Christmas Wish

           “What do you want for Christmas?” my handsome husband asked.

          I had to think about. “I’ll let you know.”

          I made a Dream Box last week and wanted to make more. This week, getting my stuff around to cut cardboard, I pulled out my wooden kitchen cutting board. It works just fine and Practical Me would keep doing it that way forever and ever.

Speaking of Practical Me, do you know that brand of yogurt called Oui? Once in a while, when it’s on sale, I’ll buy a few because I really like it. Mostly though, I make my own yogurt. When I portion my yogurt up, I use whatever containers I have, preferably ones with lids.

Since I started my diet back in October, I’ve reduced our serving size from one cup to a half cup. That means I have to come up with fourteen small containers to store it in. My Oui jars are a good size but they don’t have lids. I know you can buy lids made special for these jars so I Googled it.

HOLY COW! Just four lids can run you from twelve to twenty dollars!

Nope! No way! Nuh-uh! I ain’t doin’ it!

I searched all over my house. In drawers and boxes and found several lids from other yogurt containers but they didn’t fit. I’m standing there at the counter, totally frustrated with the yogurt company. For the price they charge, you should get one free! I think. I can always use cling wrap but I don’t mind washing dishes and prefer something reusable. My eyes fell on a stack of carryout containers on my shelf. My handsome brother bought me a sleeve of these and I think of Richard every time I reach for one. When a Oui glass is set down inside, the lid fits tightly across the yogurt glass.

Is it inconvenient? Yeah. A little. But it gets the job done — and with stuff I already own!

Would I like to have lids for these glasses? That’s a yes and no answer. Sure, I would. It’s always nice to have sets. But no because it would be one more thing I’d have to store.

So, when your husband wants to buy you something and you don’t really need anything, you might just pick something you’d normally make do without. Something like say, a cutting mat.

“I want a cutting mat for Christmas,” I told Mike. “And while you’re at it, how about some glue sticks for my mini glue gun and Elmer’s glue?”

“You’re killin’ me with all the craft stuff you get into!” Mike fake complains. “I gotta buy you new stuff all the time! Don’t you stick to anything?”

I like to make things, especially things I’ve never made before. Hit it, conquer it, and move on to something else. That’s my philosophy.

Mostly Mike likes the things I make and I think he’s secretly proud. And this was to be a Christmas gift.

A few days later, guess what shows up on my doorstep?

Yep. A really nice cutting mat and enough glue to satisfy the crafter in me.

I’m not waiting for Christmas. A couple of days later I got it out and started using it. And I love it.

I cut enough cardboard pieces for three more Dream Boxes. One of them needs to make its way to Minnesota (hopefully before Christmas but she’ll forgive me if it’s late) so I’d make my beautiful sister Phyllis one first.

I want to give my Dream Boxes different designs. I experimented with making my own stencils. That handsome Lamar Kipp had given me some sheets of plastic and I thought they’d be perfect for this project. I made the one that says DREAM last week. Now I wanted to make other designs. There is definitely a learning curve and I had to throw almost a whole sheet away but did manage to make a couple of new stencils — even if it did take me ALL day!

I sat down, plugged in the hot glue gun, and put a box together. All the edges and the surface have to be covered with paper and here I had several options. Napkins, newspaper, or that brown paper that comes as packing material in Walmart boxes. I wanna try that. I went into the wayback and got my stash of hoarded brown paper. I tore it into pieces and glued it on.

Why am I gluing paper onto perfectly good cardboard? I wondered.

I finished the part I was working on, turned to the computer, and asked that question of the lady who’s project I was following. “Is there a reason?” I asked.

“Yes! To cover the edges, also to protect the cardboard from being swollen, and to make it more sturdy. And in some projects, you may use napkins for creating texture,” replied Crafty Hands.

She’s been excellent to communicate with, always prompt and polite with a reply. I would’ve thought as a big-time crafter-blogger she wouldn’t have time to answer pesky messages from one of her followers.

I turned back to the table and see Blackie is helping me.

“You silly kitty,” I told him but didn’t make him get down.

He took a piece of paper and added texture to it. You know, spit and teeth holes, and claw marks. I had to throw that one away. It was pretty well shredded when he was done with it. Then he stretched out for a nap. Texturing wears a body out!

The next thing I tried making was texture paste. It’s made with baby powder, glue, and water. I have an almost full bottle of baby powder that I’ve had for years and years and never used. This would be a good way to get at least one thing out of the cupboard.

I mixed it according to the internet directions but it wasn’t coming close to the consistency they said to make it. I kept adding powder and more powder. It was really funny stuff. Hard when I tried to stir it but turned liquid when I let it sit. I thought I’d better quit adding powder and try it.

I wasn’t going to ruin my Dream Box so I got a piece of scrap cardboard and tried it. I thought it had a really cool look to it!

I got my box and a stencil and tried to put a design on. It was a total failure. The paste stuck to the stencil and pulled half of it off the box and the rest ran. I guess I should’ve had it sitting level until it set up a little. I took the box and was scraping it into the trash when a thought pops into my head.

I should’ve taken a picture of it!

I went back to the original way of making texture paste. Plaster of Paris.

After a while I noticed the texture on my sample piece was cracking. That doesn’t happen with POP.

I made my embellishments and got ready to paint it. I dug through my craft paints and all I could find was a lavender purple and I wanted a deeper, more plum color. I played around with lavender and black, lavender and green, lavender and blue, and finally, lavender and red. I couldn’t really see that I was getting where I wanted to go so I stopped and tried it on the box. When it dried, it looked too pink!

Lavender it is, I thought and washed my mess down the drain.

I still have to repaint the back, put the lining in, and highlight the pages, but I’m hoping to get it in the mail next week — the week after at the latest!

This week we made a trip to Milton. Mike’s tractor payment was coming due and we hadn’t received a payment book. He tried to do it online and found out he’d have to show up at a branch in person and sign some papers. Milton was the closest branch to us and that’s almost 70 miles away — but! — can you say road pictures?

A morning sunrise that isn’t all reds and oranges.

Most of the house pictures were taken as we went through Hughesville, but this first one is in Dushore.

The toilet and toilet sitter were gone!

“Good,” Mike said. “I didn’t like it anyway. I think it’s tacky.”

“I’m not saying I want one. I just like to see how they decorate it.”

 Waiting for their forever homes.

I didn’t realize they had any entry room in this house until I saw the second door on my computer. Man! I need one of those. Our front door opens and the cold winter winds just blow right in. I’ll put that on my Someday list.

 How would you like to live next door to this?

Coming into Milton, I snapped a photo of a family vault. Looking at it on the computer, I can see the inscription over the door. HN&JWN SWARTZ.

Me being me, curiosity reared its ugly head and I spent a few hours searching for information about this family.

What I stumbled on was a really nice website dedicated to the genealogy of old Milton families. I found a Henry Newcomer Swartz. He was in the marble business. That explains how he could have his own mausoleum, I think. I read further and see he was marred to Hannah. That’s not JWN. I searched the history and didn’t find any other HN Swartz. I decided to try and find the wife. There were no women listed with those initials.  There was a link to email Larry Hill, the creator of the website, and asked him. I was just sure I wouldn’t get a reply before publish time, but I did. Then I thought of more questions and he was prompt to answer them all.

“HN would be Henry Newcomer Swartz (wife Hannah Fryer). Henry was a stone and marble dealer. He built the building on the corner of Broadway and Elm, and was a brother of John W.N. Swartz, the owner of the grocery store. The links below go to the details. Hope this helps you.”

John WN… I slapped my hand against my forehead. What an idiot! I assumed it was a husband and his wife when in fact the initials are those of brothers.

I asked Larry Hill what the WN stood for and he replied he found nothing in history to tell him, but he thinks the N is for Newcomer.

I poked around the lineage of this family and discovered their mother’s maiden name was Newcomer. Why? Why put your maiden name in your sons name?

Jacob Z and Susanna Newcomer had three sons. Henry and fourteen years later, John. They don’t know the birth date of the third son, but Dr. G.N. died six years before either of his brothers.

The website had a picture of the inside of John’s store and I found it interesting. 

Check out John standing there in his three-piece suit. Gone are the days when people took the time and care to dress elegantly before appearing in public.

See what a tangent I got off onto!

Back to pictures.

Having a camera always at the ready comes in handy sometimes.

“Is that a bear laying there?’ Mike asked of a carcass beside the road.

Snap, snap, goes my camera and I zoom in. “Nope. It’s a deer. I can see the hooves.”

Parking is free in Dushore during the holiday season.

“What’s he got on that truck?” Mike asked.

Click, click, zoom. Once again, my camera comes to the rescue.

“It looks like furniture made primitive style. Can we go past Ahern’s and get some apples?” I asked.

“I wasn’t going to go home that way,” Mike answered.

I shrugged. “Okay. We’ll go out later in the week and get some.” I’m easy. I don’t fuss too much if I don’t get my own way.  

We went and got apples at Ahern’s. I took this picture of a tree and dramatic sky on the way as we crested a hill.

Ahern’s sell their apples out of a shed/store. Normally the sliding door is open but it was closed when we got there.

“The sign says open,” I said.

“I see a little walk-in door,” Mike said.

We got out and as we approached the door, I see this thing hanging there. “What’s that for?” I asked.

           My eyes followed the string up and I’m thinking bell. What I see is more like horns, and I smile. I was tempted to pull it but I didn’t. I’ve been to Ahern’s before and know that if no one is around, it’s self-serve.

We slid the door open and went in.

“I want a crispy apple,” Mike said.

Boy, don’t I know that! If they get even a little soft, he won’t eat them. Me? I’ll eat them anyway. I love apples. I think it’s my favorite fruit. Wait! No thinking about it! It IS my favorite fruit!

“I messaged them on Facebook,” I told Mike. “They said Crispins would be crispy. And Northern Spy would be crispy too but not as sweet.”

We ended up getting some of both. We paid and we’re heading out when Mr. Ahern came in, his dog Sadie trailing behind. These two old guys got to talkin’ and I was cold.

“I’m going to the car,” I told Mike. I’m heading out and see the barn we parked in front of had its door open. Me being me, I stuck my nose in and took a few shots.

Sadie came up to see what I was doin’. I pulled a Starlight Mint from my pocket, popped it in my mouth, and broke off a piece for her.

She likes it!

It amazes me that dogs like peppermint. I know people who don’t and I used to be one of those. But now I do. Funny how things change as you get older.

I offer it to every dog I meet (if I have one in my pocket) and so far every one has liked it.

When the mind was gone — err mint! One letter! I’m tellin’ ya! When the mint was gone, I got in the car. Bondi sniffed me and I could tell she was unhappy. I don’t know if it was because she didn’t get any mint or if she smelled Sadie on me.

Sadie laid down by the road and waited for her master. I opened the book on my phone to pass the time. No telling how long the gab fest would go on for.

A helicopter came within earshot. I heard it. I glanced up to see if I could see it and saw I wasn’t the only one aware of it. Sadie watched it traverse the sky.

A triaxle truck came roaring down the road a hundred miles an hour. I expected to be witness to Sadie’s demise. She chases cars. I know she does because she’s chased our car a few times when we happened to be traveling past here. But she didn’t pay it or any other vehicle any attention. She just waited for Mr. Ahern. Maybe she only chases cars when he’s in the house?

A couple of more pictures I took on the way home.

I took a couple of winter pictures when I went down to get the mail one day.

The helicopter seeds of the Boxelder Tree...

... and the bright red berries of Winterberry.

You wanna talk about turkeys for a moment? Not the gobble-gobble kind, the four-legged kind that inhabit my house.

Miss Rosie and I have started working out together in Peg’s Pain Palace. She comes twice a week and Bondi is always excited to see her. Miss Rosie loves that. Bondi still piddles a little when she’s excited. I don’t know if it only happens when she has a full bladder or if it happens all the time. Most times I don’t bother to look. It’s only a little and ignorance is bliss.

I shut Bondi out of the exercise studio for her safety and ours. She’s beginning to accept this but will still come to the door a couple of times during our session and ask to come in. On this particular day I did notice that Bondi did tinkle a little when Miss Rosie came in and I was a little worried that her bladder might be full, and that Mike might not know she needs to go out, and that he wouldn’t let her out, and that she would pee on the rug. So many worries! It was distracting! We were almost done with our Richard Simmons DVD so I decided to let Bondi come in and I’d put her out the exercise studio door. She got distracted by Miss Rosie and ended up finishing the workout with us.

Just look at these chair hogs! I’d just gotten up and turned to look. Six inches isn’t much room in which to perch this broad expanse of a behind of mine but that’s all they gave me. Turkeys.

And this guy! OY! It’s a lot harder to work around Tiger now than when he was a kitten. In the first picture he’s watching my cursor move across the line. Cat paws work on touch screens as well as fingers do. They can move my cursor to a different line and open and close windows.

“Are you still keeping Tiger and Spitfire in?” you wanna know.

We are! They are not happy and we don’t like to hear them cry but unless they start peeing where they aren’t supposed to, they’re staying in.

Spitfire was at the door and being especially vocal about wanting to go out when Mike came out into the kitchen.

“That cat,” I told Mike. “I already had a talk with him and told him he had to stay in because we didn’t want him to get hit on the road.”

“Meow!” Spitfire chimed in.

“No,” Mike told him. “We don’t want you dead!”

‘D-E-D DEAD!” I emphasized.

Mike laughed. “D-E-D?”

What can I say? I was washing dishes at the time and not paying attention. Who says women can’t multi-task!

How do you like this picture! Take enough pictures and you’ll get lucky once in a while.

We decided to go out for breakfast. We were just starting to cross the Rainbow Bridge when I snapped this shot. In fact, the black thing in the upper right corner of the picture is a steel bridge girder. I don’t feel the need to crop it out and my imagination says it can be a tree trunk.

We get to Mark’s Valley View and there aren’t any vehicles there.

“Uh-oh. It doesn’t look like they’re open,” Mike said.

He pulled up to the door and I snapped a picture of the sign so I could see what it says.  

Mike didn’t need any such help. “Closed December ninth,” he read.

I found out later that something was making the rounds.

“Our breakfast cook has been sick all week. As of yesterday 2 waitresses were sick & then the night cook ended up leaving sick yesterday & when Stacy called me this morning she didn’t sound good. 🤢🤢 I got lucky,” Cindy, our usual breakfast waitress told me.

“We could go to Wiser Choice in Laceyville,” I said. “Or we can go home,” I added.

Mike headed for Laceyville.

He took a back road.

We rounded a corner and I loved how the sun looked as it was coming up behind the trees.

 “The road looks icy,” I said.

Mike did a brake test and we could hear our brakes pulse as they compensated for a skid. “They are,” Mike said.

Then a chicken decided to test just how good our brakes really were!

Don’t worry, he lived to cross the road.

We get to into Laceyville and there were no empty parking spaces anywhere close to Wiser Choice. I guess all of Mark’s regulars had the same idea we did.

“We could go to Perkin’s in Tunkhannock,” I suggested.

“Or we could try that little restaurant there by Chris’s BBQ,” Mike suggested.

We’ve driven by Kristi's Kountry Kitchen many times and always say we should try it sometime. It was closer than Tunkhannock so I voted for Kristi’s.

Opening the door, the room fell silent as everyone looked to see who had come in.

Since we had the center of attention, I made the most of it. “Good morning!” I called out cheerfully. “We’re here!”

No one seemed to care and they all went back to breakfasts and coffees.

I was surprised at how small the place was. There were a few seats left at the counter but we took the last empty table — right by the door! Brrr! I’m not the only one who needs an entryway!

We both ordered what we always order. A Western Omelet for Mike, pancakes and a side of bacon for me. All in all, the food was good.

“Would you go back again?” you ask knowing that’s the true test.

Only if Mark’s is closed. It’s not that there was anything wrong with it and the prices were about the same, but Mark’s is closer.

When Lovely Lisa brought our check, I asked, “Didn’t I see this place on the news —” She didn’t let me finish.

“I don’t know,” she uttered as she dropped the check on our table and hurried by with coffee pot in hand.

I ignored her interruption and went on. “— because the owner’s son had cancer or something?”

“Leukemia,” she answered.

“How is he?”

“He’s doing good,” and she hurried away.

Another couple came in the door. Even though people had been coming and going the whole time we were there, at the moment there were no empty tables.

“Wanna sit at the bar?” the woman asked.

“I guess,” the man answered.

They didn’t seem any more enthused about sitting at the counter then we are.

She went to the counter as he turned to close the door.

“We’re finished if you want our table,” I piped up. It was a four-top and still had two clean placemats.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“Absolutely.”

He went to the counter, stood beside his woman, and said something. He pointed at us and she turned to look. I took another swig of coffee and Mike and I got up to leave as they came back to the table.

“Thanks a lot,” the man said like we’d done him a favor.

“No problem,” my replied.

Saturday morning, I spent a couple of hours at my church with a bunch of beautiful ladies.

“We’re going to start by reading the Christmas story. I need seven volunteers to read a section,” Miss Sherry said.

I did a quick head count. There were ten of us. Whew! I wouldn’t have to read.

One by one, the ladies took a book until Sherry was left holding the last one.

Sherry raised her eyebrows and looked at me.

“Nooo. You said you needed seven.” I did a quick count of ladies holding Bibles and it looked like she had all she needed to me.

Regardless of my count, she still held one book and held it out to me.

“I don’t wanna read.”

My friend Jody came to the rescue. “I’ll take it.”

“You’ll read two parts?” Sherry said.

Jody laughed her delightful laugh. “I’ll do two parts. I may not be able to sing, but I can read!”

Sherry gave her the book.

When the books were opened it was discovered there was an extra, master one.

“Oh. I forgot,” Sherry said.

Jody gave up her second reading to Sandy who gave the master to Sherry.

“Why didn’t you want to read?” you wanna know.

I didn’t want to embarrass myself. The lighting in our church really sucks. It’s yellow and dim and not conducive to reading at all. Wait! That might just be my cataracts.

“No, it’s dim in here,” one of the ladies said when I complained about it later.

After we read and talked about the birth of our Lord, we hit the snack table. What a spread these ladies put on!

Then we got busy and made Christmas decorations. We made snowflake window clings and turned pinecones into Christmas trees and elves.

At the end, some of the coffee cake I’d made was leftover. I gave it to the Kipps. I didn’t want to bring it home because Mike won’t eat it and I don’t need to.

I always smile whenever Lamar brings me anything in a bag. He brought back my nice clean pan. He uses this fancy-schmancy knot. You carry it by the long side and when you want to open it, you pull the short one. It’s really a cool knot.

And with that, let’s call this one done.