The bells are ringing

Ho, Ho, Ho, Hannah Santa and Scott ElfToo bad that elf costume isn't a little bit warmer on a 21 degree afternoon.

Still mystified.

Yesterday Granddad didn't go down to get the mail. The driveway had turned into a skating rink as the drizzle of rain froze in a flash. He knew the mail was down there, and he was really impatient for it. I didn't offer to slide down to get it because I was elbow-deep in butter, sugar and flour. (Yes, all afternoon. And evening, too.) When T came home Granddad wanted to know why he hadn't stopped for the mail. "If I stopped," said T, "I wouldn't have been able to get up the drive." But he did go down to bring up what was in the mailbox.

There was another mysterious package. It was firmly taped.
Granddad got it open. Inside was....chocolate! And another message:

He figured out that these keys were piano keys. But what does a leprechaun have to do with anything?

He found a locked box in the piano bench.

The key he found in his study exactly fit the lock.

Inside...another key and a mysterious message.

What can that mean?

It's a puzzle.

And the Bird of the Year is...

Blue Jay!

This is the sixth year for our bird print cards at Christmas. It's always hard to decide on the Bird of the Year. I was looking for color this year, after last year's black-and-white bird.
I spent an evening looking back through the mostly blurry bird pictures I'd taken this year to find this lovely fellow. Color? Yes. Also sociable and cheery, curious, appreciative of good things to eat, and given to loud outbursts - sounds like a holiday at our house! Blue Jay it is.

Now for the sketching and carving and printing.

Slowly each card is colored.
The ones already done pile up on the piano.

Ummmmm - these may not arrive before Christmas, just so you know.

Granddad is mystified

Granddad finds himself in the middle of a mystery. A package arrives, with a puzzling return address. Inside he finds chocolates (yum!) and a mysterious note: "Weird" says Granddad. "What's that at the end?"

It's Spanish, I explain, but I don't know what "teclas" is. I look it up. "It seems to mean 'Go with the keys'" I say.

"Weird," says Grandad. He eats the chocolate.

A few days later another package arrives. More chocolate. Another mysterious message:

Granddad takes a while to puzzle through this. "What's this mean?" he asks. A rock where a light source peeks has us both confused for a while. Then we think about the yellow rock nightlight in his study. Is there something underneath it? Well, it's on top of one of his display cases so he checks inside.

What's this? A little box with a question mark on top - this must be the clue!
Inside there is....a key.
What will it open? How did it get there?
"Weird" says Granddad. He eats the chocolate.

to be continued.....

Tasting

Isn't this a good time of year to do a program on the sense of taste? My little group at Wonderlab was really into the experience.
We started with salt and sugar - it took some doing to get them to just lick their fingers and take a few crystals to taste. The poor little guy who drank his salt straight down ended up in tears.
So after sweet and salty, we went on to sweet and sour:

A slice of tangerine and a tiny bit of lemon.
As I was explaining that the lemon was sour and that they might just want to lick it to get the flavor - they gobbled up both slices. Sour? They didn't notice.

We ended with a tasty treat from The Green Bean, a new coffee shop just down the street from Wonderlab. One side is chocolate chip and the other is carrot - and neither are sour or salty!

Early shopping

Friends, not only was this NOT Christmas eve, it was last weekend.

This pair is rarely even seen shopping, much less early shopping.

It doesn't mean that they won't be out at the last minute as well.

Green Gingerbread?

You know you are at the Unitarian Church's annual arts and craft show when you see: An "Eco-Friendly Gingerbread House"
with an educational description.

That old?

We woke up to snow falling this morning. A good morning to work on one of my projects - making a Christmas slide show. This involves going back through old photos to find old holiday pictures and then scanning them into the computer. Here, for example, is one from 1983. A genuine two-headed snow goon: Now what struck me about this photo (besides how cute my kids are) was the clothing. See the red mittens on E's hands? Notice the warm coat W's wearing? All still in my closet. Who's still wearing them? Me, of course.

In fact quite a bit of my current wardrobe shows up in the pictures from the 80's and 90's. I think I'll stop scanning pictures and go clean out the closet.

You know...

You know it's been a long day when... you take your morning vitamins with your evening wine.

Shopping Season Begins

Heigh Ho, Heigh ho, it's off to shop we go!

We partake with enthusiasm. Well, with various degrees of enthusiasm.
As we discover unusual and interesting things, we record the process for our blogs.

Shoes with toes? (That is, individual toes.) Not on my list.
We meet with some success...

and some frustration.

"What? The calendar won't be out until next Monday? But I want to get the box in the mail NOW!"

Time passes

Ah, how quickly time is passing. It hardly seems possible that the Bloomingtonaut has been here over a week.

It has been a week so full of incident and activity that the blog can simply not keep up with it.

I shall only say that it's been far too short a time!

Thanksgiving - the dog's point of view

"Someone's here!" Socks lets us know. Holidays are such a busy time for her.

Her people are coming and going and she has to keep track of everyone.

She has to greet everyone as they arrive
And check out the things they carry in.
She has to be ready to give people their exercise outdoors.

Sometimes the people take some persuasion to get out of their chairs and go outside.
When they finally do go outside, it takes some persistance to get them to play.And then, she has to show them her rules so they do it right.

Then there are all the wonderful smells that tease a dog's nose.
She's too short to see what's on the table, but she can tell it's better than dog food.

She spends dinnertime busy under the table cleaning up anything that falls.

She takes her clean-up job seriously.

It's a lot of work keeping everyone happy.
No wonder she ends up flat on the floor taking a nap while people sit and talk.

It's nice to be remembered

This week I'm back at a school I last visited in late Spring. The third grade kids screw up their faces when they see me. "I think I know you" they say. "You're the one did that d00-ey thing." Goodness, they still remember my silly Dewey play! How a lamb puppet and a cut-out picture on a stick can be effective teaching tools...

And the second graders? They want to hear the Gunniwolf again. "kumm-kwa, kee-wah" they wail and it takes five minutes to settle them down for this year's story.

The mercury goes down

Friends, it's getting cold out there. The pond is icing over.

At least today there is some sunshine for our poor shivering Florida guest.

Le Beaujolais Nouveau

Our celebration of the annual harvest begins on the third week of November. The new wine is shipped from France.
It arrives at our house...

and then it's gone.
What happened in between?

Well, it's all a little blurry.

It did involve a lot of eating and drinking and talking.

And afterwards, a lot of washing up.

Sneaking another birthday in

It was a dark and stormy night - well, it was drizzling and chilly and dark enough. The sneaky Birthday Decorators crept out to an empty house (we knew it was empty because our co-conspirator offered the Birthday Celebrator dinner at her house). We noted that June birthdays have some advantages over November ones, especially in terms of weather. I don't know how he's going to get his car in that garage.

He won't notice the front doorway until morning.

He can't miss this - Happy, Happy Birthday, Charles!

The surprise continues.

He only came for a weekend visit - two weeks ago. It was a surprise for Granddad's birthday.What a surprise it turned out to be - for everyone!

Now that Ralph is out of the hospital and feeling better, we can all enjoy his company.It's been fun to chat and catch up.
Granddad has had a great time, and gotten to tell some old stories.
This will be one birthday to remember.