Status Update: Fail... (or maybe not)

Remember I was commenting on the Boy's gift, and saying it would be hard to wait until Christmas to give it to him?

Yeah. I failed. I kind of blurted it out yesterday.

On the up-side, the Boy has a fantastic beverage carbonater to play with, and we get to make interesting fizzy drinks!! It came with some oils in tiny spray bottles - lemon, lime, grapefruit, and mandarin orange. Apparently other oils, like cinnamon can be gotten at Sur la Table, which is nearby. We'll have to do some experimenting. I'd like to make our own ginger ale. There's a restaurant in Michigan that makes their own, and so far the recipe eludes me. I believe I inflicted it on some friends a few years ago. Sorry guys!

This time, I may try this recipe instead of a simple syrup with ginger.

Theft of the Magi

Aww. It's so sweet.

Well, Christmas is coming, and I'm a stupidly excited for the season to roll into full swing. It's not so strange that when I worked in retail, I silently raged at the fact that Christmas cards and decor were being sold before Thanksgiving was even here. I was something of a zealot, even.

To my surprise, the first Christmas after I stopped working at the bookstore, I found...well... I enjoyed the season. I realized I actually really like twinkling lights, and the smell of evergreen and cinnamon, and good things baking. I like scarves and hats, and figuring out gifts for various people I love. I like the foods of the season, as well--gingerbread cookies (decorated as our favorite literary characters, according to family tradition. Captain Ahab always featured prominently because whoever made him got to bite his leg off) cranberry bread, butter tarts, savory stuffing, various apple concoctions, hot cocoa, etc...

I've come to the conclusion that, stress of retail during the Holidays aside, the thing that made the difference was not having to listen to forty versions of "Santa Baby" for 9 hours a day, two months straight. More about Christmas music later.

In the mean time, I'm a bit thrilllllled, because I have the Boy's Christmas gift, and it will rock his socks off. He's a tough one to get presents for. It's rare that I'm able to afford anything that he really would just adore, so I'm excited to give this to him. He will love it. That's the best part. And you know the second best part? It was free. God bless folk who keep brand new neat stuff unused in their basement for seven years. You know who you are!

And now to see if I can manage to wait for Christmas to give it to him. Ten bucks says I can't.

A little something to cheer you up...

Hippos don't often top my list of adorable creatures, but this baby pygmy hippo knocked that conclusion on its booty.

Tiny Door

I showed the little door I was working on earlier, and I've finally finished it! I ambitiously wanted to make it so the door could open a crack to see a little bit of the front hall, but that turned out to be too big a challenge for my meagre skills. Ah well. In any case, it is now framed in with MDF carved and painted to look like brick, which gave me a little space to attach the mail box, along with the house number. I would have liked to have added the number of the house where it'll be, but I had neither enough space nor enough numbers. So instead, I made the address 42--which, incidentally, is also the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything. Though it can't be seen all that well, there is a tiny book and an unbrella hanging from the mail box. I figured since the door would be inside a house, a fairy might hang their wet umbrella out there.