Christmas

I love Christmas even more now than I probably ever did when I was a kid.  I think because seeing family and getting new things has been happening less and less and less and less since I moved to Columbia two and a half years ago.  In the last six months or so . . . we've been nearly at a standstill in those areas of life.

This Christmas was especially special because . . . I enjoyed it so much?   Reasons:

• It snowed 5 inches the morning of Christmas Eve.  Granted, the most I got to enjoy this was primarily while driving through it, which was an awful thing to do at 5:30 in the morning.  There was considerably less snow at Mom & Dad's, but they got enough for satisfaction by Christmas morning.
• I was witness to my father taking extremely potent pain killer.  (Much less distressing than not on Vidacin in this instance).  He hurt his knee and neglected to go to the doctor before Christmas, so he had to wait until Monday.  = he was pretty stuck in one place the whole time we were there.  = we got to enjoy much more of his company than usual.
• Our whole family (minus Zephan) was together for a few days the weekend before Christmas.  
• My youngest niece informed me while I was making a birthday card for my grandma that "When [she] was [my] age, [she] used to like to do that."
• I played an excellent new game with my husband, favorite little bro and fun, nerdy cousin at my aunt's house.  Zephan was exposed to some aspects of my family that had been lacking entirely from his life experience.  :)
• My mom finished a quilt that my great grandma Gertie started.  I made her keep the quilt top probably seven years ago.  I knew it would be good if someone got around to quilting it.  And it is SO good.  
• I also received an iTunes gift card, which I am enjoying as I'm writing.  What is it about buying new music that makes life so bright and sparkly?
• Zephan got me a super nice camera.  = new hobby, lots of pictures (mostly of cats, so far).  Unfortunately, I'm separated from the products of this new toy.  I will share soon, though.

Autumnal Activity

We have been doing all kinds of homemaking lately.  Freezing bananas, drying apples, making applesauce, banana bread, spiced pear jam, shampoo . . . and learning all kinds of canning skills.


Thanks to everyone who has given advice, food, tools, and assistance for these projects.  We didn't get pictures of everything, but here are some from the bushel of apples we put away.

What's left?  Well, there's a pumpkin in our laundry room waiting for carving and roasting.

Goat cheese is delicious.

I have this sentence in my conglomeration of facts about goats.  It's not going to make it very much longer, but every time I've glanced at it, I've needed to keep it.  So here it is.  And here's a picture to match.

Reducing Stress

I have to come up with a topic for two huge papers.  This happens to be my least favorite part of paper-writing.  And because these papers are so huge, I have to make a really good decision or the rest of my college career will be horrible.  I took a midterm today.  I was under-prepared.  And in one of my classes we're reading Maus.  Also, I have a French midterm on Thursday that I feel under-prepared for, I'm behind on my reading, and I have another midterm next week.  Plus, I'd rather do fun things with my time than complete my list of things to do for the rest of the month.  Thanksgiving can't come too soon.

Feeling like this last year, I know exactly what I would have done.  I'd have hopped in my car, gone down College, left on Bus. Loop, right on Rangeline, stopped at Taco Bell, and sat at my sister's kitchen table while she contemplated dinner.  And I would have stayed while she made dinner.  And then I would have stayed for dinner.  Because I'm (she's) a great sister.

Unfortunately, I'm recovering from Holocaust comics on my own.  No kids to play with, no Taco Bell, nothing.  *sigh*

The only solace I have is this picture, which is dedicated to Jenny.

Babies

Guess what appeared in our back yard yesterday morning?  Like magic.  And there are four other alpacas waiting to be moms, so the next few weeks are going to be like Christmas.  It was perfect timing, too, because the Glens had just returned from Hawaii on Thursday.  I can just imagine our telephone call if this had happened earlier.  "Umm, so . . . something happened. "

HyVee

Sometimes Zephan has to work at 6 in the morning, and I have to come with him.  Like this morning.  I'm planning on spending the day at the library, but the library doesn't open for another hour.  So I'm sitting here, sipping on a pumpkin spice latte and reading.  There's an old man here who I've seen a lot.  I think that the HyVee cafeteria is a strange place to hang out and read the morning paper (shouldn't there be dim lights and cigarette smoke?), but he must be a regular because he knows all the employees.  This morning he brought his own syrup.

Procrastination

I just created this blog. Instead of writing a critical response to Passage to India. Instead of emailing my adviser. Instead of reading about literary theory. What do you think of that?