Time Warp Tuesday: Fairy Tale Life

I've always loved fairy tales. 

I longed to escape into the secret lands of the black forests, 

where wolves could speak and brothers turned into swans. 

Is it any wonder, when I am descended from a family named Grimm? 

Christmas 1964.

Red Riding Hood costumes for me and my best friend.

Note the stylish wolf purse!

I still have the outfits.

An Afternoon out of Town

We took a drive out of town to see the sights somewhere else.

We found...

Crazy yard art.

W

A dream car.

A gorilla in the window?

A tiny waterfall.

Saturday PhotoHunt: Shimmer ~AND~ Pink Saturday

Oh, I love being able to combine the two, ~shimmer~ for the Saturday PhotoHunt, and Pink Saturday.  I tried to recreate my childhood aluminum tree with pink ornaments, but I outdid myself.  This is so much better than I imagined it could be.

Shimmer on and stay pink!

Overload

Many of us have had a bit of holiday overload by now.  My holiday was actually fine but was exacerbated by catching a cold, I think the first one I have had since I stopped working at the school. Both Frank and Ernest had it earlier, so there was no escape.  It made holiday cooking a little difficult but everyone pitched in.  We had turkey for Christmas Eve, and a recovered Ernest made lasagne for Christmas Day.

The recycling bins were also overloaded.  What part of "flatten your boxes" don't people understand?

And this overload.  It's just a small corner of a massive display that could even be seen from the freeway. They won a "best lights" award from a newspaper; the corresponding article stated it costs over $40 per night to run the lights.  At least the music was broadcasting on an fm band and not blasting the neighbors.

Crackling

It's too warm for a real fire. We have to make do with a crackling virtual one.

Merry Christmas!

Time Warp Tuesday: Christmas Eve

The Christmas Elf wishes you all a Merry Christmas.

1964.  Me with my nemesis, the organ.

The Best Gift

I think the best gift I've had was the opportunity yesterday to help Mr. LegoMiniFig make his own gifts for his family.  He left with two bags full of wrapped projects and cookies, made with his own hands.

He is so far beyond my cooking math quizzes, like "if you have 3 rows of 4 cookies, how many are there?"  Oh, he's known his math facts for years. He turned it back at me and asked how many tablespoons in a cup and I was able to answer correctly.  We keep each other sharp!

And there was time for lunch and Lego Star Wars.

Bag o Veg

I live 30-40 miles from most major stores.  I get to Trader Joes maybe twice a year.  This week I took my husband to an appointment which happened to be in the same parking lot as a TJ's.  What a zoo! Fortunately there were a few parking lot spaces coned off for clients.  To kill time I bought a few things for dinner.  I got barramundi fish for the first time, and it was excellent. 

These veggies were tasty but once again they didn't look like the picture.

It was even funnier when they were frozen.  What are those brown pellets?

Turd shaped dollops of butter sauce.

It looks like the blobfish.

Holiday Homes Tour 2013

It's time!  Time for the 2013 Holiday Homes Tour, hosted by Jen on the Edge.  (I am a little early posting this but I couldn't contain myself any longer.)

I'm always doing something unusual with my wreath.  This year is no different.  Number one, it's not a wreath because my boy scout never showed.  Wreaths at the market were $22.  Two fronds were $8. Homer said, "Spend the rest of the money on cat food!"  Number two, you can see that my cats were the inspiration. Bacon snowflakes for Homer, mice and yarn for Fifi.

You just can't put a real hat on the cat.

So we put it on Ferd the roof stork instead.  Ferd needs a little touchup!

The real tree is a bit smaller this year. But bigger than last year's food tree.

I have plenty of tomato cage trees.  Pop culture.  Cats, of course.  And the handmade ornaments, with my favorite two. I just made a 4th tomato cage tree yesterday but I don't want to redo the collage!

Santas took over the mantel.

Elves found a forest of mushrooms.

And the pièce de résistance, the showpiece, the highlight:  Pink and Sparkly.  Even a flamingo there for Debbie.  "Wow, it looks way better than I thought it would," said Ernest, having previously seen the tree in a naked state and low on the ground.  I put it on a stool for more height.

My recession tree (2010) is no more because Handy decided to be helpful and take it apart.  "I thought you took it apart every year."  He clearly doesn't read my blog.



Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Here are this year's home tour participants.

If you'd like to visit my prior years, here are the links:
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

And the Winner is...

We are finally getting around to the cookie baking here so I can announce the winner of a batch of Frank's Famous (to us) Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies:  KAREN!  And well deserved too, because I think she commented more than anyone else during my NaBloPoMo month.

Congrats Karen...they should be on their way today if I get to the P.O. on time!

My Baby's a Husky Now

If one was superstitious, 

rubbing that Husky nose might have been helpful.  

Ernest did it the old-fashioned way. 

Good grades, 

extra-curriculars, 

a thoughtful essay and (i hope) 

fine recommendations.

Whatever, it worked.

NORTHEASTERN!

I'm so proud of him.  

Time Warp Tuesday: The Pigeon

There was a comment on one of Mrs. G's Facebook threads which included someone dining on pigeon during her honeymoon.

I said, "My dad shot a pigeon on the roof and my mother had to cook it."

Here's my poor mother with the bird and the arrow.

This is Spring 1960 and she is pregnant with me.

The Cats' Day

It's a tough life.

This is where they ended up as the sunlight disappeared.

Signs of Christmas

Don't lose your gloves!

Nisse.

Christmas trees everywhere!

Santa is a little early.

Rainz

I woke up to hear the sound of rain and look what my cute weather app (Weather Whiskers) showed me? 

Detour to a Sunset

Ernest's back.  Yay!  I left for the airport a little early to avoid traffic 

and made a short detour to the ocean to watch the sunset.  

Many others had the same idea, taking a stroll down the Manhattan Beach Pier.

A gentleman was in the midst of creating a labyrinth.

By the time the sun had set, he was finished.