Good Solstice To All

Good Solstice to you! In slightly more than one hour from now, the Solstice will have occurred and the sun will have started it's six month journey to the summer zenith. My celebration will occur while waiting in the parking lot for the gym to open up followed by swimming, errands galore and shopping for food, stocking stuffers, and miscellaneous stuff. It's also my "day off" which means laundry and some necessary computer work. No rest for me on this most important day. however, my thoughts will be turning to Solstice throughout the day and I pray for a year of peace and love ahead of all of us, My prayers might not come true, but they will be be one voice among many others wishing for the same thing.

The sun will be returning today, at 4:44 am in my part of the world.
Now the days will start getting longer again, although winter
is fully enthroned until the Spring Equinox. 

Our ancestors celebrated Solstice by relighting the fires of the hearth just as the sun would be returning to the heavens. I guess in a way I'll be doing that too - purchasing foods that we traditionally only have for the holiday season - pie and ham.

I love my Candy Cane pie. It's a once-a-year treat that
I treasure. The peppermint filling with that small layer of
chocolate silk at the bottom and the crushed Oreo crust is
pie perfection. 

I have a reservation for a Candy Cane Pie from Baker's Square. I indulge in this once a year and only once a year - too many calories. But SO good.

I love Honeybaked ham, it's so very good. We'll have a smaller one
demolished by Sunday when we're planning on having a standing
rib roast for Christmas Day dinner. Then, we'll get Monday off too and
we'll be celebration DH's birthday. 

I'll also be picking up a smaller Honeybaked Ham this morning - our other holiday indulgence. Although we often get a large ham, I'll be getting a smaller ham this year because so much salt can't possibly be healthy for us. It's very good, though, and again, we only indulge once a year.

I got a really lovely holiday card from my friend Poo in California in yesterday's mail. She usually makes her cards and this was no exception. Really beautiful! Thank you SO much!

It was a cold night to wait for the sun at Stonehenge yesterday. Here's
a photo of those who are braving the cold to celebrate the return
of the sun this morning. 

So I'm off to the gym. I wish all of you a Blessed Solstice and a year ahead of you without fear, anger and hatred. I'm going to try really hard to keep my thoughts positive all day while dealing with stressed out holiday shoppers and crazy traffic. Ugh! Happy Wednesday.

Catch Up and Stocking Stuffers

It's cold out, it's my "day off" and I have to shop for stocking stuffers today. There are various book work things I also have to do - renew a domain name, purchase, install two editing/grammar software programs and do some upkeep in my Scrivner files - but in general, today is focused on stocking stuffers, laundry and groceries. At least the roads aren't bad. I can handle the cold, but when it's mixed with bad roads or ice, it's a lot less fun.

I've owned and used Scrivener for several years now, and
really love it. It can be as complex or simple as you
want, but when you need power behind your writing, it
has all that and more. I'm combining it with two other
programs to improve my final copy before beta. 

DH wants me to join him at Bruegger's for a bagel and coffee this morning, so I will send him a wake up call at 7:00 am and meet him at 8:30 am. They have an unlimited refills mug that I might buy for his stocking if they are still available. His current travel mug is really old and leaks, plus he seems to be making bagels a regular Wednesday stop

DH wanted a coffee maker for single cups that
would take a minimum of counter space (we don't have
much counter space in our kitchen). I found this
Kitchen Select Singler at Target.com for under
$20. I'll take a chance for that kind of expense. 

He also wanted a very small one-cup coffeemaker. I found one with really good reviews at Target online yesterday and ordered it. With shipping for free and using my Target card for the 5% discount, the total sale including sales tax was less than $20! Score me!

I adore Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates, but only allow
myself to have them once a year for the holidays. So good! 

I'm really trying to stay away from food munchies in his stocking this year, though. Neither of us really need a lot of that. I don't mind some food (hoping for Ferrero Rocher and Lindt Truffles in my stocking), but I don't need to get bunches of sweet candy for him. We don't need all that sugar, and I've actually reached my budget for him.

Lindt Lindor Truffles are a wonderful treat. I adore
the dark chocolate ones, but really, any of them are
fabulous. There is actually a Lindt store in the Mall
of America. I haven't gone there because I don't shop
there, but Chickie has gone and said wondrous things
about the store and the wonderful smell of chocolate. 

The Bead & Button Show catalog arrived in my mail on Monday and I took the afternoon to look through it carefully. I'm really disappointed. There's not a single class I'm interested in taking, so this year might be the first year since the mid-1990's that I'll skip the show. Of course, if I skip Milwaukee, that will leave me money and opportunity to fly to Vermont for a Tolkien get-together that some LJ friends are organizing. I'm currently thinking that might be the winner for my vacation this year. I'll have to see what airfares, etc will cost.

I've been to New York state before, but I've never been
to Vermont. I'd be in the northern portion of the state
near Burlington. It's worth a thought since Milwaukee
looks like a bust for 2017. 

I hope you have a great Wednesday with perfect temperatures and weather. Yeah - right! Well ... I hope you don't have any really bad weather that will keep you from doing the things you still need to do before the holiday. Enjoy!