New Year’s Eve

Tags

2015, aliens, countdown, New Year's Eve 2014, party at home

It seems like just a few weeks ago we were celebrating New Year’s Eve 2013…and now here we are, 90 minutes away from 2015. Olivia just brought me my party hat, explaining, “It says Happy New Year in cursive!” And so it does.

Selfie with party hat…in cursive.

The Christmas ornaments came down and winter/New Year’s messages went up. I wasn’t really ready to have Christmas decor leave…I still have the tiny tree up in my room, sitting on my computer’s “brain”.

And the countdown to 2015 begins!

We are celebrating at home tonight. Georgia let the girls get dressed up and did their hair, and we will be sharing Sparkling Cider at midnight. I have no doubt that they will manage to stay up until then. But before they heard about the party, they were playing aliens and visiting me in my bedroom/office.

This is our ballelalien and veteranalien (aka ballerina alien and vet alien).

Wherever you celebrate tonight, be safe, have fun, and head into 2015 with high hopes. I predict a very good year ahead!

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The Secret History of Wonder Woman

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lie detector tests, Margaret Sanger, Suffragists, William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman

The best present I received this Christmas was inscribed thusly: 12-25-14 To my Ultimate Wonder Woman! You are the best and most wonderful person I’ve ever known. Thank you for shaping me into the woman I am today. Love you always! Merry Christmas! Georgia & family

This morning I was the first one awake and had absolutely nothing on my calendar. So I grabbed a blanket and snuggled onto the couch with “The Secret History of Wonder Woman” by Jill Lepore. For two glorious hours the only sound was Chance snoring at my feet. Then Olivia woke up, and things got considerably noisier.

After a day of housecleaning (“Is somebody coming over, Grammy?” Lily asked) and piddling around, I again settled down on the couch with my book after Georgia got home from work. I never read Wonder Woman comics as a girl, but Mom did, and Wonder Woman was on her list of favorites, right behind “Tillie the Toiler” and “Brenda Starr”. When we were going through Mom’s clothes after she died, the one thing I kept was the Wonder Woman tee-shirt I had gotten her the previous Christmas.

Jill Lepore has written a fascinating history that is about much more than a comic book hero. William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman’s creator, also invented the lie detector test. He rubbed elbows (and more) with suffragists and feminists including Emmeline Pankhurst and Margaret Sanger, and predicted a peaceful world run by women in the future. Ms. Lepore includes a treasure trove of documents, photographs, and illustrations to reflect the complex lives of Marston and his unconventional family.

I still have another 50 pages to read, as well as an additional 100 or so pages of sources and chapter notes. If you love comics, or feminist history, or sociology…GET THIS BOOK! You won’t regret it.

2014 in review

Tags

2014, annual report, helper monkeys, sweet surprise, WordPress

This was the sweet surprise I received today. Thank you, WordPress, for this lovely summary of 2014 for Trigger’s Horse.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here's an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,000 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Lessons and Carols

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granddaughters, grandmothers, Lessons and Carols, sisters, St. Paul's Episcopal Church -- Visalia

On Christmas Eve I was blessed by attending church with my youngest granddaughter, Olivia, because her big sister was sick. We usually go as a trio, so it definitely felt like someone was missing, but we soon settled in comfortably, and it was Olivia’s night to shine.

This morning Miss Olivia absolutely didn’t want to leave her cozy blankets, so Lily and I left her sleeping and went to church, just the two of us. It was a very traditional Christmastide service of Lessons and Carols, one that Lily had never before experienced. When her mama was a baby, this service was always Christmas Eve, and it was my favorite of the entire year.

Other than the silliness of leaving my reading glasses at home, it was a lovely morning. (Fortunately, whomever prepared the script for the day also has senior eyes, so the print was large enough for me to read my section of the lessons with my “bare eyes”, and the hymns were ones I had been singing since childhood.)

If you are unfamiliar with this service, it has been held for over 100 years, with pivotal Biblical lessons from the Fall of Adam and Eve up to and through the birth of Christ, each lesson followed by an appropriate hymn. For me personally it is a reminder of how my own personal Christian faith is not a random act, but has its beginnings in a carefully prepared and foretold series of “God events” that occurred over thousands of years.

Being there with only Lily gave me the opportunity to focus on her understanding and appreciation of the day without needing to keep Olivia occupied. And in the absence of our Crucifer, Lily stepped up and carried the cross in the recessional, which made both of us very proud.

I am so lucky to have these experiences with my girls. My own grandmothers lived in another state as I was growing up, so our visits were brief and generally once a year. To be able to be with them every day and watch them grow right before my eyes is a gift I will always cherish.

Winter

Tags

cold, frost, snow, spring, winter

Winter has arrived in Central California. I thought it was here a couple of weeks ago, but that was merely a poor imitation. This morning I awoke to frost on the ground and 64 degrees in the house. And tonight as I drove home from work it was 37 degrees. For California, people, this is REALLY cold!

I remembered to put a towel across the front windshield of my Jeep before coming inside tonight; that will make getting to church early in the morning much easier. Pouring water on a frozen windshield is no fun!

I probably sound like a big sissy to those of you who live where it gets very cold…like Melody, who is living through her 13th winter in Ohio (I’m so sorry). But I never signed on for very cold weather. I’m here, and don’t have any intention of ever living where it snows.

Happy Winter, everyone. Here’s to Spring!

Dec. 26

Tags

Christmas goodness, leftovers, shopping, The Secret History of Wonder Woman

I have heard that nearly as many people shop on the day after Christmas as they do the day after Thanksgiving, our so-called Black Friday. Today it felt like most of the shoppers also chose to go out to eat, as we were busy busy busy all day long. But, as I told a guest or two, being busy all day means we all work, and that is a good thing.

Today was bittersweet as we said “goodbye” to Joseph and Erika after a wonderful visit, and spent most of the morning putting away Christmas dishes and cleaning up and rearranging leftover Christmas edibles. My bravest act was to eat all the leftover brownies…I looked at it as saving the rest of the family from them. So selfless!

Fortunately, once I got to work I did nothing but run back and forth…burning off LOTS of calories. People were very nice today, still shining with the glow of Christmas goodness. It still felt good to get home, though.

And I saved the best part of the day for last: starting my new book, The Secret History of Wonder Woman, by Jill Lepore. I’ll tell you about it later.

Merry Christmas!

Tags

Christmas 2014, family, Wonder Woman

Christmas 2014 has been wondrous from the beginning to the end. I got a peek at the tree shortly after Santa left. It left me teary-eyed, as always.

After Santa came (and left)

I was up for nearly two hours before anyone else…not a creature was stirring (except the Grammy). Then I heard the Olivia mouse tiptoeing down the hall.

Olivia getting acquainted with her new Baby Alive while the rest of the family slept in.

The excitement of Lily’s awakening was interrupted by her getting quite sick and spending two hours at the ER. After much folderol, the doctor decreed that she was dehydrated, gave her some water (eventually) and anti-nausea medication, and sent her home.

Lily as she started perking up following her ER visit.

Many wonderful gifts later, Olivia and Erika found themselves in the castle tent Auntie Anne had sent.

Olivia and Erika hanging out in the castle tent

Our brunch was delicious, even though by the time we were able to eat the official “brunch hour” was past. Such a surfeit of wonderful food, and even better company! We popped our poppers, read the tacky jokes, and laughed until it hurt. Then less than three hours later we walked down the street to Nick’s Aunt Christine’s house, where we ate and laughed and ate some more (and opened more presents). Everywhere we looked there were cousins and plates of great food!

After we got back home, Uncle Chris came over bringing gifts from his family to ours. More exclamations of joy, more thoughtful presents.

But my very favorite present of the day was the one I didn’t even know I wanted until about two weeks ago when I read a review on FaceBook and was intrigued. Thank you, Georgia, for not only listening to your mother, but acting on it.

I can hardly wait to begin reading “The Secret History of Wonderwoman.”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Eve

Tags

Christmas Eve, our community creche, the birth of Jesus, The Gospel according to Luke

“So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. – Luke 2:16-20

Olivia with the creche put together by the congregation of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Visalia, this Christmas Eve.

Over the river and through the woods

Tags

Christmas carols, cooking, family, pot roast, Toll House cookies

As I write this evening, with Christmas carols wafting in from the living room, the words to “Over the river and through the woods” are ringing in my head. I’m not travelling, though…I’m here at home waiting for my son and his lady to arrive and make my holiday complete. There is such joy in having my children and grandchildren all together. I am totally spoiled rotten, and love every minute of it.

Today’s cooking tally includes pot roast in an Irish stout crockpot sauce (haven’t tasted it yet, but it smells heavenly), savory beer batter bread to go with the roast, 3 batches of fudge, a batch of brownies, Rice Krispy Treats, a new recipe for chewy sugar cookies that Georgia found on the internet (not successful so far, so I will be messing with the dough a bit), and Toll House cookies still in progress. Oh, and I nearly forgot the cranberry bread. We will be taking goodies to Olive Garden in the morning to share with the crew working Christmas Eve.

Some of today’s goodies.

I love the over-the-top baking orgy that has become part of our Christmas festivities, even as I am well aware that there are many others not as fortunate as we. My hope is that we will not become so comfortable that we forget those living on the edge of society.

Ah…there’s the knock on the door I’ve been waiting for. My kids are here! Goodnight!

Christmas vacation

Tags

Chance the World's Best Dog, Christmas crafts, Christmas vacation, family time, Sparkles the Elf

Today was the official first day of Christmas vacation (weekends don’t count). I very purposefully shut off my weekday alarm last night, only to be awakened at 6:15 as usual by my next door neighbor getting up for work, followed immediately by the arrival of the garbage truck. But this time I bravely stayed in bed and managed to go back to sleep for another hour. I tiptoed out of bed, took my book, and migrated to the couch for two blissful hours of reading, the quiet broken only by the happy snoring of Chance the World’s Best Dog.

Lily tried to convince me she was asleep, but her grin gave her away.

The girls slept in until 10:00. After their mom went to work, we cranked up the Classic Christmas Sounds channel on the television, did a little housework (getting ready for company tomorrow) and then made snowmen. Watching them work together on a project is pure joy.

Olivia concentrating on getting her snowman’s buttons “just so”.

They were so pleased with the finished product, and so was I.

Happy crafters and their snowmen.

One snowman each went onto the refrigerator door, and the others graced the mantle. They went so well there that Georgia didn’t even notice them at first.

Perfect accents next to the tree (that’s Sparkles, our Elf, keeping watch).

Later on we made more fudge, played with play dough, and had lots of computer time…a truly lovely winter day. More tomorrow.