scottish

I have to write this up, lest I slip & start thinking my family might be normal. For almost a week I've been sick- sore throat, headache, whatever. Last night I was curled up in a chair, buried under blankets with a small sheltie snuggled nearby. My dad lit a nice fire, turned on the Christmas tree lights, and turned up next to my chair with a bottle of Drambuie.

Drambuie is really really sweet liquor made from scotch and honey, and if you drink it straight up, it will quite literally take the lining off your throat, and your stomach, and probably strip off a few of your teeth. It's strong. Really, really, bite-your-head-off nasty stuff. My family is cuckoo & Scottish, so whenever one of us got sick as a kid, we were treated with a nice shot of it.

So here's my dad, with his guaranteed sore throat remedy, trying to heal me. When I declined to drink any (come on, I'd brushed my teeth already!) he launched into a "you won't get better until you drink it!" speech. On Christmas Eve. Yes... we think Drambuie is actual medicine around here.

Meanwhile, I've been stumped about how to back up all the text messages I have saved on my sim card in my phone for a few days, and it finally occured to me that I should just type them out or something. So here are a few that I've been carrying around on my phone over the last 5 years.

"Happy no longer working for Gooooooogle" -my sailor 6/15/07 (yes, he put all those "o"'s in there himself. and yes, that was my last day working there)

"She said yes!" - Brian 10/22/06 (after many text messages working up the courage to propose to his now wife)

"Heh i locked myself out of my apt" - my sailor 7/13/05 (might I note that he is an actual licensed locksmith?)

"Ticket 0000XXXXX - Impact 1 - HP6 Automated warm fuzzy" - amazon's ticketing system 7/13/05 (paging me for a not so small bug)

"Hi beautiful. Miss you" - my sailor 11/12/02 (awww. he's so sweet)

round ball of fuzz

round ball of fuzz
Originally uploaded by wck

I love this photo of Declan. He LOVES the sofa in the living room (when he can't reach the doggie bed I made him that's in the green room, behind closed doors). The living room has a huge ceiling with skylights, and the upstairs hall extends to a balcony that runs across it. Right underneath is this sofa. So... you can walk across the balcony, look down, and see a fuzzy sheltie napping. Awwwwww. He's sleeping on a fisherman's cable blanket that my grandma made for me to take to college.

We had a crazy christmas around here- just like always. Yesterday Kate & I made cookie press cookies (sandwiched with apricot and strawberry jam then dipped in chocolate!) and then panettone. Mmmmmm. This morning I made scones and then we had waffles and THEN most of the presents were opened (chaos!) and then french toast. Ana and Tom, as expected, liked the wrapping paper better than the gifts.

I'd finished a quilt for each kid, so the one picture I wanted to get was each one on the sofa with their quilts, but of course that didn't happen. Maybe next year.

christmas!

The trees are up!

ice skating

Kate went ice skating for the first time yesterday, in the cutest teensy hockey skates. I had to hold her upright the whole time, but by the end her feet were only sliding out from under her every 3 seconds instead of every .0000001 seconds. Progress!!

Afterwards, we went over to Fosterfields to say Merry Christmas to the animals. Calvin and Hobbes (the Belgian draft horses) came over to say hello when we got there, and Hobbes decided that my scarf was dinner and tried to eat it. So I got horse slobber all over my shoulder. blech. But he's a cute guy so we forgave him. Their coats are really thick for winter already! Then it was time for all the animals to get dinner- the two farmers walked Calvin and Hobbes into their stable, rounded up the 3 cows (Calico was more interested in saying hi to us than going inside), and collected the turkeys. Kate said hello to the cat (named B.C. for barn cat) and all the chickens and roosters. We didn't stay around while the sheep were fed, but they were all clustered at the gate waiting their turn when we left.

When we got home, we made Red Velvet cupcakes for Ana's first birthday. Yum!

Christmas in NYC

Walking down the streets in NYC recently has smelled like walking through a pine forest with all the little Christmas Tree vendors on the sidewalk every few feet. I keep forgetting to bring a camera to take a few pictures of them before they all disappear.

Last week I also went ice skating in Bryant Park, and hopefully I'll make it up there a few more times before the rink closes at the end of December. I've been madly trying to fit in lots of Christmas-in-NYC things this season; I know that I'll have other Christmases here but it's still tempting to try to get to everything right away! Here are some things that I probably won't be doing, though:

1. Radio City Christmas show - too expensive, and I'd rather wait for Kate to be a little older so she could enjoy it
2. Going to a performance of Messiah - might be semi interesting, but I don't know if I'd sit still that long
3. Skating at Rockefeller Center - the Bryant Park rink is much nicer

My best friend, with a little help from Amazon's wishlist, gave me a great christmas present today. Blown to Smithereens (he didn't know they were from NJ so I'll mention that here) and a book of photography criticism. The CD is excellent.

And yesterday I talked to Kate about her Christmas present which was some trains from Santa. She told me about all the cars and how they go around. That reminded me that I love this photo of her that I took when I was home. I thought when I was taking it that she was mad at me for putting the hat on her head. Instead, she looks really pensive. I wish I knew what she was thinking about. Probably what to play with next, or where she'd hid Cozy bear. But you can see how determined she can be, especially in her mouth. I usually hate it when photographers talk about capturing the "real" person, so I don't want to say that this photo is the "real" Kate, however it is a good view of how serious she can be.