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Love and Light

TG and Me :: December 2021

South Carolina Governor's Mansion, Columbia

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M e r r y   C h r i s t m a s

Coffee with two sugars

Sweetness is the sweetest of the sweet ... cats, that is

Actually the pirate drinks her coffee black as a moonless midnight. 

Okay okay ... with a splash of heavy cream, on holidays, when my girls are here to drink it with me.

But never with sugar.

Rizzo's favorite pose

As a rule with very few exceptions, mornings will find me sipping hot, fresh, black coffee with my beloved fur babies. One on each side. I often refer to them as my two sugars.

To our left is Rizzo the rescue pup, a Chiweenie (Dachshund Chihuahua mix) whose mission in life is to lounge and sleep approximately 22 hours per day, and spend the other two hours alternately barking and begging for Milk Bones.

And as ultra-domesticated, perpetually pampered canine units go, he is tremendously successful.

Bowtie mug by Krispy Kreme

To our right is Sweetness the rescue kitty cat, a Tuxie with tuxitude but aptly named because she truly is the finest and sweetest feline unit anyone in the world has ever seen or known.

They flank me, snoozing and purring, as I slurp at my cuppa and contemplate the day.

But lately they have had some company and I'm here to tell you about it.

The pirate's black iron skillet could double as her boat anchor

Last weekend we did go to Greenville to visit Henry as well as my sister and brother-in-law. My girls cared for my pets and as always I am grateful for them.

I took with me to Mama's house a spiral-cut ham studded with pineapple rings and maraschino cherries, encased in an oven bag.

Upon our arrival at Henry's, we set the oven to three-twenty-five and shoved the ham inside.

Our Melly: Official Birthday Photo

Also with me was a crock pot of cream corn, the sauce for Mom's famous broccoli casserole, ready to be brought to the boil and poured over the broccoli, and the makings of a festive ham glaze, also ready to be heated and applied.

As I got everything ready in the kitchen, TG and Henry went to the store to buy frozen broccoli, Ritz crackers (the topping for the broccoli casserole is Ritz crumbs), Yukon Gold potatoes, and two pans of Sister Schubert's Parker House Style yeast rolls.

My own sister contributed a fresh garden salad and an eggnog cake that she had baked that morning.

Sweet Seventeen

And so our meal came together and was devoured with great enthusiasm: Christmas ham, salad, mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, cream corn, yeast rolls, and eggnog cake.

The next day, cool and windy with longish spates of driving rain, we ate out and then visited Mom at the cemetery.

After church on Sunday morning, I made TG, Henry, and me a lunch of creamy buttery grits, eggs, leftover ham, and the second pan of Parker House Style yeast rolls.

Melly and her doting mama

As Mama would have said, it was so good it'd make your tongue slap your brains out.

Once back home and at our church's evening service, TG narrated our Christmas program, which was wonderful and inspiring.

On Monday the finishing touches (freshly painted doors and new door knobs) were applied to the guest bath renovation, which had been completed the previous Wednesday.

Melly and me

Stephanie and her family arrived from North Carolina that afternoon. That night we all gathered for A Tale of Two Chilis: as in, a crock pot full of my original red chili and another crock pot full of Erica's white chicken chili.

I'm glad it was not a contest because I'm afraid I might have lost. Her white chicken chili is stellar.

We served the soups with cornbread muffin tops, Fritos Scoops, sour cream, and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

O I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

For dessert, I had made a pineapple upside down cake in my huge black iron skillet.

I wish you could have seen TG flipping that thing onto the plate. The skillet itself weighs ten pounds, and then there was the cake ... only a wee bit of juice escaped.

THEN we had Christmas! Everyone gathered in the TV room and gifts were exchanged between Stephanie's brood and all of us, because they are heading up to Pennsylvania for Christmas with Joel's family.

High in the sunlit silence

What a blast.

On Tuesday we devoted the entire day to celebrating two more sweet things: Our Melanie's seventeenth birthday, and Andrew's achievement of completing the formation block of his pilot training.

Melanie turning seventeen was a big occasion in its own right. She is our special-needs angel and we love her so much, it hurts.

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew

After she was dressed and Stephanie and I were dressed, we took some pictures with her.

Later everyone was once again around the table for a pizza party featuring a rather splendid birthday cake adorned with sparkling, flashing, twinkling crystal numerals ... a one and a seven.

Melanie's delight was palpable and sustained as she opened her gifts and celebrated along with the rest of us.

It's anybody's guess what Dagny was doing

Baby Rhett, five months old, is teething and has some difficult moments but there were many arms to hold him and he made it through without too much fuss.

As for Andrew, completing the formation block of his training means that he and other pilot trainees flew in formation the previous week, and on Tuesday 12/21/21 Andrew flew solo in formation with his own Instructor Pilot.

He passed everything with flying colors, as it were, and after the break he will begin the next phase of his training.

The Rhett man ... we call him ol' blue eyes

He was released to leave the base for Christmas, whereupon he and Brittany and Ember set out for Florida to spend the holiday with her family.

Early next week they will come to us and we will have our third Christmas! Can't wait. Much excitement is planned and you know there will be good eating.

(Brittany loves my spicy cranberry meatballs so we will definitely have those, and Andrew does not enter this house when there is not a 9x13 pan of strawberry pretzel salad for him.)

My Papaw took a turn soothing me

Meanwhile on Christmas Eve, after a short service at church, we will be at Erica's for a Christmas buffet. I'm making my cheese ball without which we have not celebrated Christmas in twenty-five years, as well as Mari's Hot Taco Dip (minus the black olives) which is a huge hit with my family.

Along with it we will have Fritos Scoops and Xtreme Wellness low-carb tortillas. (The dip is fabulous wrapped in a tortilla and slathered with sour cream.)

I'm also making chocolate haystacks per my sister's recipe (similar to this), and the girls are bringing various things too, which I cannot wait to see and taste.

I am here if you should need me

On Christmas Day I will reprise the glazed spiral ham recipe that we had last weekend, along with (again) broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole, creamy ranch potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, ambrosia, seven layer salad, some more of those Sister Schubert's Parker House Style yeast rolls, and assorted pies, cakes, cookies, and candies.

All enjoyed as we spend time together, laughing and talking and loving on the babies, and exchanging gifts.

I do declare. If that is not an embarrassment of riches, I don't know what is.

Wish you were here with us

We've had some chilly days and nights, but our weather for the next several days is predicted to be springlike.

Tonight our Dagny is spending the night with us, and tomorrow night she will be joined by her mother. They always sleep at ours on Christmas Eve so that we can be together on Christmas morning. 

And every morning, before all of the day's happy activities begin? I'll have coffee with my two faithful sugars.

I'll be wishing each of you a Very Merry Christmas and an Extra Happy New Year with each sip.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Thursday :: Merry Christmas Weekend

Taking care of busy-ness

Christmas pillows have replaced the other-eleven-months-of-the-year-pillows

At first it seemed that not much was happening, this December.

Now it seems as if everything has happened and the only thing left to do is wait.

Of course that is not true; there are still things that need to be done.

But compared to what I had accomplished a week ago (basically nearly nothing), the pirate has left the shallows and sailed out into deep blue water.

This star might weigh one ounce

The bath renovation will be finished by this time next week. 

It has to be, because at this very time next week, we will be leaving for Greenville to spend the weekend with Henry.

Once there, I will make dinner for him and for my sister and brother-in-law, and we'll have a nice visit.

We will go out to the cemetery on Saturday to see Mom, and maybe do some shopping.

The blinged-out reindeer is back beside the lamp post

On Sunday we will go to church with Henry, have some lunch, and head home.

We hope to make it back in time for Sunday night at our church, because the choir is presenting a Christmas special.

The next day -- we are up to December 20th, Christmas week -- Stephanie and Joel will arrive with the children to celebrate Christmas and Melanie's seventeenth birthday.

I got the tree decorated this week. Although I did a massively pared-down version of my usual tree, for some reason it felt huge to get that done.

It's not Christmas until this little felt tree is in place

It's fine. More than adequate.

The Christmas bins were brought down from the attic and I took from them only what I felt necessary. The rest remains packed away.

To wit:

There are Christmas pillows in the TV room and the sun room.

My college friend Susan Spangler (1958-2011) made this for me in 1989

There are a few decorations on tables in the TV room.

The kids' huge stockings are hung on the French doors between the TV room and the sun room.

In the kitchen, a few Christmasy bits and bobs adorn the ledge, and of course the table is decorated.

I got out exactly one Christmas mug. (Everyone has their regular favorites anyway, when it comes time to serve coffee with the pies and cakes and other treats.)

These things hold lots of stuff and they will be stuffed full

A second mug is on display, but it's cracked and as such is just for show.

There are some decorations on the countertop that people see when they enter my kitchen from the garage.

TG and I had our Christmas card picture taken last Sunday. By Monday night I had my cards in hand.

We ordered one-hundred forty this year.

Eighty of those have been mailed out. We took the out-of-state ones to the post office on Wednesday night; the South Carolina ones were sent today.

I figured one extra mug was enough for this year. Not dishwasher safe.

The rest are for folks at church, and we will distribute those on Sunday.

I am redoing my dining table with all new family pictures under the glass. It has been four years since it was last done.

There have been two weddings and two new babies since then, and we are all four years older.

That project will be completed before we leave for Greenville next Friday.

This wonky retro tree needs extra fluffing and its lights distributed more evenly

I spent most of last week choosing the photos from my archives and editing them, before ordering over two hundred black and white prints representing all of our events and celebrations from the dawn of 2018 until now.

They are supposed to arrive today.

Starting on Monday, the men will be installing the vanity, commode, lighting, and mirror in the guest bath.

The floor is tiled and the painting is in progress.

The doors are being painted too, and new doorknobs installed.

A little light reading

You know! All the things.

For the past several days -- perhaps a week -- I have worked on accomplishing the bulk of my Christmas shopping online.

I spent all day yesterday out and about, buying gift cards and other things to fill in blanks, and to serve as stocking stuffers.

The day proved to be more interesting than I'd anticipated ... a brief word on that in a moment.

One more run to the shops -- likely tomorrow -- and I will be finished with Christmas gift buying, and can breathe.

The result of my valiant tree-putting-upping efforts

Today after I write this for you, I plan to wrap all of the gifts that have already arrived or been purchased, and place them around the tree.

I'll have to wrap more basically every day, as the shipments materialize on the front porch.

So yesterday, I set out at around two, to run several errands.

Specifically, I had to visit TJ Maxx, Panera (not to eat), the South Carolina Governor's Mansion (long story), Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (again, not to eat, more's the pity), and Dagny's school, where she was participating in a piano recital.

It was her first recital; she is seven and has been taking lessons for approximately that many days.

Sweetness likes to knock these onto the floor

Of course I jest, but it has not been long. In fact, I couldn't believe she was ready to play in front of an audience, but I was assured that she could pound out Jingle Bells.

My errand at Krispy Kreme concluded right on schedule to make it to the recital, at which precise point in time I locked my keys inside the trunk of my car.

A nice lady let me use her phone to call TG (mine was in my car's console since I was only dashing in), who came and rescued me. 

But Dagny had played at the beginning of the program, and I missed it. I went over to the school anyway -- it is a five-minute drive from Krispy Kreme -- and hugged and congratulated her, and watched her performance on Audrey's phone.

It was not mistake-free by a long shot, but she took it in her stride and had a positive experience.

My mother gave me that little light-up angel

You have to start somewhere.

Back at home, I brought my purchases inside and did a few little things that needed doing, before TG and I set out for Texas Roadhouse, running a few more errands along the way.

Our wait there for a table was one hour.

Their policy at the Roadhouse is to let tables -- LOTS of tables -- sit empty while folks wait outside, until there is a server available who can actually serve the table.

These placemats adorn each end of my quilted red table runner

Then you are seated and immediately taken care of. I would have preferred waiting at the table, even with just a glass of water, but that's the old way. This is the new way.

Also with the old way, there was a bucket of peanuts on the table, and peanut shells all over the floor. Those have gone with the wind as well.

But our dinner was delicious and we were home by nine thirty.

We do not go to bed early as a rule, and last night was no exception. I puttered with my presents and cards and various other things before sitting for a while with Rizzo and Sweetness, who flaked out on either side of me while I looked at my computer.

It is accepted in our family that this angel resembles Erica

Today, Chad and Erica and Rhett and Audrey and Dagny are leaving for the mountains of Boone, North Carolina, for the weekend.

Because of that, Erica dropped off her small dog, Sibi the Chorkie (Chihuahua/Yorkshire Terrier mix) this morning, followed shortly after by Audrey bringing Wednesday, her tuxedo cat.

Chad's bigger dog, Jonah, went to Chad's parents' house for the weekend.

Sibi is currently in her crate because although she adores being outside and will stay out there all day, it is pouring rain. She likes her crate. I'll let her sit with me later.

Go big or go home

Sweetness is in her three-level cat condo enclosure, snoozing in one of her beds. Wednesday is cowering underneath my chair, unsure as of yet what exactly is going on. Rizzo is beside me.

TG is on some sort of mission or other, out and about, but he will soon be upstairs completing the painting in the guest bath.

I have a good supper planned and, as the weather is wet and miserable (I love it), I won't be going anywhere until tomorrow.

(I do feel for those who are out in the damp Friday traffic, delivering the things everyone is waiting for. God bless them.)

You're now current on what I'm doing! What are you doing? Please tell me. Quickly! Before you get too busy.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Friday :: Happy Weekend

The long and short and good and bad and happy and sad of it

Our girls on the day after Thanksgiving. L to R Audrey, Stephanie, Erica.

OK here's what happened to the pirate at the end of November.

First -- basically throughout October -- I was overtaken by our decision to remodel our upstairs (guest) bath.

It has needed it for at least fifteen years. And I am being generous.

You know how it is.

The money! The dust! The inconvenience! The money!

But TG has a great friend who is a contractor and they bartered for the labor and that's something -- it's a lot, actually. For my part, I was tasked with choosing and ordering all of the things.

To include flooring, vanity, mirror, lighting, commode ... and then the various decorator touches such as paint color and accessories.

Dagny chose the little fox for our fall table

And when I say accessories, I mean shower curtain, tension rod and new rings for said curtain, rugs, switchplate covers, trash can, tissue box cover, towel ring, TP storage, wall art, et cetera. It's a lot to take in.

I was consumed. I believe I have thought of everything. It is all here, ready to be installed. I can't wait for you to see my little chandeliers. I hope they don't look stupid. Please join me in praying that they look like a genius who reads Architectural Digest for fun, thought to hang them there.

Then this morning, our contractor friend actually commenced the work, which must be done by Christmas week, when company begins to arrive.

As I told the girls via text a few hours ago, the thunderous sounds of demolition have rung throughout the house all day, and I am overjoyed. I'll show everything to you when the work is complete.

Then it was Thanksgiving. After all of the planning and shopping, we did gather and we did enjoy a pretty delicious meal prepared by the pirate, if even the pirate says so.

We had a 20-pound turkey roasted and crisped and browned to juicy perfection. Chad arrived just in time to carve said bird, which is his specialty. At least as far as I'm concerned it is, because it means I don't have to do it.

Stephanie and Joel with L to R Andrew (9), Allissa (13), and Melanie (almost 17)

Alongside the turkey we had sweet potato casserole (Ruth's Chris recipe modified just a tad to short the sugar and butter and add a few marshmallows), Mom's broccoli casserole, crock pot creamed corn, mashed potatoes, my homemade cranberry sauce, Erica's tangy carrot-apple slaw, Sister Schubert's rolls, sparkling waters, coffee, and an assortment of pies and other sweets, including an apple cobbler that Audrey made from scratch.

We decided to eat at five since Cherica and baby Rhett were at Chad's parents' feast in the morning and so had a big lunch.

Even so, they could barely eat more than a few bites of everything. But it was good to have everyone at the table. Next year though, if I'm still on the green side of grass, we will eat earlier and let the stragglers have leftovers when they're good and ready.

It just seemed like a long day, standing around waiting for five o'clock.

Stephanie and Joel and the kids had arrived on Wednesday late afternoon, and we had made plans to all go out for Mexican food at Monterrey.

But our Joel was sick, had not even driven the miles from North Carolina but instead rested in the passenger seat while Stephanie drove, and yes there was awful traffic.

The kids' table overlooked the pool

No he did not have COVID; it was a simple case of the flu.

Flu still exists, you know! It's like a long-lost friend who calls you out of the blue to let you know he's still alive and kicking!

At any rate, Joel went straight to bed upon arrival while the rest of us went out for dinner, and the next day he felt much better. Not all well but no longer all sick either.

Meanwhile TG had already been suffering for about a week with a cold and cough -- the same one he gets every year at this time -- which as usual he just worked right through.

However, he was kind enough to give it to me because on Friday night, after we'd taken the family Christmas card pictures as is our day-after-Thanksgiving tradition, I developed a scratchy throat.

I'll spare you the details except to say, it morphed into bronchitis and I was out of commission from late Saturday through yesterday.

I cannot blog when I'm distracted, overwhelmed, or sick. It just doesn't work that way.

Audrey and Dagny (7)

And I'd be lying if I said I were now one hundred percent; I'm not. But I'm getting there.

And no I did not/do not have COVID -- not Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda, or Mu. (The Nu variant name was skipped because it is pronounced “new” and that would have led to confusion. Xi is skipped because of China. That gets us to Omicron, the latest variant -- and neither did TG. 

Do yourself a favor and read the short article that I've linked to above.

If you have more time, read this fascinating article that Audrey sent me this morning. I'll be reading the book.

And now it's Christmas! I have been so overwhelmed by the thought of putting up the tree that I have actually dreaded it.

So I embraced manageable change. Instead of the seven-foot pencil tree I bought (and hate) a few years ago to replace another not-quite-so-pencilly pencil tree (which I did hate but which I now miss) that I'd been using since 2002, I bought a five-foot flocked pre-lit tree that I have placed on a table in the front window.

Not as daunting and I don't have to add a single light. At least not this year. We all know they won't light up again next year. Let's just hope they make it to December 31st of this year. 

Early in the day, Allissa helped me set the table

Tomorrow night Chad is coming over to help TG move some things around in the house and get the heavy Christmas bins down from the attic.

On Saturday I'll put out/up all the decorations I can stand to deal with.

It's not that I don't have the Christmas spirit; I do. The spirit is willing as always, but the flesh is weak as it tends to be when you have to pause every ten seconds and do a convincing imitation of coughing up a lung.

Andrew and Brittany couldn't leave Oklahoma for Thanksgiving but Brittany's mother flew out to spend several days with them. They will be here after Christmas to have (third) Christmas with us.

First Christmas will be on the 20th when Stephanie and Joel return for our family presents-opening time with them. The next day our Melly will turn 17 and we will have a separate party for that.

Second Christmas will be on actual Christmas. Audrey and Dagny always spend Christmas Eve night with us so we can all be together on Christmas morning.

Erica, Chad, and Baby Rhett (4 months)

This year, what with that swanky new guest bath, I may have to crowbar them out in time for Third Christmas, when Andrew, Brittany, and Ember will drive up from Florida where they are spending actual Christmas at the home of her grandparents, with the rest of her family.

Mercy! I think I need to lie down.

As I mentioned, the day after Thanksgiving, for the past several years we have gathered at a predetermined scenic spot chosen by me (although I had help from Erica this year with deciding on Guignard Park in West Columbia), to take the Christmas card pictures of the girls' families.

It was a trifle chilly and windy but we got it done and I think everyone is happy with the result.

Audrey did take a few shots of TG and me but naturally I am unhappy with the result and we will be doing retakes any day now.

In addition to all of the above, we have had many days of exhilarating joy in the face of the unlikely mixed with exhausting sorrow in the face of the inevitable.

The weather was perfect

That's because also on the day after Thanksgiving, my niece Joanna (my sister's youngest), who lives with her husband, Jacob, and two-year-old son Freddy in Cleveland, Ohio, experienced the loss of her baby son, Noah.

Noah was diagnosed in the womb with Trisomy 13 and was not expected to live even long enough to be born.

But God gave Jacob and Joanna forty-two days with Noah, during which time everyone who met and knew him fell head-over-heels in love with him.

Noah's funeral was held today. It is heartbreaking but as his own mother wrote, every day for Noah was a struggle, and now that struggle is over.

My sister, Kay, wrote a few days ago in a text to me that while Jacob and Joanna were at the funeral home making arrangements, she put away Noah's bassinet and all of his little things. She cried the whole time.

If you like, you may view his Find A Grave page here. And I know that all the family would appreciate your prayers during this Christmas season.

Jacob placing his son's casket. Joanna approaching with flowers.

It's still warm in South Carolina -- not the least bit Christmasy IMO. Well into the seventies for daytime highs over the next several days. It's unusual for December and, I admit, exasperating. I don't even particularly like winter but I do like a break from our customary heat and humidity.

I have turned our furnace on a couple of times, just to knock off the chill, upon which I turn it back off. A few nights, temps got down into the high twenties and low thirties, but overnight lows are back up into the forties and even fifties for now.

I would rather add a layer than strangle on heat pouring out of the registers.

So when you come to see me (summer or winter), bring some socks (if you forget, I have eighty-two thousand pairs), and maybe a sweater.

We have plenty of blankies in case you forget all of the above in your haste to spend a few days hanging with the pirate.

And that is all for now except to say, Merry Christmas!

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Happy Thursday :: Happy December