On the 17th Day of Christmas

Having taken some 222 photos at the senior’s Christmas Party, knowing everyone was anxious to see the photos posted, so they could share with friends and family, I worked on editing late into the night Friday, started again early Saturday morning and, by late that night, during Midsommer Murders, I finally got everything edited and posted — 157 memories (149 photos, 8 videos).

There went the bulk of my weekend, but I was able to keep today, Sunday, solely to myself — watch recorded Holiday Baking shows, work on this year's gingerbread build.

When I went shopping for what to build this year, I was torn between these two.

Donut Shop

Santa Delivery Truck

That is until I saw this Tree House.

A little ambitious but different, so I had to try.

Setting out the pieces, I found an integral piece was broken.

I melted down some sugar, glued it together and though the crack was still visible, the piece held.

I really like the idea of first decorating the pieces, then putting the pieces together — because it’s easier to decorate that way but, afraid I’d end up with an Ikea project I couldn’t assemble, I did the build first, decorated after.

Would you believe I screwed up yet and still, by mistakenly using the two roof pieces for side of the house.

Being left to turn the side pieces into the roof, I made it work; and once decorated, the crack in the glued piece also worked out — it disappeared under the frosting.

Behold! A tree house in the middle of a field of jellybeans, with a sassy looking occupant.

Front, leans a little

Right Side

Christmas Tree in window of right side

Rear

Left side

Back to Front

Not perfect, but good enough for me, as I don't have the patience to make anything perfect other than needlepoint.

I was told the cutest story at Friday’s Christmas party.

Looking in the mirror on my shirt, one of the residents said it reminded her of a story she’d read about a teacher who brought a box to her class. When asked by the students what was in the box, she said it was a photo of her favorite student.

She then invited students to, one by one, peer into the box, see who that favorite student was. What they saw was a mirror which reflected their own image as the teacher’s favorite.

How cute is that?

On the 18th Day of Christmas ….…..….

Feeling back to center this morning, I ventured out as far as the corner market where the Security Guard unintentionally almost ruined my Elf Hunt.

I guess he thought he was being helpful when I walked in and he said, "The elf is in the fresh fruit section".

"I’m pretty good at finding Zippy on my own, but thanks for the heads up", said I.

Fortunately, the hunt was not ruined, because I did not find him in the fresh fruit section, so I set about searching the entire market.

While doing so, I saw two little girls bounce through the market door with their parents, excitedly saying, "We’ve got to find the elf!".

Good luck, thought I, since they'd hidden him so well that I wasn't finding him.

I walked the perimeters, checked the isles, made it back to fresh fruit and was about to give up when I glanced over …… and there he was. Right where Security Guard said he'd be.

Hunt over, I went looking for the little girls, found them, said "I overheard your wanting to find the elf".

The girls didn’t get an opportunity to respond as the mother excitedly asked "We’d heard he’s in the meat department, but didn’t find him. Where is he?".

She thanked me when I told her, while her husband, thinking the whole thing hilarious, began laughing.

So, there’s that.

Remainder of today was finishing up my second attempt, this season, at a gingerbread house — appropriately the Elf on the Shelf kit.

I now know the meaning of having "skin in the game" because, using sugar glue last evening for the build, I managed to blister two fingers and cut another, but at least I ended up with a good clean sturdy structure.

Having learned a few tricks from watching gingerbread shows since the little house I built a few days ago, including icing the windows, I'm happy with the results and, quitting while ahead, done building gingerbread houses for the season.

Oopsie. I misidentified which side is which in the video. The first shot is the back, not the front. The front has the chimney.

On the 17th Day of Christmas ……………

I never made it to Sprouts or the Drug Store today as planned. Ongoing family drama ate up my energy, and the time it took to organize, edit and post the 55 pics from yesterday’s event to the residents’ website took up my time.

Rather than push myself to even leave the unit, not to mention drive out of the area, I ordered the needed specialty items online and expect delivery before I’ve depleted what little remains on hand.

Basic staples can be replenished at the market after Monday’s workout.

All in all, barring unforeseen circumstances, I don’t have to leave the unit, face the world until Monday.

In the meantime, there’s needlepoint and my latest project to work on.

Yes, I’ve been bitten by the Gingerbread Build Bug.

We’ll see how this one goes.

The Guessing Game Results are in.

The front runner is Olivia with 6 out of 10.

Mitchell and Bob tied for second with 5 out of 10.

Mitchell scores brownie points for pointing out Cratchit was in A Christmas Story, not Scrooge. None of us caught that error at yesterday’s event — probably because none of us knew the answer either way.

Bob was the most humorous with Christmas Trees being decorated with small edible children. ROFLMAO!

Sorry Debra. You’re in the bottom, with 2 out of 10, but you did better than some of the seniors that got zero, zilt, nada out of 10.

Now for the answers given at yesterday’s event.

1) What direction is Santa’s Route? — EAST.

2) Bob Cratchit’s son’s name? — TINY TIM.

3) What is made for Christmas but never eaten? — FRUIT CAKE, which answer I thought to be disputable, a trick question, because some people do eat it.

4) What were the very first Christmas Trees decorated with? You were correct if you answered any of the following — APPLES, GINGERBREAD COOKIES, NUTS, WHITE CANDIES.

5) What is traditionally put on top of a Christmas Tree? — ANGEL.

6) What was the name of Frosty’s girlfriend? — KAREN!!!!

7) What color is Holly? — GREEN.

8) What Christmas beverage is called Milk Punch? — EGGNOG.

9) What words follow "Silent Night"? — HOLY NIGHT.

10) What happens every time a bell rings? — AN ANGEL GETS ITS WINGS.

Some of you who did not post your answers, but kept a list — like Drum Major/Linda in Kansas ..... How’d you do?

Cold, Windy, Wet

The winter storm threatened promised to occur days ago, came to fruition around 7 a.m. this morning.

By 3:00 in the afternoon, windy and wet was gone, it was just cold. The kind of cold that came straight through the windows.

I’d yesterday watched the resident living across the quad in the unit above Red Light move out.

Having moved in around May 2021, other than waving at each other when coming/going to our cars, I never got to know her well, but I’ve heard from others that she was a school bus driver.

I’m beginning to think, along with painting, carpet cleaning/carpet replacement when a unit becomes vacant — especially that particular unit, a sage burning ritual needs to be performed to cleanse the place of negative energy, because it’s the third resident of that unit in a row I’ve observed to have their life fall apart after moving in.

What befell this resident was first losing her school bus driving job. She’d been fired after having an accident.

Then, to try to make ends meet, she began working in a pizza parlor.

It's a good guess that the pizza parlor job is probably not working out and inasmuch as I saw lots of family helping her move, she's probably moving in with family.

But the fact of the matter is that bad luck befell her after moving into that unit.

Coincidence?

Maybe, maybe not because ...........

The previous occupant of that unit was Sue. When Sue moved in (October 2015) she was vibrant and engaged, still holding down a part time job.

First thing to happen was having to sell her car because she couldn’t afford repairs. I don’t know if the lack of transportation caused her to no longer be able to hold down a job, but she no longer left for work every day and was rarely seen outside her unit after that time, began smoking and drinking to excess.

When Sue’s smoking and drinking impacted her health to the point where she could no longer care for herself, she was moved in with family.

The resident prior to Sue was a returnee (2013). She’d previously lived on the complex, moved out for whatever reason, then moved back to be close to her boyfriend living on the property.

Shortly after moving into that unit, she had a heart attack, survived, had a pacemaker implanted, but had to move out again for care purposes.

You get the picture?

It just seems that life goes down the tube for everyone moving into that unit since the guy who was living in the unit when I moved in (2012) moved out in 2013.

The blog name for the guy was "The Vampire", because I never saw him.

Supposedly he worked nights, but there were never any signs of life in that unit, insofar as I could ever see or hear.

Even when he moved out, it was stealth — probably late at night.

One day I saw Maintenance going in/out preparing the unit and realized the Vampire was gone.

Whatever bad energy is in that unit was left behind by him.

At any rate, we have a vacancy in the quad, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone moving in without a sage ritual or a priest to cleanse the place.

Too cold and dreary to head out today — not that I had anything pressing to take care of, I spent time catching up on scrapbooking, needlepoint and putting that mini gingerbread house together.

I tried both sugar glue and royal icing made with egg white. Both worked — the glue for building, the icing for decorating.

The results are a little messy — the glue areas could be cleaner, and I really need to take a class on how to decorate using a piping bag.

Suffice it to say, gingerbread builds are not a craft I excel at; yet, motivated by the holiday decorating shows on Food Network, I give it a try every year.

For my blogging buddy Mistress Maddie, I’ve added the traditional friendly neighborhood frostitutes.

Time is Relative

I had the bright idea last night, when there was nothing worth watching on television and the lighting was not bright enough (inspite of the LED magnifier) to work on the never-ending needlepoint project, to put together the gingerbread house I purchased in December ………… December of Last Year but never could fit into my schedule until now.

Didn’t take long to become frustrated with the royal icing included in the kit.

It wasn’t dry, just wasn’t of a smooth enough consistency to spread and wasn’t holding the walls together.

I was ready to quit when the first structure collapsed.

Remembering a hack I saw on TikTok of using sugar glue instead, I set about boiling sugar.

Takes a long time to melt sugar down into glue and I came too close to burning my fingers when dipping gingerbread pieces into the hot glue, not to mention it got sloppy at times with the glue leaving strings. I even dropped an entire gingerbread wall into the glue at one point.

Before I even got the walls of the first structure together, I lost my patience, abandoned the project, tossed the kit into the trash, disposed of the glue down the garbage disposal, telling myself ain’t nobody got time for this!

How interesting is it that I’ve the patience to stab aida cloth thousands of times to create needlepoint works of art, but not the patience to spend an hour or so building a gingerbread house.

Time really is relative.

I’ve been working on the never-ending needlepoint project practically every day since January of 2021, logging in upwards of 1,116 hours thus far and though not even halfway through have no problem with spending more hours, days, weeks, months, years to completion while I was pretty much over the gingerbread build in the first 15 minutes.

Inspired by Food Network’s Gingerbread Showdown, I still want to do a gingerbread house this season, so I’ll pick up something after this morning’s workout, maybe make my own royal icing and try again.

As for progress on the needlepoint project, though nowhere near completion I’m at least seeing a face appear.

Though my first gingerbread build of the season was an epic fail, I’ve been having great luck in finding My Hometown Elf in the market.

In previous years, our Hometown Elf was Cindy. This year it’s Zippy and he’s pictured holding a candy cane across his body.

I actually spotted what looked like it could be Zippy pretty quick. He was on a ledge nestled in with other holiday items but, inasmuch as there was no candy cane, I couldn’t be sure.

To make certain it wasn’t a decoy, I searched the store, saw nothing elsewhere and correctly announced to the cashier I’d found Zippy nestled and tucked away in a Christmas stocking.

I declined the little Candy Cane reward. I just enjoyed announcing I’d found it.

Next time at the market, I found Zippy with a fishing line hovering over the seafood station.

That was a cute and clever spot, obviously visible thought I.

Running into a 5K friend coming in to hunt as I was leaving, I didn't spoil her fun by telling her where the elf was located.

She later posted to facebook that she couldn't find it.

HOW could she have missed it?

Ain't Over Til It's Over

Woke up this morning feeling refreshed and ready to go for the first time since I don’t know when.

Probably because, with Jim — The Most Interesting Man, having been determined to be the source of that sense of an impending death, rather than immediate family, and having not heard from THEM last few days, with no further disturbances in the Force, I was able to get the first all the way through until morning sleep since I can remember when.

Monday had been painless.

A break in the rainstorm enabled me to finish that morning’s workout and make it back to the complex ahead of the storm starting up again.

Heading out that morning, I made a point to drive the long way out of the driveway to check on patio decorations.

From what I could tell, all were still intact, except the one that was under wraps until judgment day — the day the Tyrant was supposedly to have made a decision.

We’d STILL not heard who won by then — who placed, who showed, but the resident of that patio had already removed the display, which led me to hope that patio did not win, place OR show, because it seemed kind of cheesy to decorate, keep under wraps with the intent of having a big reveal — to be seen on judgment day, then to immediately remove before we’d been notified of the winning patios/before the holiday was over.

I myself don’t want the lights to go out, don’t want the holiday to end, so my plan is to unplug on New Year’s Day, then take my time returning items to storage.

I so don’t want the holiday to end that, when last at the drugstore, I’d picked up an on-sale gingerbread kit.

It will give me an opportunity to try the sugar glue option, instead of royal icing, but I may not get around to working on it for months ... but no one ever said we can only build in December.

With the office closed on Friday — New Year’s Eve, that gives the Tyrant until tomorrow to post January’s Activity Calendar to our doors, which calendar should indicate who won what (I’m beginning to think the winner might be my neighbor around the corner — the one with the poinsettia on her patio). However, it wouldn’t surprise me if we don’t receive a calendar until Monday the 3rd — too late to walk around, check out the winners, capture a photo for you if it was a patio I’d missed.

Actually, with the Tyrant’s track record, I’d not be surprised if the info was not in the calendar at all, and we never learned who won.

Stopping into the market, after this morning’s workout, was boring without an elf to hunt for. When I exited the market, intent on heading to the drug store for electrical tape — to see if I can salvage the power cord on one of the laptops, it began sprinkling. So, I put that errand on the back burner and high tailed it back to the complex before the rainstorm started up again.

Stopping by the mail center, I spotted one of Jan’s creations I’d not seen before.

She must have used a stencil on this one, because it’s too perfect to be hand drawn.

So, anyway, I don’t have to head back out into the world tomorrow after all. No beastmode back-to-back workout, because Trainer decided to keep Friday’s schedule as is.

Works for me.

Holiday Cookies

That was some rain storm we had yesterday. Today, the sun was shining, it was dry outside. It was almost as that all day, half the night rain never happened.

I for one was happy it happened on a non-training day, so I didn’t have to swim to the Pain Cave.

Heading out for this morning’s workout, I saw gone was the paper the resident I've dubbed Red Light District (RLD) had wrapped around the two patio doors to resemble Christmas packages.

Inasmuch as paper and water doesn't mix, it was probably necessary to remove the watered-down mess after the storm, but she’s soooo obsessive. Always fiddling around with the decorations on the patio.

With so many interesting patios for the Tyrant to choose winners from, RLD hasn’t a prayer of winning, so all this obsessing is a waste of energy.

Driving out of the complex, taking the long way around to see if the patio with the Christmas Tree has been unveiled, I saw it’s still covered with tarp. Which begs the question … why bother?

You go to the trouble of hauling all that stuff out, but then don’t get to look at and enjoy your handiwork, nor do you allow others to enjoy.

The contest ends in two days on the 17th, so my guess is the display will be unveiled just for the purpose of the Tyrant seeing and judging on that day.

Warm and cozy inside yesterday, I got started on the pre-built ready-to-decorate gingerbread house.

I worked on it a little before I headed out to the Pain Cave this morning, and completed when I returned.

Front and Side

Back

I’m happy with the results.

It’s an improvement over my past attempts at decorating gingerbread.

That done, it being chilly inside, I thought it would be nice to warm the place up this afternoon by baking some gluten-free cookies — and you can thank Mistress Maddie for how that turned out.

Mistress Maddie was the one that got me hooked on Reface, where I spend time swapping my face — like the time I made myself, to name a few ……….

Mona Lisa

Girl with the Pearl Earring

Nefertiti

Medusa

AND .... 

This time, Mistress Maddie got me hooked by the hilarious photo of a snow person called a “frostitute”.

So, I challenged myself to recreate that in cookie form.

So far so good, except that one cookie on the left looks like her implant surgery went a little off center.

Cooled and decorated (Decorated poorly. Would have been easier to decorate had I flattened them a bit).

It’s a good thing we’re not back to having Cookie Swaps yet, because I’d have gotten myself banned from the Community Room.

The Saga Continues and Update

Tire Pressure Monitor indicated the rear problem tire was so low that, heading to the Pain Cave for Monday’s workout, I thought I was going to have to stop at the gas station, pump air, in order to make it to the tire place after.

THEN, back in the car after working out, I surmised there was just enough air to drive to the tire place, without stopping at the gas station, so I headed in that direction.

Along the way, I observed the monitor change tires from low psi to high to normal, back to high psi. That’s when it dawned on me …. Problem is not the tires, but the car’s monitor. So, I called the tire place, cancelled the appointment and, since I was in the area, I pivoted to Sprouts.

Once back at the complex, I check the car's manual and learned the monitor was to have fixed itself 20 minutes after the kid at the tire place had inserted air.

It didn't, so thinking the fix is something minor and quick, my next thought was to pop into the dealership sometime today, ask them to handle it.

After seeing Country Cottage's comment last night, it occurred to me to research the car's monitor on the internet. I think I found a solution, but it's going to take locating a particular button, then driving 20 minutes, which gives me an excuse to head for the mall today — replenish makeup items, check out Christmas displays, pop into See's Candies.

While at Sprouts, I picked up a lil somethin somethin for Saturday — National Gingerbread Decorating Day (Note: One publication says Saturday the 11th , another Sunday the 12th).

The house is pre-built. All I have to do is decorate, which is right up my alley, because the build part has always been my Achilles Heel.

The young cashier said the Nike Store in Pasadena was giving this self-same kit "away for free, but you have to buy something, which makes it not exactly free".

Nice, if you're a Nike wearing fan, there in-store to make a purchase.

Because my injection site was a little puffy yesterday, Trainer took it easy on me with just working out with resistance bands.

However, he said he’s moving me up to the barbells on Wednesday — the long poles that have circular weights on both ends.

That should be interesting AND challenging.

Trainer said his reason for doing so is not just because he thinks I’m ready, but because he has a younger client that puts on a dramatic show when working out on the barbell. He said she only lifts halfway and grunts/groans/grimaces while doing so.

He wants to videotape me lifting, so he can shame her — say, “If Shirley can do this so can you”.

I said, “What if I find it so hard that I grunt/groan/grimace too?”

Without skipping a beat, Trainer said “You’d better shut that sh!t down until after I get done taking the video”. LOL.

I’ll see if I can get a copy of his video, so you can see how I do.

Update to the post on Veteran’s Day that one of our vets was missing — a nice old guy that I’d usually see out and about walking his German Shepherd.

Running into the Baker yesterday, I mentioned I'd not seen him in a long time and learned he’d been evicted.

Not because he’d done anything wrong or couldn’t pay rent, but because the invalid woman he lived with — whom we all thought was his wife, was not his wife.

The two were not married and, when she passed away (which I didn’t know she’d passed) with her name being the only named qualifier on the lease, he was asked to move.

So sad, such a nice guy, sorry to hear that happened to him AND, as for why he was not able to remain by getting a lease qualified in his own name, I do not know.

Moral of this story is … He shoulda put a ring on it.

Absolute very last chance. Voting ends 7PM this evening.

Third Time’s the Charm

I’m glad that’s over.

After three tries at building a gingerbread café, over two days, I can finally stop obsessing and get on with my life.

Will I ever make another?

Absolutely. I’m looking forward to what kind of café Starbucks offers next year.

It frustrated me at first that I couldn’t get the hang of it, but the first and second build were good practice for what turned out to be a nice third build.

The winds returned to this area with gusto this morning. Even my Pokémon Go app is issuing a warning.

Not to worry, I’ll be staying indoors, keeping an eye out that patio decorations don’t go flying off.

I will step outside later this afternoon to attend the Residents/Management meeting. Can’t imagine anything important is on the agenda, but I’ll pop in and sit near the exit door, so I can escape if it gets boring.

Next Tuesday is our Holiday Party, hosted by management. Probably nothing I can eat, but I’ll go down for a little while.

BTW, I didn’t tell you I’ve lost 20 ½ pounds in like a three-month period.

I kept wondering how it was that, because there’s so much I can’t eat now, and I’m literally forced into clean healthy eating because of gut issues, that I’d not lost a pound. Then one day I noticed my leggings looked a little loose in the caboose, took some measurements and saw my inches were slightly down. Weighing myself on the scale in the Game Room, I was slightly down there as well.

After so many failed attempts to lose weight, because of a slow metabolism when I was desperately trying, I was afraid to trust I was actually losing weight without trying, so I stayed away from the scale, until feeling thinner, looking thinner, I jumped on the scale this last Tuesday and found I’m down 20-1/2 pounds.

That’s a lot of weight for me, in a relatively short period of time, so I’m wondering if that’s why I’ve been so overly tired and dizzy lately -- the body adjusting to sudden weight loss. On the other hand, proponents of the grain-free lifestyle, which I’ve been following as a way to manage my gut issues, do say “lose the wheat, lose the weight” -- (i.e., once the wheat is out of your system, weight loss is a natural occurrence).

I’d been losing the wheat since 2015, receiving no weight loss, but with fewer and fewer gut issues. Then all of a sudden BAM! … 20-1/2 pounds gone. It’s taken all this time for my body to get over whatever damage I’d done to it in the past, and begin to regulate itself.

Good Advice

Deciding to bake cookies for yesterday’s Cookie Swap after all, recalling the epic fail earlier in the year when I made cookies for the Cookie/Cocoa Social, which cookies came out burnt, I followed Dkzody’s advice, left as a comment on that January post,  and baked the cookies 10 minutes less than what the recipe called for.

Gingerbread Molasses Cookies came out perfect and were the first to go.

The Baker asked for the recipe, so I shared with her my secret.

The Cookie Swap was not well attended. I blame the timing – the fact there were too many activities lumped together on the same day. First was Pizza Delivery, followed by Bingo. By the time 2:00 rolled around for the Cookie Swap, residents were tired and back in their units.

I skipped pizza delivery, skipped bingo and went down to the Community Room specifically for the swap and to decorate ugly sweater cookies.

It wasn’t the ugly sweater cookies I’d expected, instead we decorated round sugar cookies provided by The Baker.

Had I known, I would have brought a couple ugly sweater cookie sets instead of baking, yet and still I gave the round cookies a shot.

The sugar cookies must have been pretty tasty, because others were eating them up as fast as they got decorations on. One late arrival didn’t bother to decorate. She dumped like a third of a cup of royal icing on one little cookie, ate it like that, then repeated the process several more times.

My sweet tooth seeming now to be a thing of the past, I wasn’t tempted to eat not one cookie. Nor did I bring the ones I decorated back to my unit. I left them on the counter and, as there are folks around here that will eat anything left out, I’m sure someone came in later and enjoyed them with a cup of coffee.

Later in my unit, I began tackling the Starbucks Gingerbread Café.

Last post, I did say I’ve never attempted a gingerbread house of any kind before and, working with a kit where everything was pre-made and provided, I posed the question “how difficult can it be for my inexperienced self?”

Answer is … a picture is worth a thousand words.

It was enormously difficult and, as you can see, I suck at using piping bags. I did, however, excel at innovation because, when my little gingerbread man broke at the waist, I turned him into a walking dead zombie.

The red part at the waist, which is where he broke, is blood and guts pouring out.

Disappointed that my first foray into gingerbread house decorating, came out looking like a child’s project, wanting to prove to myself I could do so much better, I purchased another kit.

It failed completely.

First kit, I ignored directions to decorate first then build. Instead, I built first. That went well until I was called upon to use my non-existent piping skills, and produced the above shaggy dog effect.

Second kit, I followed directions, decorated first then did the build. However, once the decorations were fully dry, they began breaking off during the build stage and the building would not hold, it collapsed.

I tried to save it by scraping off corner icing, removing some of the decorations and building again but, after a second and third collapse, into the trash it went.

Refusing to give up without a fight, I purchased a third and final kit this morning.

So far so better.