It’s Christmas Eve, and I’m happy to say that, other than baking a pie for tomorrow’s meal, I have everything done, dusted and ready to go.

Sunday morning I was having trouble sleeping, so I figured instead of laying in bed, staring at the clock, I could get up and get some stuff done. It was around 4 am – so by 6 am all the presents were wrapped and put in their appropriate places. Presents for Dave, his Mom and Uncle are all under the tree. We won’t see my family until sometime in the New Year, but everything is wrapped and tucked safely away in my studio – ready to travel when we do.

After wrapping, I baked up several batches of Chocolate Chip Scones.

These were all meted out into gift bags, and gifted to the various service people we deal with throughout the year (the mail ladies, our mechanic team, etc.). Dave delivered them Monday after picking his Mom up from the train station.

Tomorrow, of course, will be a big dinner to cook, but it’s just me, Dave, his mom and possibly his uncle, so it’s not too bad.

So I’ll leave you with the big, beautiful tree in the centre of town. They light it up every year and I think it’s just wonderful.

While it was a fairly busy weekend, I did manage to carve out a little time to do some stitching with Furby.

I managed to give the second witch her head. and I got a little started on connecting up her sleeve, but that was it. This project is definitely going into the New year, but I’m just fine with that. It was always going to be a long one!

With the help of some orange cats, and some good pain meds…

I managed to finish the hat for Dave’s Uncle before the weekend.

Pattern is My Baker’s Hat. Yarn is Patons Classic Wool – leftover from a sweater I made Dad a couple years ago.

Dave’s uncle still hasn’t confirmed if he’s coming, but at least there will be something under the tree if he does show up.

Meanwhile, with all my Christmas projects done, I’ve cast on a pair of socks for myself. I tossed three holey pairs last week alone, so it’s definitely time for some new ones.

As for my mouth, it’s a little better each day. Mostly irritation, with a little bit of deep pain now and again. I still haven’t had a Coke… and I think I’m about ready to kill for one. But I have managed some more solid food – so at least there’s that!

So… I think Dave and I might FINALLY have picked up a haunted thrift item. Sadly, it is not Carl, my awesome garden weeny deity.

It’s BLEEDIN’ RUDOLPH!!!

We picked up this awesome 50th anniversary Ruldolph stuffie at Goodwill way back in the summer. It plays the song when you squeeze his antler (and his nose flashes). Dave put it in the crawl space with the rest of the Christmas decorations. It stayed there until the start of December, when I pulled it out and set it in Grandma Cosman’s rocking chair.

It’s been there for over two weeks. Doing nothing. Tonight, just after dinner, I’m sitting watching TV. Dave is in his studio (adjacent to the TV room but behind a closed door) getting ready to teach. Most of the cats are upstairs. Lemmy is in my lap

All of a sudden, I faintly here children singing “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer”. For a second, I thought it must be Dave, prepping a Youtube video for his first lesson.

But…. then I realized… it’s not muffled enough for that. And Lemmy is on high alert with that “WTF” look on his face. (Though to be fair, he does that a lot).

We get up, and as soon as I hit the dining room. I realize it’s Rudolph. I thought for a minute, maybe a cat knocked the rocking chair and that tripped it. But as I said – the rest of the cats were upstairs. AND you have to SQUEEZE the antler on his head to get it to go. I tried bopping the chair several times. Nothing happened.

So BEHOLD… our HAUNTED RUDOLPH!!!!

One of the things I love about snow in the yard are the signs the wildlife leave behind.

Bird tracks are absolutely adorable to me! And they are ALL OVER the driveway – not just under the feeder. Those little sparrows and finches really get around. There are bigger tracks from the jays, but they are mostly around Squirrelingtons, and there aren’t as many. They don’t touch the ground very often.

And of course, there are squirrel tracks. I just love their tiny little toe prints.

I haven’t seen any raccoon prints (though we do have one around), but I have seen the possum trail. I could tell it was the possum by the line of his tail dragging in the snow. Sadly I did not get a picture. We got more snow and he’s wandered off elsewhere.

The other main track in the yard is, of course…

…Furby. (He does walk in the snow if he has to). There are lots of cat tracks through the yard – we have a couple regular strays, plus neighbour cat Fryburger. But you can tell Furby’s track by the size. That boy has MASSIVE paws!

Any cool tracks in your snow?

Though winter has been snowy and cold so far, Furby still insists on checking out the weather at regular intervals.

Usually, this consists of standing on the porch, getting a blast of wind in the face, then turning around and coming right back in. And just like Relic used to do at the townhouse – he then wants to be let out five minutes later to see if Spring has sprung yet. You’d never know he was outside on his own for two years, he acts like such a diva about it.

But every so often, he actually ventures further on the porch. It’s usually to go stalk birds at my bird feeders. But we’ve noticed something.

He does not like to have his paws in the snow if he can help it. The cat house Dave got for him is a favourite perch, he can be up high, and the roof has asphalt shingling on it, so it gets nice and toasty.

But right now it’s actually covered in an icy block of snow.

In that case, the next best thing is the sill of the garage door. The door itself is black, so if the sun is out (as it was this day), it makes a nice warm spot to keep an eye on his kingdom. It’s not as good as the cat house, but it will do in a pinch.

Day 2 post surgery is done and dusted. And so far it’s not nearly as dire as the surgeon said it might be. Maybe I’m just lucky. I am following all the rules given to me so that’s probably helping. That means even not consuming any soda. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a bit of a Coke fiend (the cola, not the drug). But… the acid in the soda can dissolve the clot, and cause dry socket. And that does not sound fun AT ALL… so I’m being a very good girl and abstaining. It does help that I do like water, and drink a lot of it anyway. I’m just drinking more. I did get some apple juice (low-acid) so I have a bit of a change. And I started my day with a tea, so I’m not completely sans-caffeine.

For dinner I mixed things up by adding some cream corn, and well-cooked mashed carrots to my mashed potato meal. (Mashed carrots were a staple with my grandparents when I was young, so I’m not opposed to them as many are).

Dessert was butterscotch pudding. That said… I am REALLY missing crunchy food. I’d kill for a bowl of potato chips. Tomorrow, I might be good enough for some mac and cheese or chicken noodle soup, or maybe even so scrambled eggs. But we’ll see. I don’t want to undo all my good progress.

Other than making food, I managed to do a load of laundry and hang it out. It was above 0 celcius today, so I had to take advantage and wash my dresses as they can’t go in the dryer.

The rest of the time was spent in my chair, watching history documentaries, with a rotating shift of furry nursemaids.

I managed to get a good amount of work done on the hat. I’ve got a couple of inches to go before casting off. I really hope to be casting off by the weekend! Another chair day should do it!

Well… honestly I did not expect to be posting so soon… but….

It all went MUCH better than I expected. I was in an out in just over and hour – and I don’t remember a thing!

Dave brought me home, I had a bit of a nap and since then it’s been mostly just chilling in my chair…

There was a chicken broth break for lunch.

And afternoon ice cream break

A giant bowl of mashed potatoes (and cat tail) for dinner.

With Jello for dessert.

There is some pain, and I’m very glad it’s just one tooth and not all four. But it’s still much better than I expected. Here’s hoping it stays that way

Is postponed. I did not stitch one tiny stitch this weekend. I spent most of it stressing about what was happening today.

I alluded to my situation slightly yesterday… but here’s what’s up. Way back in August, the dentist sent me to a dental surgeon. I have one erupted wisdom tooth (and have since my early 20s). It’s never bothered me, so nothing was every done about it. But now it’s riddled with cavities, and because of where it is, and they angle of it, they can’t be filled.

The dental surgeon actually told me “If it’s not bothering you, leave it alone.” His justification is that healing from wisdom tooth removal is much harder at my age than it would have been in my 20s. Of course, there’s still the issue of the cavities, but he didn’t seem worried about that. He said if I decided to go ahead with the surgery – just give him a call and he’d get me in right away.

I came home, talked to Dave, and decided I’d probably suck it up and do it in the new year. I wanted to get through the drama of the holidays first. (Plus my benefits reset, so I’d have full coverage in the new year – instead of only partial coverage I have now).

But… about two weeks after the visit with the surgeon, I started to get intermittent pain. Kinda like tooth sensitivity but more intense. It would last for half an hour to and an hour and then I’d be fine. But as the weeks wore on, it got worse – lasting longer and happening more often. In November, I visited the dentist just to make sure it wasn’t another tooth (it was odd that it started so suddenly.) She determined that it was not, but when I told her my hope to wait until January, she suggested I try cleaning it out daily with my water pic, and that should help me hold off until the new year.

And it seemed to… until about a week ago. The pain became constant. I could only dull it, not make it go away. So I sucked it up and called the surgeon.

As you’re reading this, I’m probably under the knife, so to speak. I will be home later today, hopefully with some really good drugs. I don’t really know what to expect… I’ve never had any type of surgery before. It’s only one tooth, not all four. But they do need to remove a bit of jaw bone to get to it (since it’s in on an angle). And then, of course, I’m a long way aways from 20 years old.

So… I’ve booked off work for the rest of the week. I expect to be spending a lot of time in my chair with these two…

And maybe even get some stitching in if the meds don’t make me too woozy.

Not sure if I’ll be up to posting for a bit… so don’t fret if you don’t hear from me for a day or two. I’ll update as soon as I’m up to it.

… the needles

I’ve started another Baker’s Hat for Dave’s uncle. As you can see, I haven’t gotten very far. But I should have quite a bit of time on my hands this week. I’ll explain more tomorrow.