Home Alone! Ho Ho Ho!

Merry Christmas everyone!  It's starting to cloud over now but it's still 41 degrees F outside and the day dawned sunny and bright.  And windy, whew!  It feels more like a late March day than a late December day.  But I'll take it!  Sure beats 20 below zero!  I sure hope this weather holds for Mr. Don's visit and our departure to Spain. 

The Packers are the Sunday Night Game of the Week and won't be playing until 7 p.m. local time! That's giving me plenty of time to get yet more cleaning and rearranging done -- and right now I'm also doing laundry.  I also got the holes patched up that I managed to put into the upstairs bathroom's wall yesterday while attempting to re-install a towel rack in a new location.  I have decided that I'm going to shop for a small towel ladder instead, and if it's the kind that leans against the wall I'll secure it with sticky tabs!  In a little while I'm going to try and reopen the old paint can and see if there's any hint of paint left to touch up those white spackle-filled holes!  If not, I may try my hand at water-coloring the spackle to match...yes, I actually do paint with water colors on occasion, although I'm not very good.  I enjoy it anyway.  When I retire one of the things I want to do is take painting lessons (acrylics, oils, water-color -- the hardest medium to master), and step up my chess lessons.

What, you say, is this how you're spending Christmas Day, Jan Newton? Doing housework and laundry?  Emphatically - yes, Yes, YES!  I turned down several invitations to spend various parts of the holiday with family. I am spending it all alone except for my buddies the squirrels, who are being outrageously spoiled today with constant showers of hazelnuts.  I retired at 9:20 p.m. last night and had a GOOD night's sleep for a change; this morning I luxuriated over reading the Sunday paper with my coffee and Milano double chocolate filled cookies.  Then I made myself a nice big breakfast and looked through some old decorating magazines to decide if they should go into recycling or be saved (most of them went into recycling).  Then I patched the holes in the bathroom wall.  Then I washed off and dusted a whole lot of bric-a-brac around the house (it's amazing how much of that I have, I think it breeds in dark corners when I'm not looking).  Now my bedroom is filled with small piles of laundry and I'm about to throw in load number 3.  Some left-over Shepherd's Pie is calling my name enticingly from the fridge. 

Mother will be visited next week when Mr. Don can come along and she'll flirt outrageously with him and send us to McDonalds for food - a Big Mac Meal!  I can hardly wait!  Alas, the Family Tree project is on hold while I work through this temporary insanity of house cleaning, rearranging every movable thing inside this household, decorating and whatever. 

The stockings were hung...  Aren't they beautiful!  Look Ma, no hooks!

Oh - I got those lovely velveteen decorated "St. Nick" stockings that I picked up at the dollar store a few weeks back hung up on the fireplace mantle!  I could not get the brass cup hooks I'd bought screwed into the mantle under-shelf for the life of me!  What to do, what to do...  I hung the stockings from the candle sconces on either side of the book hutch in the living room while I fretted about whether to actually pound nails into my beautiful mantle (NO NO NO!)  Yesterday while at the Pick 'n Save with half of Milwaukee I purchased some white plastic hook-things that are self-stick.  I knew they would work okay because the hook part has an extra bit of curl and the stocking loops won't slip off!  I positioned them and got them on without having to take them off and start all over again, but as they were white they stuck out like sore thumbs against the rich dark cherry finish on the fireplace.  So, I did some coloring.  I pulled out my furniture touch-up kit and went to work on those white plastic hooks with my wood touch-up markers.  Now you can't even see them.  The stockings are hanging from them and I still can't see them!  Amazing what a little camoflauge will do! 

I've got a fire going and some candles going and Christmas carols are playing on the radio.  During sunrise I had the tree lights, the lights around the window and the door wreath on and it was so beautiful!  They'll be turned back on at dusk.  Meanwhile, the pine-scented candle on the "cardinal table" is burning and filling the living room with a lovely fragrance.

I love to sit in my Queen's Throne next to the fire and read.  It's the warmest spot in the house on the days when it's nasty damp outside or just cold, cold cold!  I light up the fire and my mood instantly changes for the better, or if it's already good, to the best!  Who would think a wood chair could ever be sooooo comfortable?  Let me tell you, the ancient Chinese sure knew how to design comfortable seating!  The back is angled perfectly to my back, the cushion (a gift from Mr. Don) fits just right in the small of my back, the arms give perfectly proportioned resting spots and I can lean my head back on the head rest and doze off with no problem at all (the arms ensure I won't fall out of the chair sideways).  For an extra dose of luxury, I take a pillow or two off the sofa or love seat to rest my feet upon.  Ahhhhh, Heaven....

This is the living room work station!  A mess, as you can see, but inspirational all the same.  When the candles
are going in the dark and smooth jazz is playing softly out of the computer's speakers, and a couple of my favorite
photos right there to gaze upon well - it's just about perfect.  I'm setting up a new work station in the family room, too...
Oh - the timer!  LOL!  That's from when I had the Shepherd's Pie in the oven last night.  Time to put it away!

When I'm finished doing my thing on my trusty Toshiba laptop I like to curl up with an afghan on the couch or the love seat and watch t.v. - or contemplate the fire as soft music plays in the background...  Tonight, however, I'll be watching the Packers and no doubt screaming my head off and getting a work-out jumping up and down.

Yes, it's good to be Queen, and it's good to have the luxury of being entirely alone, darlings :)