Saturday, December 20, 2008

Snow!!

So, we got out early from work on Friday due to the snow storm. We got about 3 inches in 2 hours - it was wild.

It is STILL snowing, but much less than it was. We have about one foot total, past Lucy's stomach. She is swimming in it. It's really funny, actually, because she has to hop from step to step. We got some video of her hopping around, but I don't know if I will be able to post video. Maybe I'll do another photo story?

Friday, December 19, 2008

Lucy and the Tree

Once upon a time, there was a little puppy named Lucy. She was the prettiest, most friendly little puppy in all the land. She played and licked and snorted all day long. One day, the little puppy's mama bought a Christmas tree to be part of their little family. She decorated it with lights and ornaments, but the poor little puppy wasn't allowed in the room, for as sweet and attractive as the little puppy was, she wasn't the smartest and didn't know that glass ornaments don't make yummy snacks. So she was left all alone in her pen, while her mama gussied up the tree. A couple days went by while the little puppy's mama was at work and the little puppy and the tree were both left during the day, each of them alone in their little areas.
Finally, one evening, the little puppy's mama let the little puppy out of her pen and she ignored the tree. The little puppy's mama, surprised and baffled, took an ornament off the tree, paper of course, and held it up the puppy to admire. Well, the little puppy did not like the tree's ornament and jumped back nervously. The little puppy's mama pulled the ornament back and a miracle happened just then...The little puppy became interested in the tree's paper ornament. Suddenly, a light shined down upon the three of them and the little puppy cocked her head as she looked at this strange, new offering. And then she tried to take a bite of the tree's paper ornament.
The little puppy's mama gasped loudly and the little puppy looked up in surprise with a look that read, "Moi?." The little puppy's mama proceeded to hand the ornament back on the tree and the little puppy decided to try to climb up her mama's arm to reach the ornament.
Both the little puppy and the ornament fell and they all lived happily ever after...in seperate places while the little puppy's mama was at work. The end.

I prayed...

I prayed for a 7 inch blanket of white snow when I woke up and instead I see frosted grass...poo

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas at work...

The VNA really goes all out for Christmas. Wednesday was Mingle Day - all the employees bring in their special dishes and spend the day traveling around the different departments eating. There's a chinese grab bag or secret santa and carollers and a raffle. It really is a lot of fun and celebration after a year of hard work.


I won this meat thermometer in the raffle - I think the only one in my department to win?

But the managers gave us these....they were so pretty, little pieces of art and presents all in one. They were waiting on our desks when we returned after lunch.

Tah-dah!













Sunday, December 14, 2008

Christmas Tree

So we finally put the Christmas tree up Sunday night - we bought it on Wednesday. First, we put on the lights and then stepped back to squint. We adjusted the bald spots and stepped back again. When we were satisfied, we draped the beads. From there, things went quickly. I had unwrapped the ornaments and laid them out before the tree went up, so it was just a matter of placement.

Lucy was sad that she had to be kept out of the room, but you know how she would get. She's be nosing around, eating all the needles and knocking off ornaments. We still haven't let her in. Once we place her pen gate around the tree and clean up any stray pine needles, we'll let her be curious. I think she'll like it. I think she'll curl up in front of the tree chewing on her favorite toy and love being near her mama.

I'll post pictures of the tree soon, I promise! Good night!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Addictions

It's happened. Finally. I'm addicted.

Hi, my name is Molly and I have an addiction. To blogging. It's been three hours, maybe, since my last post and I have checked my blog about five times in between. Watching that little visitor number on my dashboard rise to what it is now...eight. It's not a lot, but it's enough to get me hooked. I'm addicted to writing on my blog, knowing that it's not like a diary under my mattress that will gather dust and no one will care if I miss a couple days. Maybe no one will care now if I don't type for a couple of days, but there's the chance they will. For now, that's enough.

I'm also addicted to Poland Springs liter water bottles with a screw-off top and buffalo chicken blue cheese pizza from Pasta Avest.
Chow, chow

Birdies



This is what I am thinking of for the baby's ornament. What do you think? I don't know that I would attach any sequins or beads - I want to keep it masculine. I love the one on the top...maybe because it reminds me of snowflakes;)
The rest of this post is an edit because I learned how to upload pictures on my laptop without the camera software so I don't have to go to the main computer. After we decorated the tree, I took some pictures of the many birds on our tree...they've always been part of our ornaments for as long as I can remember. The white dove was purchased a couple of years ago - I think from Pier1? I love it! The top picture is one my mom made years and years ago - it reminds me of the blue one with the snowflakes. Sorry I couldn't get a better picture.



Christmas Cookies and Baby Geo Balls

Today, and tomorrow, will be spent making cookies for my mother's employees. We're planning lots of different varieties from bars to cookies to popcorn to candied orange peels. Not your average cookie platter in our house...

Sometimes I wish we were more traditional. I love traditional. But, it's also nice to try something new, plus people appreciate it more when they don't receive three plates of stale store-bought madelines. Most of the people my mother works with come up with pretty creative presents. One year, we got a cocoa sampler. Another, homemade honey. My favorite were the pizzelles. They just reminded me of the lacy snowflakes in my earlier post...I wonder if that's why I enjoy them so much?
Anyways, the rest of the weekend will be spent making a geo-ball for the grandson of close family friends.


I included a picture of two balls I made for twins born to other close family friends. That's what gave us the idea. I am also going to try to make them an ornament for the baby. They just sent Owen one, which is especially poignant because shortly after my family moved to Connecticut, even before I was born, they sent Christmas ornaments. Every year, a small package would come that held three ceramic ornaments, usually children from pastoral scenes - a boy and two girls.

Even as we lost touch through the years, as life got busier and more complicated, the ornaments kept arriving. Little reminders of two of the kindest people I have ever known. I got to know them as an adult very recently at the christening of my newphew after we got back in touch with them when my sister got married. The last time I had seen them before that day, I was only seven years old or so.
Now, it's our turn. So that is why I am going to try to make an ornament for them. Maybe a little bird? For some reason I never think a Christmas tree is complete without a little bird perched on the bough. But that's another post...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Design Mom - my inspiration

Ever since I saw the blog, "Design Mom," I have wanted to start my own blog. The only thing that kept me from doing it was the fear that I would create it, write two or three posts, and then stop. I have made an early New Year's resolution to try to write at least two or three posts PER WEEK! It's going to be tough, but it will be good for me. Plus, it wouldn't be New Year's worthy unless it was tough.

Besides, she's offering this great prize in one of her monthly (or bi-weekly) contests. She won't say what it is, but come on, they're always fabulous, because she's fabulous. So, please please please visit http://designmom.com to see her daily posts which even puppy-mommies will love and find useful and interesting.

Visit her site and participate in the 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway Event, her very own online advent calendar!!!

chow, chow

Deck the desks...

We decorated for Christmas at work today. Instead of using the crinkled, bent decorationspacked in boxes from last year, I decided to make paper snowflakes and hang them like garland from the ceiling tiles.
There is something beautiful in simplicity; crisp, white lacy snowflakes are subtle. They glide, like from the sky itself, and when you look up at them, their whiteness catches the light, it doesn't reflect the light, but rather they make you feel blanketed in the warm snow. I know, you don't think snow is warm, but I do.

When it snows, the clouds seem to insulate the earth, the air is warmer, and as long as the wind isn't whipping, everything is peaceful.

I wish I had extra strands of white twinkle lights - those twisted around the paper snowflake garlands would have made it 100 times better.