Pop Quiz: Solstice Edition

Okay kids: What are the two things that Rita enjoys about the Holiday Season? If you said, "Xmas tree!" and "Cookies!" than you have a splendid memory. Above is the partially decorated pine tree that Bob harvested from our vast acreage. It's actually a bit taller than some recent models and boy is there plenty of open space to hang ornaments! Looks great!

                                     

And here's the beginnings of several bouts of cookie creation. We didn't have the ingredients I needed for a few of the other cookies I intended to make, so I resorted to that pseudo-healthy standby of oatmeal raisin cookies. They're half gone already.

Here's our tree illuminated at night. I think this was from our Solstice Celebration. We like to hold celebrations; what else can you do in times of COVID 19 and continued Trumpism?! Let's break out the booze and have a ball... (*1)

It is strange to be decorating and thinking that we'd ordinarily have family (Hi Cathy! Hi Beatrice! Hi John!) over for pork roast, which Bob is just now starting to cook in the CrockPot. (Or, The CrackPot as it IS at our house!). We're cooking the pork roast a day early, thinking we'll enjoy it for Xmas eve as well as Xmas day because Holy Hell! The weather people are predicting heavy rain! High winds! Flooding! Armafuckinggeddon!! Power outages! Darkness! Despair! Our energy company (don't get me started on Eversource (*2)) left a weird robo-message excusing themselves in advance of any responsibility for power outages. They advised to remove or tie down any outdoor decorations... yeah, right. (*3)

So we're having a small feast: mashed potatoes, roast pork, gravy, Brussels sprouts and our own carrots. And we have a warm spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer and a punkin pie to finish up. Slosh it all down with a nice red Bordeaux and boy are we livin' the good life!

In the meantime, I'm doing everything with one hand tied behind my back as I had a freak accident (*4) and my left hand looks like I decked someone in a bar fight. I'm swollen and can't bend two fingers. Thank goodness I'm a Rightie! 

So... Happy Holidays from us and ours to you and yours!

(*1) To quote Miss Peggy Lee.

(*2) And there were a couple of degenerates (one, whaling away at a rose vine with a machete!!) sent by Eversource to prune the trees that line the driveway so as to prevent outages. But walking out to the mailbox and surveying every bloody inch of the driveway, I was unable to discern that they had done anything!!

(*3)  But I will bring Burned Santa inside for the night. Remember him? Rescued from the wilds of Shamokin Pennsylvania where he had been badly burned in some heathen Xmas sacrifice. He gets tied to the fence every year as our one concession to outdoor holiday decorations.

(*4) Don't ask how I managed to hook my sleeve on a gate, pull on it and cause my poor, innocent left hand to come careening across and POW! impact on the side of the horse food bucket. I am swollen and can't bend two fingers.

T'was the Night Before Xmas

Aren't these delightful gingerbread men? Emphasis on men as they come equipped to deliver holiday joy. And they tasted great, too! Thanks to a good friend for providing seasonal fun. We did have a fine and silly time last night.
And boy did I need it! Everything in preparation for my show in New York at Odetta Gallery has been going really well, except that for some truly incomprehensible reason, I have not been able to get good photos of several of my pieces. My good friend Ellen (who runs Odetta) even remarked. "Isn't this what you do for a living?" I suffered an extreme lapse of confidence on that and even went to work on Monday and Tuesday certain that I'd be unable to take a decent picture ever again and lose my job. So, chalk it up to my not simply making paintings, but working in peculiar mixtures of plastic, fabric, chains, and everything that has different textures and reflectiveness. Yeeesh. What a friggin' nightmare! I work in the middle of the night, thinking how I'd never become a famous and respected artist because I couldn't get a decent picture. My images had gone from bad to worse, with wonky color discrepancies and uneven lighting. Fortunately, another good friend is coming over to assist in the documentation department on Sunday...

I got so crazy the other night when I was having to try and photograph (for the 6oth time!) along with baking two batches of cookies for our Holiday Cookie Swap (otherwise known as the grease and sugar exchange) at work, that I started hallucinating. I even saw a face on the lemon I was zesting for sugar cookies. It looks sort of like the Man in the Moon.
Anyway, Bob and I have decided to purchase a new bed in lieu of giving each other Christmas presents. At least we'll enter the New Year with better prospects for sleep!