12 Days of Christmas: Days Gone By

This is my Grandma Zundel.  Over the years, several family members have told me I inherited my singing voice from her.  I never met her.  I always wish I could have heard her sing.  I thought it was cool that she moved to America from Denmark.  And now that I have seen her living room from the holiday season in the 60′s, I wanna meet her even more.  The tree! The tv! The giant Poinsettia!

12 Days of Christmas: Ho! Ho! Ho!

Do you dare me to wear this beard around town today? I think I still have it. Hey! I worked hard on this!

12 Days of Christmas: On Being Jolly

I’m writing this while busting through a wicked case of PMS.  Oh come on, you’re used to me writing about stuff like PMS.

But the thing is, even though I have been a little, what’s the word for, shouting and mood-swinging and having a few unexpected reactions—unreasonable? irrational? cuckoo? Even though at this moment I’m feeling a little irrational, I am STILL jolly.

I have been through a few stressful situations with party planning, party attending, performances, concerts, evaluations, strep throat, last-minute Christmasing (and I haven’t even begun to prepare for the holiday traveling), yet I remain JOLLY!

I have been walking around the city in awe of the decor, lights, sights, stores, music, sales, green and red, baked goods, skateboarding Santas, trees and on and on…and I keep asking myself: Why is this surprising me at every turn and providing me with so much glee?

I think I figured it out….last season I had a broken foot. I did DIDDLY SQUAT…and the past 2 years I have been shrouded in medsland.  This year I am free from my cage and I can see and hear and smell (I stop at EVERY sidewalk corner selling Christmas trees) and taste (peppermint hot cocoa at starbucks is my fave), and I am so jolly inside and out (red lipstick and glitter as often as possible).  I tell people that too.  If a sore subject is brought up, I conclude with: but I’m totally ok with it, I’m jolly.

I have been to parties, and I just sit myself down at the food table and unapologetic-ally eat. I have eaten pomegranate/feta/couscous amazingness, cheese, drank spritzers, enjoyed some ny pizza, baked ziti, fritatta, grapefruit (it is SO delicious right now) and on and on, eating and talking and professing my jollyness.

I’ve been renting only christmas movies from netflix and trying to watch them as FAST as possible so that I can return and get a new one. I have been hanging up all my christmas cards all over my office so that I can stare at my friends and families faces.  I have been baking! I’ve already made cookies twice. (WHO AM I?), and I’ve been listening to Christmas music and running to Christmas music and wearing my red sweater with white reindeer on it as often as humanly possible.

I am probably making someone out there on the interwebs gag right now, and I don’t care, because I’m JOLLY!

12 Days of Christmas: Stock

 

My friend sent me the link to my online Christmas card.  My how we have all changed since this photo was taken, especially Jason.

 

12 Days of Christmas: Love Scarf Project

This year was a very strange Love Scarf Collection.  Last year I received a giant box full of scarves AFTER the deadline. I kept it all year long and recently unpacked it to find close to 60 scarves!

Add to that 4 from a friend, 2 from me, 1 that was knit on by several folks and a shipment from saragedde that included hats too, we ended up with (I think) 63 scarves and 2 hats (or was it 3 sara?).  The point is, the amount of scarves that I actually knit and/or gathered THIS year was minimal at best.  I guess I’ve lost steam, and maybe others around me have as well.

I am obsessed with crocheting afghans, that’s one of the problems.

Anyway, here is the photo of most of the scarves from this year and I just hope that the cancer patients who received the hand-knitted items, felt the love.

And since cancer is a downer, I’d like to end on a lighter note:

Sometimes I wish I would just buckle down and purchase a jib jab membership, because it’s so much fun.  We have watched ourselves as the farting carolers several times over, enjoy the Lafuda family as the farting carolers here: