Better Late Than Never

Every anniversary, Andy and I exchange perfume and cologne.  Some years we've picked it out separately, some years we've gone shopping together.  The scent industry seems to have survived the economic downturn without a hiccup, as last year our selections cost almost twice what the ones we bought in 2006 for our wedding.  I understand inflation, but not even gas and oil have increased at THAT speed.  So we've been kicking around ideas for a new place to shop or a new way to pick out scents, and time got away from us.  As it is now the Holiday Season, the mall and just about every retail establishment has descended into crowded and obnoxious trials of patience for both of us, so this year we decided to pick out scents on-line.

That was more fun than we ever dreamed.  We started looking up scents we already had, then looked at things that people had also bought.  The reviews were almost worthless, but the descriptions were delightful.  I was sorely tempted by one described as "a sexy fruity fragrance you wear at your discretion," but eventually picked Amarige by Givenchy, which has notes of "Neroli, Mandarin, Violet leaves, Rosewood, Gardenia, Red fruits, Ylang-Ylang, Acacia Farnesiana, Tonka Bean, Woods, Ambergris."  I have no idea what most of those things actually smell like, but I liked the sound of "ylang-ylang."  I don't know how it is actually pronounced exactly, but it looks fun.  

For Andy we looked up some of the male versions of perfumes we've bought for me.  One of our favorites has always been "The One" by Dolce and Gabbana, which has a male version.  We thought we were ordering the original, which was described as "The One for Men perfectly reflects the Dolce Gabanna man: charismatic and seductive, elegant and sophisticated, he loves taking care of himself. A modern hedonist who never passes by unobserved."  Without realizing it, however, we ended up ordering "The One Gentleman," which is for "a man who is multifaceted and knows how to treat a lady,"  I have no idea what either of those descriptions have to do with smells, but I love the descriptions. We've never gotten odd descriptions of fragrances at the fragrance counters--just a lot of cards with scent on them.  They're nice in themselves, but the descriptions are less prone to giving headaches.

Our new scents arrived this week,

and quite wonderfully, we like both scents and yet they are quite different from anything either of us already have, making it a total surprise.  No free gifts with purchase, of course, but last year's umbrella doesn't work very well, the matching scented deodorants tend to give Andy a rash, and we already have at least 5 or 6 free bags piled up around the house.  And we're celebrating another year of smelling absolutely fabulous...........

Ah, Knitting.................

The dream:

How I look in Reality:

 .......but it does keep my face almost warm when I'm out walking.

The Decorations Tour

I promised Andy's mother pictures of the house as decorated this year because she's been following my 365-ornament experiment, so we're doing a little tour this morning.

In past years, I have done both upstairs and downstairs, but this is where the decorations stopped this year:

I didn't want to overdo and then end up struggling to make it through the party, so I did exercises some restraint this year.  However, this:

was FUN. I hadn't originally intended for one tree to be The Homemade Tree, but as this was the first tree that went up and I was so excited to see how all the new ornaments looked on it, it is almost entirely homemade ornaments. There are some new ornaments that Andy made this year:

which we got to keep because he isn't entirely pleased with them.  We also included the beautiful,

and pretty intricate, ornaments made by Andy's cousin Mindy, who is obviously a woman of infinite patience. We also have several very unique ornaments made by a friend who studies native crafts, so this

is a miniature birch-bark canoe.  How cool is that?

It turns out, as I was digging through the ornament boxes, that we have LOTS of homemade ornaments from all sorts of people--past coworkers, nieces and nephews, friends--so they're all on here,

 I didn't add any garland or anything but lights and ornaments to this tree--it hasn't seemed to need it, especially since I'm still finishing up some of the ornaments. I didn't realize how far behind I had fallen in soaking the stabilizer off the lace ornaments, which actually takes a couple days, so more ornaments keep popping onto the tree.

We also have a cool new addition in the coat hall this year:

I've had this candle holder for years, but I never light it as I don't like candles that close to the wall or that can be bumped easily.  So one day I asked Andy if he might be interested in making decorations for it, and these are the result.  I love it, and I was surprised how quickly he could make them.  I added the bows for a little color and to make them a bit less likely to get bumped.  Just a fun new addition this year.

I love variety in decorating, so as many of you know, I have several Christmas "themes" we can use.  This year I went back to the original red and gold,

which worked out well as

the red lights were the only other ones I could find.  One Christmas box is still somewhere in the garage, but by the time I got to this tree, the party was coming up pretty quickly and there wasn't really time to clean the garage.  There goes the theory that I think about these themes well in advance....

This tree was fun to do as well, as the ornaments are mostly ones we've received as gifts or bought as souvenirs from trips.  I've been collecting ornaments for a very long time--technically,  this

is my very oldest ornament, which I received in second grade.  I started collecting ornaments from trips long before I met Andy, 

so ones like this wonderful little lunar landing module from NASA pre-date him, but we've continued the tradition on all of our trips together.  This one from a weekend in McCalll is especially cute,

though they're all fun.  And,  while many of our ornaments come from a girls' ornament exchange party that I've been attending for the past 15-20 years,

we have some ornaments Andy has been given from the kayaking & canoeing club as well.   I don't think there's a single year that I haven't put up a tree.  My first year in college it was rather more of a stick than a tree and had to be suspended from the window frame with dental floss to keep it upright, and I did abandon real trees after an episode involving my pocket knife and a trip to an emergency clinic for 5 stitches, and two years ago my friends did put up the decorations for me, but I just can't imagine not having one.  Or two, as the case may be............

Things I Have Learned This Week

*  If one is going to go overboard when making appetizers, it's best to make them healthy enough that they can be lunch, breakfast, and dinner for the next few days

*  Normally the cats consider me a bit of a dim bulb, but it doesn't stop them from thinking I can make it warm enough for them to go outside if they just ask often enough.

*  It turns out that I'm not yet that motivated to know if my back muscles can take our recent miserably-cold temperatures or not.  Anything below zero, or even in single digits, is just going to be ignored right now.

*  When you can be made the Bad Guy for setting limits on how often people can use you for their own convenience, it's not much of a relationship to begin with and certainly not a healthy one.

*  Just because you've made a tradition out of watching as many version of "A Christmas Carol" as you can find, it doesn't mean that you have to include "The Smurfs Christmas Carol."  All traditions need limits.

*  I used to think I could figure out pretty much anything on the internet.  Then I met the latest Yahoo Mail upgrade.

*  I am not a good guesser.  When I am being careful about being on ladders and stools and reaching and lifting, I'll STILL manage to find something that is hard on one's back.  This week it was wrapping gifts while sitting on the floor.  In my defense, however, doesn't that sound like an EASY thing?

*  While being strong enough to make it to ALL the holiday parties would be great, after last year it's nice to be able to attend MOST or even half.  Even slow progress is progress.

Back With a Bang!

Finally! We were able to have an actual party!  I've had a Christmas party almost every year for the last 20+ years, so going two full years without a party was really strange.  And we rejoined the human race in style,

albeit a really ugly style. Andy wasn't the only one sporting lights--our contest winner

had both lights AND a singing hat, and is seen here trying (quite unsuccessfully) to get everyone gathered for a group photo.  It was hard enough to get people for individual shots--there was no stopping the party for a group shot.

We had some wonderfully creative sweaters,

front AND back:

and I'd love to show you pictures of all the fun stuff, but even taking shifts with the camera didn't capture all the creativity.  But we did have a MARVELOUS time!

Day By Day..........

Yesterday was a bad back day again, which is REALLY frustrating as I thought I was being really good this week AND it meant missing a Christmas party last night.  It turns out that there are lots of things that can cause my back to freak out while I'm trying to heal, including changes in the weather.  I won't know for about a year if the weather problem is permanent or not, but for right now, it is possible that snow combined with a zippy 4 degrees can throw my back for a loop.  Fair enough--the rest of me doesn't care for that kind of cold either. 

So today while getting ready for our party, I am taking regular breaks to sit on my new massage cushion.  The therapist told me that when muscles knot, one essentially has to re-injure them to get them to relax.  Fortunately or unfortunately, my new back massager believes in this program as well.  The packaging calls it "Shiatsu action," which sounds much more friendly than "back pulverization with heat," but it does work.  I think it's the same principal as those mallets for tenderizing meat, but I try not to thing about that too much...............

And We're On To Christmas!

I am not going to gloat or anything, because it was this week last year when I managed to sprain my back while doing physical therapy, so there are no limits to what I can do, but we are hosting our FIRST party in two years on Sunday.  I almost feel human again.  Or I feel like a human who still has to take muscle relaxers, take breaks, and who can still have random days of pain.  So maybe I need to work on my concept of "human," but as it's now been over two years, it's exciting to just be mobile.  AND GETTING READY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

I love spending Christmas in my own home.  We're always invited to different relatives' homes, of course, and for the first few years of our marriage all we DID was travel all over for Christmas.  But I'm 43 years old, Andy will be 50 next year, and frankly we are old enough to have our OWN Christmas traditions in OUR OWN HOME.  The thing is, I don't like to travel for Christmas.  Your house is more likely to be broken into, it's harder to find someone to take care of our pets, everyone on the planes are spreading cold and flu germs to everyone else, flights are expensive, weather conditions can cause delays and flights are overbooked, and December is so busy with parties and events and everything else that I'm tired by the time Christmas rolls around. I don't want to have to be gearing up to travel anywhere.  And, while I appreciate it when people DO invite us for Christmas, until I got married I never ONCE hosted or had Christmas in my own home because of family expectations, but now we're married, we're adults, and have a life together to create. So, we have big plans both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and an Ugly Sweater party on Sunday.  Let the holiday season begin!