In my e-box today, came this seasonal reminder from a spammer bitten by the christmas bug:

Ain’t that just sweet? So… anybody got some Christmas Tail to spare? I seem to be all out.

How in the world did I manage to spot this series countless times on the bookstores’ shelves, pick it up with interest, then set it back down without purchasing it? How?!?! I finally got around, well over two months ago, to checking out The Golden Compass, the first book in the trilogy, and then promptly read the first paragraph and carried around uselessly for a while, then looked at it with vague interest as it sat quietly on my dining table, and never freaking read anything more until tonight.

It’s 7:30 a.m., and I’ve read it start to finish, and am cursing myself for not having read it sooner. Like… years sooner. Anxiously, I checked my library’s website, and they seem to have the full compendium, His Dark Materials, checked in at the moment. That’s a relief, because two months ago, they didn’t have anything but the first book period. Maybe the newly released movie had something to do with getting the full thing? (Or maybe their website just sucks and it’s awful hard to find anything…)

Anyway, I anxiously await Monday. It can’t possibly come soon enough. Here’s hoping the library opens for business on the 24th. If not… doom, I tell you.

Doom.

It’s that time of year again. Winter solstice. Yule. The birth of a new spiritual year. Many (most?) Wiccans and eclectic-style pagans feel Samhain is the spiritual new year, and in Celtic tradition, it is. But it’s just never felt right to me. I feel much more spiritually connected and grounded on the solstice, where at last, darkness will once again turn toward light. It’s a time of light and renewal, and what better way to begin a new year?

Bucking my own tradition, I did not have a huge ritual this year, but instead, kept things simple. A sunrise. A cup of cinnamon apple rooibos tea. A fuzzy blanket and some cats. And Tarot.

It was nice. Comfortable. Warming. Not too stressing. I found a new tarot spread for Yule, called the Sacred Days of Yule Spread. It’s meant to be performed over 12 days, one card drawn each day. I’m a day late, so I drew two today. This sort of thing stresses me out - being ‘behind’, that is - so I’m trying to take it in stride.

Tsuki has been laying under the tree there for hours and hours and hours. She likes it. A lot. Silly kitty thinks she’s a present! Speaking of presents, I opened a gift from TJ, who sent wonderful things from Washington - like smoked salmon and MarketSpice Tea (cinnamon-orange flavor!) along with some other goodies. All my other gifts will, of course, be opened on Christmas Eve with the family. I don’t think they’d buy the whole “But my holiday comes two days early!” bit. Heh.

I also opened the kitties’ Secret Paw packages, because they’re Yulecats. Felony was quite excited. For her, anyway. They recieved some fun toys - like feathers and pompoms (okay, I stole these for my tree, but only momentarily… honest…) and catnip and a feather boa, which Felony likes very much… and this cute little birdie with a bell on a stick. At first, they were freaked out by it, and Sebastian actually meowed and ran away. But I got him and Felony to play with it eventually. Tsuki just wanted to curl up in the now-vacant spot under the tree to sleep. She even refused the treats their Secret Paw sent!

“Hey, gimme more treats! Those cheese ones were great!”

You ask what I’ve been knitting? Dishcloths!

Plus, I made some catnip mice. I may end up making more, though, so no photo yet! ;)

I don’t have too much Christmas knitting left to do. Really, I just have to finish a scarf for R., and make a few more catnip mice, if I want to, which… I may well not do right this minute. I still haven’t finished my shawl. Shame. On. Me.

Perhaps I’ll work on it once the scarf’s done! Perhaps. Or perhaps I’ll do like I’ve been dying to do, and start my Fetchings. So much yarn, so little time to knit!

I stole this meme, and the cute title, from The Chaotic Crafter.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

Wrapping paper! Gift bags are mostly a cop-out, in my opinion. They have their place, but honestly, they’re not as pretty, they’re not as mysterious, they’re not as fun to open… The only thing they’ve got going for them is that they make wrapping ‘easy’.

2. Real tree or artificial?

Artificial, baby. I’d love to have a real tree… in my fantasies. In reality, real trees suck. My fake trees, granted, aren’t the cream of the fake tree crop, but at least they don’t shed pine needles all over the place. Nor are they a huge fire hazard. Nor do they cost me an arm and a leg every single year. And most of all… real trees here are like, limbs off a tree, okay? They’re piddly, they’re weak-limbed, they’re total Charlie Brown trees. Pathetic in every way. I hate.

3. When do you put up the tree?

Usually get it up within the first week of December. I always want to get it up Thanksgiving weekend, but it never really happens.

4. When do you take the tree down?

Last year, mid-January. The year before, it ended up hanging around until nearly Valentine’s Day. *lol* I love my tree, what can I say?

5. Do you like eggnog?

I like it all right, if it’s spiced. Spiced, people. Not spiked.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?

The My Little Pony Palace. It was my dream for years. And I finally got it. And it was good.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?

I have one, but I didn’t put it up this year. It’s a Precious Moments nativity, and quite dainty and cute. Not my religion, but I can sort of, uh, mold the myth to fit my own thing. But this year… I just didn’t put it out. Nowhere to put it, really, and it just doesn’t fit with my theme all that much.

8. Hardest person to buy for?

My father. Or my brother. Either one is difficult as hell.

9. Easiest person to buy for?

A, usually. She likes tons of stuff, and needs tons, too.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

My grandmother has given me some pretty awful gifts in the past, but the kicker was the cheap polka-dot purse with a pack of 8 crayons and some of those fluffy pony-tail-holder things. When I was 13 or 14. Wouldn’t have been quite so bad, but my brother scored a sleeping bag and a golf bag that same year. Wtf, anyone?

11. Mail or email Christmas cards?

Mail. But this year, I sent nothing. For reference, I HATE emailed cards, 99% of the time.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Ohh… that one about the reindeer that gets hurt and lost and the little girl cares for him. What the heck was that called? Prancer? Could be… In general, though, I’m not a fan of Christmas movies. Too sickeningly sweet.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

November, usually. Sometimes I’ll make something in advance, or buy something in advance, but all the hardcore things get purchased in November or early December. But after last year’s post office snafu, where Denver got dumped on with like ten thousand feet of snow, and all the mail was stuck there for weeks on end, I try to shop early, since most of my shopping gets done online.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

I don’t recall anything specific, but probably.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

Cookies. And ham. Or whatever. I like to eat everything, all the time, really.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?

I’ve always used clear, my themes usually being red/white or blue/white, but someday, I’ll do a multi-colored tree, and probably will use colored lights then!

17. Favorite Christmas song?

My favorite song tends to be God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, in almost any flavor.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

Stay home!! But only because all my family is right here, I imagine. I certainly wouldn’t travel to some vacation spot at Christmas, anyway. Not so cool, I don’t think. Christmas is a homey-time.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?

Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen; Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen! And do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer! *sings it* The only way I can remember it, really.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?

Never liked angels on tree-tops. And I’m not too fond of most tree-topping stars, either. They’re so… gaudy most of the time. I have been using those giant tree-topping bows for a few years now, and I really like that!

A really disliked it the first year I used it. Too… materialistic and secular or something for her taste. Perfect for me, though!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

We generally open gifts Christmas Eve. In fact Christmas Eve is really our “Christmas Day”. Always has been. We had our family dinner that night, we visited relatives. The next day was our ‘relaxing’ day, and our second family dinner with the other half of the family. But we always open gifts Christmas Eve.

But honestly, when I have kids, I might make them wait till Christmas Day, except for maybe one gift… Well, we’ll see. Maybe, when I have kids, we’ll all open gifts on Yule instead. Hah.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?

Bellringers. Hands down.

23. What I love most about Christmas?

Everything. The weather (hopefully snow), the merry-making, the gift-giving and prettily wrapped packages perched under trees, the good-natured spirit, the festive lights, the decorated trees, the scent of cookies, the mystery of Santa Claus… I could go on for pages, but I won’t.

Speaking of Santa Claus… does anyone actually ever give their kids nothing or coal for Christmas from Santa if they’ve been bad?

So, my second pair of socks knit ever have been finished. They’re fat and squishy and thick and warm and machine washable and inexpensive. And pink. Lady have mercy, they are pink. I’ll have to wait to post a picture until they get to their new home and the recipient, TJ has them in her hot little hands - or on her hot little feet, more like - because she actually occasionally reads this blog, and while she knows she’s getting fat squishy thick warm and machine washable pink socks, she hasn’t actually seen them, and I’d like to keep it that way, you know?

So, TJ has small feet. Like, size 6ish. Like me. Exactly like me, in fact. And like R, another good friend. And like T, yet another good friend. The only friend of mine who does not have tiny feet is A. Oh wait. J doesn’t have little feet either, I suppose. She’s quite tall though, so this is normal. In fact, she’s also the only tall friend I have. But it’s a curious thing, the vast majority of my pals being a) short and b) small-footed. Are just like, magnetically drawn to people our own size or something?

Anyway, next up on my list of knitting joys are small knitted gifts. I also just finished up a dishcloth for my neighbor across the street, which makes two so far, and I’m just starting a third for a trio of dishclothy goodness.

The shawl is still not done. Bad me.

And I need to make up some catnip mice and the like for the little monsters in my life. After that, we’ll see what strikes my interest!

Here’s my effort to do some introspective tarot every dark (new) moon. Though I do an entire dark moon spread, the entire thing is a bit personal, and so I’m only going to post the center card each moon, the card I need to focus on and the lessons I need to learn each cycle.

Time of reading: December 10th, 6ish a.m.

Moon Cycle: New (as of December 9th)

Weather: Snow, 23 degrees.

9 of Wands
(click for larger picture)

This cards is from Revelations Tarot, which in use is my favorite deck, simply because it’s so easy to read. It’s meant to be read with some variation of reversed cards. Each card has two images - one right side up, the other upside down, which will be read when the card is reversed.

The 9 of Wands is a card indicating the need of strength, focus, and perseverance. In relation to this month’s troubles and stresses, the focusing and persevering aspects are particularly dead-on. And considering my patience with various situations has run thin, I could use a little strength as well. You know, so I don’t go all homicide on someone’s ass, as has been tempting.

Now to put this card somewhere I won’t miss it for the next 28 days…

Fill in the blank. No posts. No tarot. No finished knits. No sleep. No life.

Why haven’t I blogged? I’ve barely had enough of a life to stretch it 24 hours a day, let alone find something halfway interesting to write about and post here. Unlike A, whose life is one dramatic moment after another, always interesting (even if it is in a stab-my-eyes-out-please sort of way), mine is pretty much just flatlining.

I am pretty much flatlining. I have a stack of books to read. Haven’t. I have a trunkload of yarn to knit. Haven’t. I have a freezer full of things to cook. Haven’t. A list of things to do. Haven’t.

What have I been doing? Laying in bed, one day for eleven freaking hours. I take winter hibernation seriously around here, I guess - or I would, if I was actually sleeping all that time I’ve spent lounging around. The problem is that I’m not sleeping, actually, or at least, not slepeing well. Makes me pretty apathetic all around.

So last night, I got off my ass and cleaned up some (because my house is a wreck; no motivation to do laundry, let alone breathtaking things like switch my vacuum cleaner on…) and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

In case anyone out there doesn’t have a single chocolate chip recipe in the world, here’s my grandmother’s. I always double the recipe, because you can never have too many chocolate chip cookies, or even too much dough in the fridge to eat out of hand. But do what you want.

Rosemary’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1 C shortening (Crisco!)
1/2 C white sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 C + 4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
some chocolate chips

Cream shortening & white sugar. Add the other ingredients one at a time, mixing well in between. Stir in chocolate chips at the end. Warning: I always put in [way] too many chips. Don’t overload, or the dough may have trouble sticking together.

Drop spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. I’ve never needed to grease mine, but do what makes you and your cookie sheets comfortable. Bake approximately 10-12 minutes or until golden on the bottoms. Let cook a few minutes before removing from the pan.

Makes good dunkers.

Cookies to be made:

Almond crescents (kiflins)
Cry Babies (soft frosted drops of molasses heaven)
Raisin Puffs (soft puffy raisin cookies)
Peanut Butter cookies? Maybe.
Something new?

I need to bake, anyway. I need to get rid of some of these EGGS.

I’m getting 14-16 a day these days. What the hell?