the original price points!), so I picked up a few that I found particularly pretty and worthy to go on the tree. That little shopping spree ended up with a rather pricey total (I think it was like $30-40 for about 5 ornaments), but now we're glad these are in our collection, because I've never seen comparable ones since. That's where the cuckoo clock, our smooth hair Jack Russell Terrier (not pictured here, but to come), our frosted pickle, our peacock and a moon/star combo which has since gotten broken. So, in the pure sense of a souvenir ("memory" in French), I'll always remember when and where I got these and they always get a prominent spot on the tree!
It's easy to see why this particular little girl came home to our house, isn't it? It clearly reminds me of times when Pepa would be working a favorite bone, put her paws over it to guard it, and took a little snooze in that position. So, short of finding another ornament that is closer to a more realistic depiction of our dear departed Pepa, this will have to do for now. Close enough for me, though and we'll always remember Pepa in future years when we hang this ornament in its prominent place....

I'm sure that all of you reading have ornaments of which you are --for one reason or another-- particularly fond, and if you'd like to share a story or two in the comments, we'd be delighted to read them! As I said in a recent previous post, we are firm believers in the idea that the decorations on the Christmas Tree are a form of very personal expression, and probably tell a lot about the person who chooses them. As much as I admire Martha Stewart (and other designer types), I can recall looking at her Macy's trees in the past, and frankly, they left me feeling a bit cold ... very artistic --indeed gorgeous-- constructions, but oh, so clearly designerly. I guess that's fine for folks with a lot of money and no time to indulge their own creativity in decorating, but for something that comes around but once a year, we are traditionalists and prefer the more clearly personal --even eclectic-- touch. Call me old fashioned or even a curmudgeon, but the finished tree should reflect the people who decorated it in the house, because after all, that's the fun part of having a Christmas Tree in the first place ... at least as far as we are concerned! So, from here on this week, look forward to more of our collection yet to appear here.... On Christmas Eve, I'll post our menu for our little get together and more of the decorations we have up (which are far less numerous than in previous years, due to our "dial down" approach to the holiday this year).

I'll confess for both of us, that due to the events of the past couple of weeks, we're much less excited and enthusiastic this year than in the past, but we're also vowing to make the best of it and try to enjoy at least a special couple of days together ... I hope we'll manage to pull that off despite it all.

An Almost Finished Tree

Well here we are, less than a week away from Christmas, just digging out from the latest storm that's apparently lumbering northeast now, with much of the country expected to get blasted in the next few days. Around our part of the state, this system was much hyped for several days as a significant ice-sleet-rain-snow event, but when it finally arrived last night, pelting us with sleet and ice pellets, then eventually snow, it was somehow disappointing .... There was a lot of sizzle about this system before it arrived and in comparison with winter storms we've had in the last couple of years, it was more of a fizzle. Not that we weren't affected (we did have about 2 inches of sleet, snow and ice pellets to clean up), but we were expecting much worse. It's just Iowa winter weather, and we don't even mark the solstice officially until Sunday ... a harbinger of a long, deary winter I feel.

Fernymoss more or less completed the tree on Tuesday (12/16), as I labored away late (yet again) upstairs ... these past few weeks have been beyond daunting with all the work demands I've had lately, thus my inactivity around these parts. Anyway, here's the tree as it currently stands (we still have to get the tree skirt taken care of), and in this flash shot you can get an overall impression of what the whole tree looks like at this point.
Here's the corresponding ambient light view --less focused, yes-- but much more colorful, giving an approximate impression of what it really looks like in typical evening lighting in the living room. As you can see, it's heavy on the blue, but that's just the luck of the draw with how the lights ended up on the tree, and that's fine by us! By the end of this weekend we'll have gotten the skirt issue resolved and there will be some gifts appearing there in the next few days....
And here we are at the rather gift barren base of the tree with Santa and Mushy and Pipey just waiting to hand out those gifts that haven't quite arrived yet. All three of these pieces were "inherited" in rather odd and indirect ways (though my sister sent Mushy and Pipey our way a few years ago when she was clearing out a bunch of *stuff*), but they're valued members of our holiday entourage around the tree. Of course we'll have updated photos the closer we get to Christmas (huh? less than a week?!), and in the interim I'll focus on the more individual and diverse ornaments we have on the tree. When we were talking earlier tonight about the ornaments we wanted to highlight, we realized tonight that they do fall into rough thematic categories, so I plan on several posts showing off the sorts of things that appear on our tree ... so stay tuned, as they say.

Champagne For FARfetched

FAR, my friend, this one's for you!

It was another long night tonight, when work overwhelmed my 'free time' again, after yet another frigid day with more snow ... and more snow and an ice storm are in the forecast for Thursday as well. It doesn't look like we'll get above freezing again anytime soon, either ... This feels like January already! Looks like the long harsh winter has settled in for good now....

Of course there's a story behind why I dedicate this to FARfetched. You see, he has a favorite six-pack ornament that he tries to hang on the tree every year, only to have it plucked off by his wife or daughter, no matter how many times he puts it back on. Personally, I think that's a bit mean, because we consider Christmas ornaments a form of personal expression that we exhume from storage every year for the holidays to enjoy during this brief season. Lord knows, we have enough oddities to cover several trees and we enjoy reveling in their kitschy glory! After all, for us that's a big part of the fun we have decorating the tree. Thus this little number to officially initiate the ornament blogging season here at Urban Oasis.

I bought several of these Champagne Fountains a few years ago at a Seasonal Concepts store at the bargain price of one dollar ... It was a totally coincidental find, given that we were on the hunt for English Christmas Crackers (World Market was sold out!), so I ventured into a store I would normally avoid because of its foo-foo merchandise and outrageous prices. But lo and behold, I found these on clearance and just had to buy several to give as fun gifts and keep one for us. I usually post this one on New Year's Eve --when I spring for a bottle of the really good French stuff-- but I'm posting it early this year in solidarity with FAR, in honor of his constantly disappearing six-pack ornament.

Yes, it's kitschy, but that's why we love it ... you'll see more in the coming days (yes, I have a Pink Flamingo ornament too, lol) and I'll post these when I get some spare moments late at night before I go to bed. I could probably do this well into January, but I'll spare my readers that much and try to feature several at a time. While I was toiling away tonight, Fernymoss took a ton of shots of the tree and ornaments, so I've got plenty to work with, bless his heart. He took a lot in ambient lighting (the flash really doesn't do justice to shiny stuff) and many turned out really well. So if you are an afficionado of offbeat (as well as traditional) ornaments, keep checking back from now until Christmas. And if you also have odd, but personal, favorites, please let me know in the comments ... We love to hear about the oddities other people feel compelled to put on the tree for reasons sentimental or other!

A New Year's Toast to All!

Well here we are ... the night of the big Countdown, and there's no Keith Olbermann to help us through it! I hope he's having a great time, wherever he is ....

And here's a big virtual champagne fountain for all of you (you know who you are!) who grace the pages of this humble blog!

It's a quiet, cold and as usual, snowy night here at Casa IVG, as we count down not only to the New Year, but also the infamous Iowa Caucuses in a mere three days! Look for a couple of posts on that subject soon, and I'll be sure to post Caucus night experiences on Thursday, so stop back.

Hope everyone has a delightful evening! We're about to start our noshing here and will be firing up the movies a bit later (see previous post for details on those).

So ... have at the champagne ... it won't give you a hangover and the best thing about this stuff is, it never runs out!

Ornament Blogging: Sparkling Starflake

Well here we are, at year's end once again ... the hectic pre-Christmas frenzy has given way to the exhausted, quiet times before New Year's, when we start it all over again. It was a peaceful holiday for us mostly, after the trauma of the furnace failure, it was downright joyous to actually have reliable heat ... so all in all, I guess we did pretty well!

This ornament, my most recently received, was a gift from Fernymoss' great aunt, who always finds us unique little treasures each year, and this year was no exception! I love how this one catches the light (unfortunately we had to do these with flash to get the focus) and positively sparkles among the other ornaments we have on this pine garland swag we have in the dining room ... it's a very welcome addition to our ever growing collection of heirloom ornaments.

We both got each other a variety of fun and practical gifts that will keep us both warm and well entertained for the early part of the New Year. I'm now the proud owner of an eight disc boxed set of The Woody Allen Collection, as well as John Waters' one man show This Filthy World, both of which are sheer delights for afficionados of two of my favourite cinematic heroes. Fernymoss also raked in the DVDs as well, including Day Watch, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and This Is Spinal Tap. As you can see, we have plenty of prime viewing ahead for the post-caucus cold season ... and we won't have to leave the house! (Though we've already sampled several ... Harry Potter was quite entertaining, This Filthy World was hilarious, as was our old favourite This Is Spinal Tap). Oh yeah, we also got the usual underwear, socks and sweaters, much needed items I never sneeze at!

But, a really big standout for me came a couple of days later ... my hero of the airwaves Keith Olbermann's newest book, Truth and Consequences: Special Comments on the Bush Administration's War on American Values. For those of you who may still be unacquainted with this plain spoken MSNBC newsman (in the best, most classic sense of the term ... think Murrow!), this looks to be an excellent introduction to his wildly popular (well, except among certain circles, hehe) series of "Special Comments" he broadcasts periodically as circumstances demand. I've just read a little so far (and I've heard them all before) but I'm so looking forward to having them all down in print, for this man not only knows how to rant eloquently, but he does so with a prose so incisive and well researched that he leaves the viewer/reader breathless. I can give this one a big thumbs up without having read more than the introduction. If you've already seen any of his Special Comments, you'll know just how Special they really are! I'm really thrilled to add this important book to my collection ... now, more than ever.

We have a very low key (as usual) New Year's Eve planned for Casa IVG ... some good food to eat (meatballs, shrimp, fine cheeses, etc.) to eat, a couple of bottles of champagne (yummy Spanish stuff, no French this year, alas ... ) and a couple of favourite movies on tap: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Stardust Memories. That's the way we like to celebrate the Eve ... some relaxing food and cinematic fare, with a pause at midnight for champagne toasts and some noise makers ... maybe even some fireworks in the snow! (There's plenty of that to be had around here and more on the way, supposedly!)

More later ... even my musings on the imminent Iowa Caucuses you may have heard about in the news lately ....

Not a Creature Was Stirring ...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Feliz navidad a todos y a todos buenas noches!

Joyeux Noël et A tous une bonne nuit!

Merry Whatever You're Having!

With visions of meaty bones dancing in their heads ... On Snausage! on Marrobone, on Puperoni and Canine Carry Outs. On snacky bits, on Milk Bone! On pig ears, and Scooby Snacks ... After all these damn good smells coming from around here lately, it's about time we cashed in! Please visit us, Santa Dog, we've been pretty good this year!

P.S. Could we please have some of the turkey bits when you guys are done with that? That taste of gravy I got tonight was pretty damn good! Oh, and those butter cookies smell real yummy too ....

Oddly Enough, That's What My Clock Says Right Now ...

But then, I still haven't changed my shelf clock back, so weird how serendipity sometimes comes into play ... well, now that i think about it, that's kind of the nature of serendipitous events ... Chalk it up to too many late hours and some Christmas cheer I had earlier. But as Emily Litella would say (rest her soul), Never mind!

This ornament definitely has a story behind it ... I got this (and a few others, namely the Jack Russell Terrier, Peacock, Pickle, etc.) during a verrryyy long delay at the Denver airport several years ago. At the time, I was traveling pretty frequently and it was close to Christmas, of course ... there was a snow event either in Denver or east (I do not recall) and it looked dicey that I'd even get out of there in time, and it was right about December 22. Well, if you've ever had to kill time during a delay or layover in Denver, you'll know there's not a lot to do there unless you like shops you'd likely never enter under normal circumstances, endless overpriced food and drink, and no smoking areas allowed. Except! There are these signs to a 'Smoker's Lounge' that must have tantalized many frazzled, deprived smokers ... until you get there! It turns out that one bar in the entire airport will allow limited smoking ... that sounds nice until realize there's like a 3 drink minimum to enter and it appears you have to keep drinking if you want to hang out there for very long. (Think about that if you want a cig before an early morning flight sometime, hehe.)

Now, of course virtuous me never took advantage of it, even this time. And I really wanted a cig bad, but the principle of the whole thing just ticked me off. So ... I wandered off to find some sort of mildly interesting shopping to try to make the time pass until I was supposed to leave on a flight that might maybe get out and back to Des Moines that night.

Finally I discovered and wandered into the Discovery Store, and that was a sight for my surely sore eyes! All things Discovery Channels and more were to be had ... talking Steve Irwin dolls (I wish I had gotten one of those! They were on clearance.) DVDs ... calendars ... toys ... you name it. But I gravitated instantly to the (mostly Polish and Czech blown glass) ornaments that were temptingly marked 50% off! Now we were talking! Something i was actually interested in buying! I ended up buying five or six ornaments (most of which have appeared here or will appear here soon), one of which was this Cuckoo Clock. (And yes, this one was made in Poland ... yay!)

In retrospect, besides finding it really original and pretty, I suspect it appealed subconsciously to me because I was preoccupied with time at the moment. I have to admit, every year I put it on the tree, I don't fail to think of the circumstances in which I purchased it. It's all Proustian, I know, but he was on to something there. It just took him a hell of a long time to prove it!

Ornamental Perspective ...

Last night, Fernymoss was having fun playing with reflections and perspective, and, I think came up with a dandy one in this shot. I think it speaks for itself to the diversity and eclectic collection you find on our tree ...

More World Ornament Blogging: the Critters

Before I fade any further, here are two more of our animal themed ornaments, respectively the camel and the elephant. We keep these toward the bottom of the tree (thus the exposed presents!) to warn us when the dogs are too close for comfort (notice the bells).

These shots show almost all of the presents under the tree, minus those I have for Fernamoss (which I have still to wrap!), so they show we're almost all the way there for this year....

I love the camel in the first shot, and the great sparkle Fernymoss got in this shot, as the view below doggie eye level. The elephant is also one of my favourite shots we got tonight, with its colourful background with warning bell ...

There's still more to cram under the tree, though necessarily, we'll have to put the pups' treats up high tomorrow night, so that Santa Dog can keep them safe before they can dig into them on Christmas. They're getting lots of yummy stuff, including Pig Ears, Ham Bones and assorted treats for being (pretty) good dogs this year... we doubt they're going to complain! And it's really fun to watch them unwrap the bones on Christmas morning ... pics to follow!

Ornament Blogging: Dragons Love Holiday Trees Too!

This is just a little fun one that I found at World Market last weekend, and was going to be a Christmas Eve gift to Fernymoss, but he'd had such a bad day at work, I gave it to him early to cheer him up. Every year I seem to find a neat, very different ornament there, so I can't resist ... I was looking at the animal ornaments and was thinking, I wish there were a Dragon one, that would be cool for the tree! Then I looked up and spotted this little guy and he was back on his way to our tree! (I also got an Iguana for Fernymoss, but don't tell him yet!) Just one more step to adding more animals to the tree, as we do every year ... as you'll see in the next post!

Ornament Blogging Around the World

Tonight I decided to get in some of the world themed ornaments we have, so here's the take on France (and with apologies to Martin Mull: ah France, I love you so, I love French Toast and escargot ...). Admittedly, I have soft spot for this ornament I got a few years ago, as France looks better and better to us the past year or so. If only we could just uproot and move there to stay, in some sunny clime in Provence ... ahhhhhhhhh.

Sucks being a member of the reality based American community here, eh? I called the precinct captain of the Edwards campaign here today and I think I'll be attending one of his big speeches here next Saturday night. I haven't seen him yet (due to most events being scheduled while I'm working) but this one I don't want to miss, right before New Year's and the Caucus as well. She told me the Edwards folks would also be having food provided at the Caucus, which is definitely a new one for me. Today, for example, I got calls from the HRC campaign (desperate much?) and Dodd, who in a fit of pique while caught candy making, I rudely hung up to the recording. But I digress!

The first shot is an ensemble shot, complete with bird butt. I hope you like that touch, hehe. The second is obviously up closer, and with what Fernymoss referred to as the Death Star approaching (he took that one). Either way you look at it, I'm glad to have this one on the tree again in its third year ... More to come!

Ornament Blogging: Sometimes Life Just Gives You the Bird!

Last night I talked about our propensity to include birds on our tree, so here's another example of a bird-themed ornament we always make sure to place in a prominent spot on the tree. This cardinal and nest is a hand-me-down from my sister, who probably got it sometime back in the 70's and decided she didn't want it anymore a few years ago (when the box of cast off ornaments arrived mysteriously on our front porch). This is one of those pieces that, no matter how tacky it may appear to contemporary sensibilities, is one of our favorites. It attaches to the tree with a clothespin and even has two tiny eggs in the nest ... what more could you ask for? And it has one of our favorite native birds, the Cardinal, as its focus .... I guess it's one of those 'must have' ornaments we have in the repertoire, without which the holiday just wouldn't seem complete. Kind of like my Santa in a Rickshaw coming soon ....

Update on the heating situation: our repair guy came by today and managed to coax the furnace into working for a few hours, but warning that it could crap out at any time. Well, that happened this evening. It now looks like we're buying the house a new furnace for the holiday. I'm getting on top of this first thing in the morning, but I'm not optimistic that we can get it replaced within the next week, given the holidays. So at this point it looks like we'll be having a chilly holiday with just the radiator space heaters and the oven to keep us warm. As Fernymoss put it tonight, this is going to be a candle lit holiday! At least we have lots of blankets and comforters to wrap up in until we can get the new unit installed. And with more snow on the way predicted for Friday and Saturday, I'll be doing plenty of baking!

So it goes ... we'll muddle through. (Apologies to Kurt Vonnegut, jr. Bless him!)

Ornament Blogging: Flying By the Moon

I guess it's past time to get the ornament blogging going here, since we're still snow covered, icy, and as of today when I got home, heat free. The furnace is acting up again and hopefully it can be fixed again this time though we know a new one is on the horizon sometime in the next year or so ....

Anyway, this is Fernymoss' tree topper extravaganza, complete with the witch and the blue moon ... our usual toppers who cede the way to more traditional things to come below ... such as the following. You know, things like architecture from countries like such as.* Actually there's a lot going on in this shot, but the highlights are obviously the infamous Tour Effel, and if you look closely, you'll the see the wine bottle not too far off. Birds of some sort have always been a constant on our trees, and you'll see some more soon as we get more individual shots taken of them. Fernymoss has been trying to get a lot of shots in ambient light, but with varying degrees of success, and frankly, though the flash gives better definition it does zap the colour of the lights. We're going to keep experimenting though and if anything good comes out you'll be seeing it here soon!

Oh yeah! I was at World Market yesterday and found a lovely little red dragon I just had to get for Fernymoss (after all they were 50% off!) He'll definitely be appearing here sooner or later!

*(And if you get that reference, you've been paying attention to Countdown and other YouTube type places for your teen airhead updates on vacuousness. I'm sure she's just a delightful girl in person, LOL. Like totally!)

Holiday Tree Blogging Begins ...

We got the tree last Friday night, just before another round of snow came through, a nearly weekly occurrence of late (if it's the weekend, a storm must be on tap!). In fact, this Scotch Pine we got from our usual tree purveyors from Wisconsin came complete with free snow on it! Amazingly, it went into the stand quickly and without issue and was ready on Saturday when we began to work on it ... Pepa and Rolly are less fascinated by the tree than they are something Fernymoss was doing in the dining room ... The tree, au naturel, before the lights went on.
Now most of the lights are on ... all 750 of them ... shimmering white, multicolour and faceted colours ... just waiting for the bead garland and ornaments.And one final shot for now, with a good number of the ornaments on the tree, with even more to come (details to come in later posts). Fernymoss has been adding more all during the past week, so it's pretty packed at this point! I just need to get down to some serious wrapping this weekend! Thank the almighty FSM for online shopping ... I've got maybe one or two more quick shopping trips to make before I'm officially done. And then the baking and candy making frenzy begins in earnest ...