Scattered Thoughts . . .

S ometime last night, I realized that I had not yet captured any photographs of our Christmas tree and ornaments this year.  I figured I should jump on that since I won't have any time between now and Christmas so, if I don't do it now, then Christmas will have passed by the time I can get to it again. We (mostly "I") feel like the tree is missing something and I actually feel the same way every year with every Christmas tree even after adding a little more to it each year but I've had difficulty figuring out what still might be missing.  I'm not a fan of most types of garland and I definitely hate tinsel so I know it is not missing these things.  It is possible it needs more ornaments in the way of more styles of decorative glass ornaments.  Our Christmas tree will most definitely never have items/characters from movies so that is out.  I'm not a fan of 'crafty' or 'country' type stuff either.  Maybe I'll figure out what is missing one

W e decorated the house for Christmas, inside and out, on Thanksgiving weekend as we usually do.  Hmmm...  well, sometimes we do the outside of the house the weekend before Thanksgiving especially if the weather is unseasonably warm but this year we decorated both inside and outside on Thanksgiving weekend so everything was done over the long Thanksgiving weekend. We usually have a few downed fir branches around the house by the time we decorate so that provides plenty of boughs available to make a large wreath for our front door.  This year, however, we didn't have a single downed branch nor did we have any that needed pruning so we purchased a small wreath instead.  We lose so many branches due to storms that I didn't want to unnecessarily cut down additional branches and especially not for one wreath. We hang small wreaths on all the windows as well as the kids' playhouse and our trash shed and that always looks nice but we like to put a large three foot wreath on the f

A s I've mentioned a few times in this blog previously, Sheila has been practicing her figure skating in an effort to be as prepared as possible for our trip to Manhattan with Lukey and Kenzie.  Until a couple of months ago, she hadn't skated in decades so she knew she needed to get on skates again before we were at Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park.  Lukey and Kenzie want to skate as much as Sheila has wanted to skate at these two popular rinks so this has been the plan since we started talking about a Christmas trip to Manhattan with the kids quite a few years ago. We've been heading to a couple of different rinks a couple of times a week so Sheila can practice.  Sometimes Sheila skates with Kenzie before Kenzie's skating lessons but most times she is out there alone while I practice my video and photography skills.    Sheila has improved quite a bit over the past few weeks but she is now done practicing.   She took a bad fall the other night and has been left badly

W e're getting some snow today...  and some rain...  and some ice...  and a lot of slush.  The temperatures are hovering in the 32-34° range and have been like this since yesterday.  This is a terrible temperature range in the winter because it makes for terrible driving conditions.  Sometimes the roads are wet, sometimes the roads are icy, sometimes the roads are clear but any of these conditions can change in a matter of seconds.   Naturally this would be a day to stay home like almost all of the school districts have already decided.   Most of the schools are closed but, ironically (or perhaps moronically) although Sheila has been working from home consistently everyday since Montpelier was flooded about five months ago, she was told that she must go to Montpelier today of all days.   Why must she dig out the car?  Why must we rush to clear the driveway and the end of the driveway of heavy, wet snow?  Why must she risk driving on roads that could be dangerous and which promise t