Good night day

Literally it took me all my strength, dear reader, to stay at my beloved place of employment today. Not that I'm not grateful to be gainfully employed, not that I don't adore my co- workers but come on.... It was a day begging for me to escape to nature. Clear skies and that golden light that blesses our eyes in the fall - and that smell of fall. Sigh. It wasn't to be.

I just daydreamed about it.

All. Day. Long.

A slow 10 hour self induced torture......Dreaming of sitting under a huge oak tree, with an awesome read in hand to entertain me till a fridgid breeze, light and gentle, would start. I would lay back on my blankie and watch as the breeze slowly plucked autumn leaves from twigs and branches in the giant tree above me and made their slow decent to me. Sigh.

I did get a little nature when I made a lightning fast stop at Barnes and Noble. Thank you. I'm grateful for your blue sky and golden leaves mother nature. You gladden my heart.

It's fogalicious

I like waking up to a foggy morning. Yes it's cold, but it's like the day becomes a wrapped gift - with the fog retreating the real day is revealed. I'm anticipating a glorious northwest day after this....

Strange happenings at Castle Allen

Yes we live in a 100 year old home, you'd expect perhaps a bump in the night, creaking floors, ya know - paranormal activity. Well to date we have had nothing like that happen.. Righhhht up until the night before last.

I hopped into bed and immediately felt something cold on my thigh. YIKKES!! With adrenaline surging I pulled back the covers and turned on the light... a quarter was staring back at me. Innocent enough huh? Well I remember reading some years ago that loved ones that have passed over will sometime leave coins around to either get your attention or let you know they are thinking of you ... Hence the phrase "pennies from heaven". I smiled recalling this as I picked up the coin and put it on the night stand.

Next morning I woke, headed downstairs to have a shower and see this

My father taught me everything I know about exterior illumination

This is my favorite sparkly seasonal home. Dude is not playing here. Dude has every possible color combo and ever inch of this casa has a light. I love it. It PEGS my happy meter.

Know what else does? When you buy candy on the way to marvel at said abode and get to discover something just a little bit special...

Yes, dear reader, YES ! JUICY OOZERS are at a store near you if you are lucky. These cherry "sharks" with oozey cherry center are an oral delight of epic proportions and are the perfect treat as you travel to view Christmas luminaries. Trust me - have I ever put you wrong?

Deliciousness

Once a year the landlord at our building puts on an afternoon tea that is so delicious

There's all manner of delights there but the best thing every year is the hot cocoa bar

Hot cocoa, chunks of peppermint bark, chocolate sprinkles, marshmallows and whipped cream. Ahhh a weight watchers dream. Everyone loves the whipped cream - including my neighbor who's identity has been protected

The best song to have playing while enjoying said treats?

I hope your holiday season is progressing nicely!

To you all

Sunshine, me no likey

Ordinarily it's lovely to see the sun streaming in the window, but it's winter. I want gloom, cold, snow.. Instead...

Another sixth floor view

Another view - though this time it's from the 6th floor of Evergreen Hospital. I'm grateful for the beauty outside, it takes my mind of what's happening in the room.

One of my favorite people in the whole world, my mother in law Evelyn, was admitted to Evergreen Hospital today. Dear sweet Eve is 86. She's had shortness of breath these past couple of weeks and so she was at the doctors yesterday and this morning was admitted for a blood transfusion. We've been here all day with her - how could we not be. She's such a gem. I love you Evelyn. Get well soon.

Hidden treasure

Beautiful place the Northwest. Every season brings a different perspective, but if you take the time to look - its breathtaking out there, even from the office window.

Believe it

This is for you. Read it. Believe this truth. Marinate in it. You are loved

Garden of lights

After two years of trying and 5 missed highway exits ( just last night ) Mr Big and I finally made it to Garden d'lights in Bellevue.

If you've never been you should go. It's sensational! Must take alongs are gloves, hat and cozy coat - we had all three

...and so, time to stroll. Usually it's $5 per person, which I would have gladly paid, but tonight was free. Probably because it was 21 degrees out!

It was quite a lovely evening - I was grateful for the hubs taking me and holding my hand the whole way round.

My two favorite Christmas songs

These two links will peg your joy meters. Have a terrific week!

Sweetness

Isnt it wonderful how little things can tip your mood.  A huge thanks to my sissy in law Verna.  Thankfully she is not on facebook so she shares things with me one on one instead of a huge blast out to 200 of her nearest and dearest.  I love facebook but I hate it at the same time because it has squashed some of the intimacy that people used to have (like sharing a photo with a family member one on one).  I love getting her emails with photos...and with videos of my precious nephew Riley.  It made my day seeing his sweet cherub face and im sure it will delight you too:

40th Birthday

I saw the movie Shirley Valentine, some 20 years ago.  I dont know why but it really affected me on a deep level, so much so, that I developed a game plan there and then that when I turned 40 (which seemed like an eternity away) I wouldnt celebrate like an old person, letting the day go by like "another birthday" but I would celebrate being fabulous at 40 (which I assumed I would be) and I would do as Shirley Valentine did - I would celebrate in Greece, specifically I would be there with my nearest and dearest and we would all skinny dip in the Agean sea at 12.02am, on the morning of my 40th.

It turned out to be completely different. 

The most celebratory thing I did was to buy MYSELF a bottle of Veuve Clicquot French Champagne...which I didnt drink.  In fact this morning when I went out on the porch there was the box, sitting there ontop of the pantry. 

Birthdays in general tend to be on the sucky side for me.  Its my own fault.  I set my own expectations way too high.  I remember my thirtyith birthday arrghhh...I was living in Christchurch, I was seperated, my best friend (who was the only person I knew in the town I just moved to) had moved so I was completely alone.  Thirty.  Its a big birthday right?  I ended up sitting propped up against a tree in Hagley Park drinking some kind of hard liquor that was camoflaged in a paper bag, and crying.  The heaving, really ugly crying - it was a full on pity party and a really sad state of affairs.  I was so lonely, my life was falling apart and 9/11 had left a massive hole in my heart.  So....as you might imagine, I really really thought that after a decade things would be much more dazzling on my birthday.

I ended up in Sequim instead of Mykonos.  Till the last minute it looked like it was going to be spent watching Mamma Mia (savor the irony, its set on a Greek Island!) on a 14 inch telly in a room of the Econolodge Sequim but we actually did end up going "out"....to seven cedars casino.  So instead of breathing fresh sea air it was stale smoky casino air, instead of sipping ouzo it was a overly sweet margarita, instead of eating Greek delicacies it was 1/2 a bacon cheeseburger at 11.45pm.  I tried my best to be chipper but this really was very divorced from my vision of celebrating my 40th.

"....but wasnt your birthday months ago...like, September?" you might ask... Yes, yes, it was...and I know that that was a while ago but dang!  Seeing that bottle on the top of the pantry this morning brought back all of the disappointment and bitterness to the forefront again.  Thats the reason im writing about it.  Im need to let go of it and let go of all the feelings associated with it.

So tonight, Im going to have a mini micro version of a celebration.  I just asked the hubs to put the veuve in the fridge.  Tonight is "prep night" for our annual Christmas Cocktail Party where we celebrate our friends and family.  We make all the appetizers and special drinks and decorate the house all pretty.  Its usually a lovely lovely time and I am sure this year will be no different.  So I figure nows as good a time as any to release my concerns and move on in perfect fashion - while making a million cake pops with Tadpole I will be sipping veuve and I intended on finishing at least half the bottle with him. 

Fogalicious

I like waking up to a foggy morning.  Yes, it's cold and grey but I feel like fog is natures wrapping paper in someways, hiding the gift of the day.  It was that kind of morning this morning, I cant wait to see what today brings

A beautiful message

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBd-UCwVAY

Be brave

A beautiful quote I just read:

Courage doesn't always roar, sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying " I will try again tomorrow "

Mary Ann Radmaker

I love that. As I was looking at the clock counting down the minutes to bed time, making our breakfast and lunch for the next day, I got that all familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach - the anxiety of what the next day might bring... then I read this quote.

It helped calm my nerves and remind me that everythings gonna be ok - in fact, it might even be the best day ever. Stay tuned...

Oscar the octopus

Yesterday, while Christmas shopping for my dear sweet niece I found a gift for myself. Meet Oscar, the octopus. Mr Bigs not so keen on it but I'm in love. Thoughts?

Sausage roll recipe for TJ

On a day when I really needed it an old friend told me he read my blog. I was thrilled when he told me this and then to also ask for my sausage roll recipe - well that was hard proof he REALLY had looked at it. Thanks TJ !

Now comes the embarrassing culinary truth, TJ... World ... Sausage rolls are crazy simple.... Take the ingredient list for example :

Pepperidge farm puff pastry sheets
Jimmy dean sausage

Yeek. I know - 2 items. The hardest part comes next. Assembly:

Unwrap package of pastry.

Rest a while. You deserve a break after all that unwrapping angst

Next flour a hard surface and roll out the pastry sheet so it's about 1/2 as thick as it comes out of the package. Cut in half length ways.

On the first piece put a generous line of sausage (:-) ) in the middle of the pastry length ways. Roll it up, crimp the edges together and slice into chunks. Bake until golden.

These are so delicious. Everyone loves them and I am definatley making then for thanksgiving.

In NZ a lot of people make them more fancy than I.. You can add herbs and onion to the meat - I've even known people that have put chopped apple into the mix. But I like it to be simple.

Thanks TJ for reading. Let me know how the sausage rolls turn out.

Howdy

First thing first sorry. Sorry ive been AWOL. It's been, let's say, a challenging month or so. Deep breath. Haaaaaaaaaaaaa

Now that I'm back lets start with this past weekend. Regular guest stars on our weekend adventures are Tadpole and Ronnie. You know them so I won't bother with a long winded intro. This weekend we got to hang out with them on Sarurday. I'd really re-he-ally been looking forward to Saturday. Of course because I would see two of my favorite people's but also... It was forecast (drumroll) for SNOW.

As is normal this kinda transpired in some areas but not in Everett where we live. Sad.... On the flip side though, Saturday was a glorious blue sky sunny day and the mountains were just gorgeous all snow covered.

First things first I baked some sausage rolls

These are fan favorites. Next stop was for liquid refreshments at Starbucks. Luckily Tadpole had the perfect accompaniment

Then it was time to load up the car... With guns and ammo and head for the country. Yes. Guns. Ammo. GAH!

And before we knew it we had arrived. .. And the boys seemed excited

I was excited too. At the snow! Do we unloaded the guns, the sausage rolls, the ammo and the targets

It was weird to this little kiwi seeing all the guns and ammo but what was even weirder was

Lil Elliott was an awesome shot

I even tried my hand at it. As you can see, I don't really have the stance of a real shooter

It was a fun time. But its the weirdest feeling in the world shooting a gun.