I have today off. I had yesterday off too.  It is nice to not have to get up so early and get out the door.  Mind you, I still pretty much wake up early, but I can lounge in bed, snuggle dh and roll out of bed whenever I want.

Yesterday, I had a couple of appointments in Town.  We had had a snowstorm and then the temperatures plummeted and the roads were awful.  Basically, the roads had a heavy coating of ice on them and it was a constant struggle to keep the car going in the direction I wanted it to go.  I might have just skipped my apts, but we also had to go to dh's dad's house as were were housesitting and so we made the trek into town. 

Dh's dad lives a block up from downtown, so we checked in on the house and then walked downtown for lunch.  It was soooo cold!  It was freezing outside and the wind was blowing.....I didn't have a scarf and my face was just burning! 

Dh took some pictures of the snow, so I'll have to get those off the camera and share them. 

Not much else going on here.  I work the next two days and then it's the weekend. Then we all get back to our regular routine with dh back to work, Nature Boy back to school, and me with no more days off for a while.

I must admit, I don't have much to say today! 

I think we will take our tree down today. It is shedding needles like crazy and I really am ready for the space back...Our living room is very small and the tree, though beautiful, has been taking up a lot of space.

I guess we should take down Christmas Land too....But we will start with the tree.  I am not sure I have energy to pack everything back up!  Since the tree is a potential safety hazard, it should go first. 

The finch did not lay another egg yesterday, so she and her mate are taking turns sitting on the four.  Sometime the week after next, we should have babies!!! I am sooo excited!

Have you ever seen Postsecrets?  Every Sunday morning, first thing, I check out the new secrets for the week.  Actually, dh got me two of the Postsecrets books for Solstice.  I have been slowly going through the first book, I am trying to pace myself and savor the book!  I find Postsecrets moving and compelling and at times heartbreaking and depressing.  However, the raw honestly brings me back to look more every week.  I often think of what my Postsecret would be......

We had a rough night here.  It was windy as heck and that was loud.  Plus, things were going bump in the night from the wind (stuff blowing on my landlady's porch right under our window). Dh didn't sleep well, he was hot and restless and woke me up repeatedly by moving around and fussing with the window.  Then around 2, Nature Boy turned up knocking on our door.  I am guessing the wind woke him up too.  Luckily, from about 2-5 everyone slept soundly.  When I woke up this morning, it was raining hard and there were spells where the rain was just pounding down on our tin roof!

Likely, we will be having a quiet day as everyone will be tired from the sleep interruptions! Hopefully, no one will be too cranky!

Hmmm....my lady finch is still at it! Later yesterday morning, I peeked in her nest and saw 4 eggs!  I am now wondering if she will lay another today too!  She and the poppa bird are taking turns sitting on the eggs and keeping them warm.  I am soo excited to have these little finch babies-to-be in the nest! 

We visited with family yesterday, first dh's mom and then my parents.  We gave my dad the Star Trek version of Scene It and spent time playing it.  It is actually pretty darn fun! It also was harder than I expected.  Dh has seen most all of the series (original, DSN, Voyager, Next Gen., etc) and all the movies.  And more importantly, he remembers things!  My dad and Nature Boy were very good at the game too, but haven't seen all the series. Me?  I have seen lots and lots Star Trek, but I appear to have failed to commit every bit of minutia to memory.    

 

Today, we are due for yucky weather, sleet and freezing rain.  It looks like a circle the wagons kind of day, which is fine by me.  I really could use a couple days to relax and unwind! It's been a long week!!!!

 

 

 

K...I've gotta talk to you about my finches.

I love my finches.  They are cute and perky and cheery and sweet. 

I love hearing them as I putter about the house, I love sitting and watching them, I love hearing them first thing in the morning as they greet the day.

I am sooo happy I got my finches!

And now, I have something very exciting going on in the aviary.  A couple of days ago, I looked in one of their nesting baskets and saw a surprise!

Squee!

Now there are three.

The momma bird as started sitting on the eggs yesterday, so I think it will just be a little batch of babies, but I am very excited.  Let's hope the eggs are all fertile and the momma bird knows what to do!  In about two weeks, if everything goes well, I should have some hatchlings!!!!!

Did I mention that I love my birds?

And Merry Christmas to all my friends.  Enjoy the time with your friends and family.

Sounds like it snowed more last night. This time, I heard plows at about 3:30 going by the house.  Too early! <yawn>

Yesterday's snow was light and fluffy and has given us a nice blanket for a white Christmas.  It did however make the roads very slippery yesterday morning.  I was late for work as it was slow going.  Mind you, on snowy days, I don't mind being late because I've been driving carefully, but I need to budget the time and leave a bit earlier so that hopefully I won't be late.

Before this nice bit of snow, we had a lighter ground-coating.  I was enjoying my trips down to the chicken coop to see all the tracks in the snow.  Evidently, we have quite the active night life out there!  Here's a peek:

The neighbor's kitten.

Deer.  These tracks went right through our driveway. I have also seen deer tracks in the chicken yard!

There are also tons of rabbit tracks out there and chipmunk and mice.  It is fun seeing the paths they follow and trails they leave.

I need to spend more time outside! I really enjoy it!

Awoke to the sound of snowplows at 4:45 this morning.  It looks like not a lot of snow, but enough to be slippery.

Contemplating how much gas is in my car....Must get into the habit of keeping it at least half full for the winter.  I don't want to be using extra gas sliding in to work and then running out on the way!

Working today and tomorrow, then have Friday off and the weekend. Then work Monday next week, then have Tuesday, Wednesday off then finish the week at work.

Looking forward to Christmas Day at my parents.

K...gotta get going to get out on time this morning. I'll need to warm up and brush off the car, maybe get gas....Lots to do!

Not a mouse...It's a mole....I've never seen a mole in the house before! Now, he has made it behind our big tall book cases, he'll be safe there for a while.

There's a mouse in the house.  I guess it is officially winter!  We heard some tussling sort of sounds a bit of squeaking and one of the cats is now on vigil in the laundry room.  The poor mouse doesn't stand a chance here....We have efficient mousers.

So, we had a weeklong bit of fun at work last week.  We did Secret Santas.  I drew the name of someone that I actually have befriended a bit at work, so I had a good time giving her little Secret Santa gifts.  (And I actually knew what to give her!) It really was a lot of fun, the whole department was involved and it culminated to a Christmas party and cookie exchange on Friday where we got one last present from our Santa and tried to guess who he/she was.

Most of the gifts that I gave to my Secret Santa recipient were gifts I made....Here are a few.

Knitting ball ornament like the ones below, only blue. (I had wrapped it already so took a picture of others I had made.)

Glass ornaments that I filled with ribbon yarn.

I also gave her a note card set that I had made.  I made the note cards a long time ago.  I used pictures from a shell identification book to paste on the front of blank note cards.  It made beautiful card sets! I also gave her a knitted mini stocking with some Badger creams in it.

For my final gift, I gave her the 2009 Snowflake Bentley ornament  (No...I am not casting pewter these, days, I bought this.) and some good black licorice as she is a fan of both.

Oh...and I almost forgot! So, I used paper lunch bags to wrap her gift each day.  I only seem to have a picture of one, which is simpler than several I did.  I used wrapping paper on the front of several with coordinated trim on the folded flap.  I punched two holes through the folded flap and ran a ribbon through to tie it closed. They were very simple, but very festive looking. I was quite pleased.

K...Now I must evaluate if Nature Boy is too sick to go to school today.  He started coming down with a cold on Sunday and was feeling pretty crummy last night.  I'm leaning toward keeping him home, no need to spread all those germs before vacation!

Oh! And I almost forgot!  I got the best present from my Secret Santa!  Everyone at work knows I like Hello Kitty and I take some good natured teasing about it.  Well, my coworker fed my habit with this....

Pretty cute!

Yesterday, I was the lead teacher for the preschool class at UU.  Have I ever said how much I love this job? I just love the kidlets. It is a lot of fun and a good way for me to use my Early Childhood skills.  I was especially pleased with yesterday's lesson and how it went.

Because yesterday was Solstice Eve, I decided to do a lesson about the longest night of the year centered around the book Grandmother Winter (A lovely, beautiful book, btw).  In the story, Grandmother Winter collects feathers which she sews into a quilt.  In the winter, on the longest night, she shakes the quilt out making the snows that fall across the land.

For the preschool class, I prepared two activities.  The first followed the story. I took in a quilt, which we sat on for the story and I also took in some paper snowflakes.  After the story, we used the quilt like a parachute and shook the snowflakes off the quilt.  The kids LOVED the activity.   We went around and around with each child collecting and carefully placing the snowflakes on the quilt to be shaken off. 

The second activity was also very popular, though got a bit long for the younger 3 year olds.  I cut pipe cleaners into 6" lengths and then wrapped 3 together to be the arms of a snowflake.  I had pony beads in blue, white and clear for the children to string on the arms of the snowflake to make a beaded snowflake. In the picture above, you can see the one dh made as a model so the children could get the idea of how the snowflake might look in the end. I consider yesterday's class a big success! 

Last week, I did class too on the topic "We are alike and we are different." That class was fine, but really the kids had a lot to talk about last week about doctors and flu shots and germs.  Most of the kids had very recently had flu shots, and we use hand sanitizer at the beginning of class, so germs and the flu were on their minds.  It trickled over into this weeks class too....Evidently, those flu shots made quite the impression! I was able to commiserate as I finally got a seasonal flu shot at work.  (They were out of them so some of us had to wait for the second batch to come in.)  I am always happy to set the lesson aside for a bit and talk about things that are important to the kids...I like them to know they have a voice and their thoughts and concerns are important too.

So.....Speaking of the longest night....We have had a lovely Solstice celebration here.  I am sooo happy that the days are now getting longer and longer.  Every little bit of daylight (and especially sunlight) is a treasure this time of year!

I can hear the lovely little beeping sounds of my finches.  I cannot tell you how absolutely delightful the little critters are.  I simply adore them.

Silly that all four of them crammed themselves into one nest! Now, they have more or less paired off and have chosen their own nests.  Maybe someday (like in the spring) they will lay eggs and hatch some babies.

The other day when I was cleaning the cage, two of the finches flew out.  We caught them pretty quickly, in about 5 mins.  I was delighted to actually catch and hold a finch in my hand.  They are way smaller to hold than they look, they truly can fit in the palm of my hand with my fingers curled over the top...And they weigh so little!

I love my finches!