More Christmas Decorations

I stayed home from work on Monday to get more Christmas stuff done. One of the things I finished was putting up all the rest of the Christmas decorations.

I like saying "all the rest of the Christmas decorations" when in reality, I don't really have that many and the ones I have take about 40 minutes to put up.

First up:
My mom came up with this idea of an ornament display when we lived in the apartment which wasn't really big enough for a tree, but had a nice big window. She, and the rest of the family members, been buying me (and my brother) an ornament every year. The idea was that when I went out on my own, I would have enough ornaments for a full tree. It worked. Although I still celebrate Christmas with my family, I do have enough ornaments for a tree of my own.

I actually like displaying them this way better, as they are all much more visible than they would be on a tree. They range from somewhat fancy to homemade and I can tell you stories about a lot of them. Though you can ask me to stop when you get bored.
The above two are a representative sample. The one on the left is perhaps my favorite ornament because my grandmother made it for me for Christmas 1975. She was very crafty and packaged it for safekeeping in a See's Candy container. I like the container almost as much as the ornament because it says "Patty's X-Mas Ornament 1975" in her handwriting. Samples of her handwriting are slowly disappearing and it is nice to see it each December.

The one on the right came from one of the Aunts from one of their many trips to Hawaii. I like it because they took a nice seashell and made it fairly kitschy with the dried flowers. It's dorkily hip.
I love kid-crafted ornaments and my mother and I used to have an amusing silent battle each Christmas. I would put the ugly kid ornaments my brother and I made in prominent places on the front of the tree and she would move them to the back. The pine cone is my favorite, because it looks like a preschool concoction. There is a very sad piece of ribbon strangling the cone that makes me laugh.

The one to the right of it is one of the many play-doh ornaments in the collection. Many of them saw their sized reduced over the years because I always liked to taste of homemade play-doh and took bites out of them through the years. There is a holly leaf that is about one quarter of its original size.

The yarn thing to the left of the pine cone also causes giggling. You can't see them, but it has two eyes attached to what was supposed to be the hair section and they are very crazy looking. Someday the pink yarn alien will come alive and--I don't know, begin converting the other ornaments to his alien religion?

What I learned from the above paragraphs. "ornament" does not have an "i" after the "n." Though I typed it that way every single time and had to go back to fix it.
On the left, our holiday swag, which I bought at the Alliance Greens Sale (the Alliance is the old ladies in my church's organization) because "swag" is more fun to say than "wreath." On the right, we have a metal door which allows us to attach all sorts of things to it with magnets. One year at the apartment I made a whole fireplace out of construction paper and hung the stockings on the "mantle." I wasn't in the mood for that this year, so stockings were just hung by the door.
This tree I bought for 50% off at Fred Meyer during the January storm of 2004. I was trapped in my apartment for four days and on day three, I had to go to the store. I walked there, which was my first bit of exercise in days. It felt great. I remember agonizing whether to buy this tree because I was in graduate school at the time and money was very tight. It was $5.00. I'm glad I did, because it all fits in a nice, compact carrier and it is fun to get out and put it away. The ornaments didn't come with any way to hang them on the tree, so I used paper clips.

Amanda's 33 1/3 party

Our friends Mark and Amanda had a 33 1/3 birthday party for Amanda. The theme: albums. Everyone came as an album cover. I knew what cover I would be from the moment I head about the party. Matt picked his costume the night of. It was an incredibly fun party with some good costumes and Matt took a lot of pictures. Sadly, we didn't get every person's picture. But here are some highlights.

Matt's outer costume: 1/2 of the Comfort Eagle Album.

And his inner costume: Nelly. I did the tattoo in eyeliner.
Born to Run is one of my favorite albums of all time and I happen to own a saxophone, so I knew immediately I would be Clarence Clemons (he's actually on the back of the cover just over the fold.) I couldn't find the hat, but I borrowed one at the party.
When I got to the party it turned out that Mark, one of the hosts, had come as Bruce Springsteen from that same album. We took pictures AND won the costume contest. I've never won a costume contest before! My Kiss Clock (made from, what else? an album) will have a prominent place in my house.

This is the inset photo on the album, and a nice picture of Mark.

Amanda, she of the 33 1/3 birthday, channeled Patti Smith.


This was Matt's favorite costume--also the album cover he was threatening to come as all week. "She worked with what she had." was his comment.

Best "get to dress like normal, mostly" costume.
Here are Dolly Parton and Jimmy Buffett

Hafidha came as the room on the cover of The Stranger.

Devo's iconic hat.

Everyone oooohed over this cover. And the parasol.


Have a lot of white? Come as the White Album.

This was my favorite labor intensive costume. How did he get the lines so straight?
Pink Floyd has some very iconic images as was evidenced at this party. Five people came as something Pink Floyd-esqe.


I voted for this costume, also very get-to-look-normal-while-channeling-the-album.

Three people came as Dark side of the moon. We only have two pictures, though.



I loved the way these people entirely channeled their album covers.

There were a few literal interpretations. On the left, Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy. On the right, Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In.

Sabrina wins the prize for heaviest prop.

Amanda did a lot of prep. There were prizes for the best costumes. She made bowls out of albums. There were also a million album ornaments to take home as party favors.

If you need to have your own record album bowl, Amanda says to turn the oven on to 200 degrees, then put the album over another bowl and it will turn all flimsy and bowl shaped. You can also mold them into different shapes.

Concerts. Aside from Public Transportation, the only place Americans will stand that close together.

Cake came to town and Matt and I went to see them for our Christmas Present. We both like Cake and were both excited. It was a great concert in a great venue.

I got there first, because Matt had a class. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I got to look at the Crystal Ballroom, which is fabulous. It has murals and chandeliers and is famous for its “floating” dance floor. This was restored when McMenamins bought the building and it must be walked on to be believed. Swing Dancing isn’t as popular as it once was, but this would be a great place for that. It’s also an all-ages venue, which I completely support. I remember the days before I was 21 and the shows I didn’t get to see.

I liked the opening act, though I didn’t get their name. Only the fact that they are playing at the Doug Fir on December 20th. They had a nice sound, and seemed to be fond of old style megaphones (like cheerleaders in the 20’s used) and banging on flat silver things. During their set, I mostly watched people come in while I looked for Matt. Most people would walk in, realize the floor was bouncy, smile and start hopping up and down. It was great people watching.

Matt arrived at the end of the opening act’s set and we moved forward. We did a good job with moving forward and ended up about 10 people from the stage. Then there was a very long wait while the roadies set everything up. It took forever. Matt and I amused ourselves by signing back and forth. We can only fingerspell, but it turned out to be an fun way to pass the time. Two people in front of us, a shaggy haired guy crouched down, took a hit off his bong and stood up. He shuffled off to the right a few minutes later and we moved forward.

The band came on stage and I had a good view of the lead singer and the trumpet player. I was particularly excited about being able to see the trumpet player because my friend told me he is the hardest working man in showbiz. And he is. He plays trumpet. He sings backing vocals. He plays the maracas. He plays keyboard. He plays that little thing with ridges that looks like a fish. And he does all this while looking like a junior high school math teacher. He was great.

Cake was great in general. The lead singer seemed both appreciative and amused at the who-hoos and applause from the audience. He was very much not a rock star, but in a good way. He sort of looked like a produce clerk at Whole Foods. Midway through the concert he asked people to guess what percentage of the earth’s population has running water. The guy with the right answer (35%) got an apple tree to plant. He only had a balcony, but he promised to plant it at his parents' house. The lead singer asked him to take a picture every year and send it to their web site.

They don't play from a set list, so I was told. But their mix of songs was great. There were some obvious hits, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket," "Opera Singer," "Comfort Eagle," and that race car driver one which they played for an encore so "all the jocks and frat boys won't beat us up as we are loading the van." They also played some stuff I didn't know, but really liked. At one point the lead singer (I should know his name, I know) lamented that one of the saddest losses of the 20th century was the 3/4 time signature, and then they played a nice waltz tempo song that I really liked. They also played, "Stick Shifts and Safety Belts" which is a personal favorites as they reference a Malibu, a car my brother used to own.

It was very much a sing-along audience, which I always appreciate. There is nothing worse than a concert full of people who don't sing, dance, smile or otherwise participate. The high school kid next to me was one of those people and he kept text messaging all though the concert. What was he even doing there? The audience got three chances to do backing vocals. The third time, the lead singer even had the drinking section go up against the non-drinking section. He said we both had our strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, it was a fun concert. I would see them again the next time they come though town and I will be buying a CD or too, which is, of course the point of touring for people who don't like to tour. I even bought a t-shirt.

Our Christmas Tree as Crime Barometer

I've had this vision for the Christmas Tree since before we bought the house. I want it out on the front porch, looking lovely. We have such a nice front porch, and I think it is perfect for a tree. Matt thinks a tree on the front porch will get stolen. I'm not saying that it won't, but so what if someone wants to steal our tree? It just means we won't have to be the ones to dispose of it come January. We set off today to get one.

First we stopped at the Goodwill, where I had seen some Christmas tree stands before Thanksgiving. That turned out to be when I should have bought one, because they were all out. They did have cheap lights, so we bought some of them.

We stopped at the lot near the Goodwill and picked out this Noble Fir. Matt liked the Douglas Fir trees better, but I wasn't going to pay double the money just so someone could steal our tree. He agreed with that logic.

New since I have bought a tree is this cool wrapping thing they did. The tree guy was quite nice and agreed to have his picture taken. The tree woman asked us if it was our first Christmas Tree. We thought about it and realized it was! In the apartment, we didn't have room for a tree, though we always had a nice wreath and the ornament/garland combo idea my mom came up with.
They just push and twist the tree and it is all tied up! "What are you putting it in?" The tree guy asked. We told him we were walking.
This was actually my second time that I have walked a tree home. When I lived in South Boston my roommate Greg and I bought a tree, but I have a feeling my boyfriend at the time and Greg carried it home while I provided conversation. Fun things about walking with a tree: It bounces between you like a suspension bridge as you walk! Many people wave and smile at you as you are walking with your tree!

We stopped to buy a stand at Walgreen's. It was on sale! Here we are twisting the pegs into the tree stand.
And we attach the stand to the tree, stood it up and pulled apart the netting. After that I put on the lights. Then I had to get the hose and clean off the porch which had all sorts of leaf debris on it. I should have taken care of that before the rains set in, or at least before I put up the tree.

As I was putting up the lights, I got a friendly honk and a thumbs up from a passing truck. I'm not the only one who likes the idea of a tree on the porch!

Our tree through the window from inside the house.
Our porch tree with flash.
And without.
I'll let you know if it gets stolen. In the mean time, I'll enjoy it.

A bit more work on the pantry shelves.

I added some hooks to the pantry shelves. This way we can hang items to dry. At our old place the dryer wasn't that great, so we had a lot of hooks to help things finish drying. The dryer works wonderfully here, but I would like to use it less. There's our carbon footprint to think about. We have an outdoor clothesline which we need to install and I have plans to put a retractable one indoors for the rainy months, but this was good first step.
The shirts were dry the next day.