Believe it or not, I was searching for a Night Before Christmas kind of image and came across an illustration that took me down a rabbit hole. There is another Night Before Christmas story, written in the second volume of an 1832 collection of stories, Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. It’s much darker than the lovely poem we read to our kids. It’s set in the Ukraine and begins with a witch flying across the sky and the devil stealing the moon and hiding it in his pocket. He wants the sky dark because he has a beef with a blacksmith of a small village and wants to be able to sneak up on him. When he comes down to the town to search for the blacksmith, he finds the witch, who hides him when townsfolk come searching for him. It’s a tale with twists. The blacksmith is in love with the village beauty, who sends him on a quest to steal the Tsarina’s slippers before she agrees to marry him. The witch ends up capturing the mayor and another man and hiding them in coal sacks. The blacksmith, after pretending to be dead, overpowers the devil, and forces him to fly him to see the tsarina (the future Catherine the Great), and she gives him the slippers. All ends well of course, and there is an opera dedicated to the story by Tchaikovsky…but Google it if you want to learn more.
In the meantime, I (and you) have learned there is another Night Before Christmas tale out there!
Solve the puzzle to see Solokha and the Devil! Then, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you’d love to see the other Night Before Christmas story given a bit of sunlight so more people know about it! Would you prefer to see it in a film? Or rewritten as a children’s fairytale?
It’s in the 50s outside, so not horribly cold, but it’s raining—and it looks like the rain will continue all day. So, we’re planning on staying inside and watching some TV, playing some video games, and maybe I’ll get some work done now that I’m feeling better after Monday’s chemo… It’s nice, actually, to have days like these when we’re not tied to the clock and rushing around like mad.
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me how you like to pass a rainy day! Enjoy the puzzle!
I used to be one of those shoppers who waited until the last dang minute to do all her shopping in one marathon of a day—even sometimes on Christmas Eve. I’d head to the mall with a list and hope there were still treasures to find. It was stressful as hell. My daughter broke me of that habit.
She begins in summertime, a few gifts at a time, with a more and more refined list until she pretty much has everything on her list purchased well before Thanksgiving. As soon as she starts talking about it, I follow her lead and begin purchasing gifts one at a time in a leisurely fashion until I’m done. I have all the gifts bought for folks in the house. The only things left to buy are gift cards to mail or email, and I’ll be done.
Another thing my daughter does very, very well is keeping track of when sales happen at her favorite stores. Like yesterday’s… She headed to the city to hit Bath & Bodyworks annual candle sale. She stocked up on candles for her house and a few to gift. She brought me one home that’s gorgeous—a Bridgerton-themed one with a pretty glass topper. Candles that usually go for over $25 apiece, she was able to purchase for $9. And we use those candles. I have one burning on my desk right now. She even wrangled her hubby into going with her. He was a good sport to pose for this picture…
He’ll kill me if he sees me posting this! LOL
Anyway, I thought about Christmas shopping and my old mall days. You wouldn’t catch me dead in the mall these days. I love to roam the online sites and like it even better when I can find gifts from local artists or crafters. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me whether you’re braving the mall this year, whether this was or is a thing you like to do…
Yes, Thanksgiving is barely over, and I’m already looking toward Christmas! Thanksgiving was lovely here. The daughter outdid herself so far as the meal was concerned. We’re eating the last of the leftovers today. Tonight, we’re eating Haluski because we can’t face another day of “buzzard” leftovers. Don’t know what Haluski is? It’s so simple—egg noodles, fried cabbage, and kielbasa sausage all mixed together. We add some Frank’s sauce to spice it up. Yum! Simple, but filling. Then we’re watching a Christmas movie, probably Jack Black’s Dear Santa.
Every day, counting down from the 1st to the 24th of December, I’ll give away a small prize on my Friends page on Facebook. If you aren’t already a friend, you can head over here to join: Delilah’s Friend Page. You can also join Delilah’s Corner group and post your entries there. When you comment on my daily FB advent posts, you’ll be entered to receive a small, simple prize, whether it’s a signed book, a hand-painted (by me!) bookmark, or a pretty beaded pen.
Let me know if you plan to follow the daily giveaways for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card here! Enjoy the puzzle!
A quick note: I’m healing well from my surgery to remove my chemo port. My daughter has to change out my bandages, including packing the chest wound (it is as gross as it sounds) twice daily. Other than that little bit of discomfort (PAIN!), we’re going about business as usual. I see the oncologist again next Monday to see when chemo resumes.
It’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving! This year, the schools gave the kids the entire week off! So, we’re covered in kids (well, the three), and we couldn’t be happier to have them at home. My daughter has all the things purchased for the meal other than the fresh produce she’ll pick up this week. We all love her Thanksgiving feast.
The turkey is always the centerpiece, even though turkey isn’t our favorite meat. Is that you, too? We tend to look for a smaller turkey, around twelve pounds, because we really, really don’t like endless leftovers. We also have a small ham, and that’s a preference for me and the 15-year-old. We freeze whatever’s left over for soups or other meal ideas later. Not the turkey though. It’s a once-a-year thing for us because we’re just not that into turkey except for Thanksgiving Day.
How will we fill the days until then? Good meals, for one. Last night, the 20-year-old took over the kitchen and made handmade corn tortillas, which we stuffed with shredded, smoked pork (my SIL manned the smoker!), cilantro and onions, and her special, homemade hot sauce (so much better than store-bought). Sooooo delicious. We’ll have some leftovers today, and then who knows?
My dd is going to man a table for the art center for the downtown Holiday Open House on Sunday. There’s Black Friday sales she and the girls are going to do on Friday. I’m sure we’ll watch a holiday movie or two. The 11-year-old is dying to see Moana-2 in the theaters, so that might happen, too. I’ve been dying to see Wicked, but I don’t want to face the crowds just yet. Masking up is a pain—and how would I enjoy my popcorn? I might wait until it streams, which is a shame because it looks like a delicious spectacle.
Anyway, those are our plans. Maybe I can talk the fam into hitting the flea market this week. That’s low-key and few people—and one of my favorite things to do.
Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you love the bigger turkey and all those leftovers. What do you do with them? And do you have big plans for the week?
I wasn’t sure what I’d talk about today until I looked at the screen that pops up when I open my computer. There at the top, I saw an ad for the trailer for Hot Frosty. I’m sharing that trailer here—you’re welcome! (For those of you who get my blogs via email, you have to go to the website to view! It’s worth it!)
Yes, it’s not even past Thanksgiving yet, but we’re already watching Christmas movies in this house. I quickly sent off a message to my dd that Hot Frosty was on our list for this weekend! (Don’t you just love that title? It’s silly, cheesy, and totally to the point—so, it’s unforgettable!)
Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what you have on your list to watch this season and whether Hot Frosty appeals to you as much as it does to me!
I unplugged completely yesterday. I had to make a trip in the morning to the cancer center an hour away for a shot to boost my white cell count. I still felt sick as a dog, so the winding roads to get to Hot Springs just about killed me. When I got home, I went straight to bed and pretty much stayed there all day. I didn’t turn on my computer even once.
I’m still not feeling great, but I’ll try to get a few high priority tasks out of the way before I take a pain pill and sleep away the day. The pain is from the chemo, not the cancer. My feet are cramped with charley horses constantly. My legs have painful spasms. I have a headache, a slight fever… I could go on and on. And I think I just did. 🙂
My daughter decorated for Christmas early the last couple of days, so I did sit for a little while watching as she hustled around, setting up all her treasures. We have numerous trees, nutcrackers, gnomes, townscapes, etc. We like our Christmas decorations and try to stretch the season as much as we can. My dd and oldest granddaughter then watched a Hallmark Christmas movie. I tried to stick it with them but ended up heading back to bed a third of the way in. Hopefully, I’ll start feeling better soon. My next treatment is the Monday of Thanksgiving week. I’ll be completely miserable for the holiday.
Anyway, enough of the health (unhealth?) update. We have some Saturday fun to begin!
Saturday Puzzle-Contest — Thanksgiving Prep!
Now that the Christmas decorations are up, my daughter is turning her attention to the Thanksgiving feast. She has a very detailed plan, which includes her shopping list, the times she has to put certain foods on to cook, recipes for the dishes, etc. She even has a shelf in the pantry that she’s cleared to hold her ingredients. Her Uber-plan works. For the past three Thanksgivings, her meal has been superb.
For you U.S.-residents, do you go all-out for Thanksgiving? For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me about your Thanksgiving preparations. And if you’re not in the U.S., do you have a similar feast?
