Written by While I was super excited that it’s finally Christmas Day, it’s also a bit bittersweet. After waiting all year for the season to return, the minutes are already clicking down to its inevitable conclusion. I hope all of you who celebrate had a perfectly wonderful day! Philippe and I had a fabulous time filled with lots of fun little gifts. And best of all, I did get my lava lamp! It’s currently gurgling in the corner, ever so slowing, performing its lava dance in delightfully dramatic pinks, reds, purples, and yellows. What I love most of all is that each little hypnotic burst of colored wax sends me gleefully back to my childhood memories. There’s certainly a lot of new technology to wow us these days, but I’m continually amused by all of the simple and amazing inventions that dared to appear decades ago. And, Santa arrived this morning with additional presents in our stockings to add even more cheer to a perfectly wonderful time. There’s certainly plenty of joy to last the entire week and create the perfect environment for an amazingly awesome start to 2019. Much love to you all and I hope you have enjoyed a magical holiday season!
This was the first year that I didn’t ask for art supplies, since I already have more than I have time to use properly. Yet, Philippe did get me a fabulous game called Bob Ross – The Art Of Chill. I’ve no idea yet how to play it yet, but apparently you try to finish one of Bob Ross’s masterpieces before he does to win “chill” status. It sounds like great fun and I had to giggle and smile with glee as those “happy trees” from my youth are definitely partially responsible for my interest in art today. My final gift was much more practical in the form of a Magic Wand Portable Scanner. It’s totally awesome! Basically, it’s a wand you can use to scan, in my case artwork, at a nice and high resolution. It works beautifully and keeps the colors much truer than a photograph from my phone. It came with a little card to calibrate the white balance, but the images didn’t quite turn out like I wanted. So, I used a page of my sketchbook instead to calibrate the white balance, and voila! Everything turned out exactly like I wanted! It’s certainly not as cool as my full-size scanner that Philippe bought me last year, but it’s a worthy replacement for a smartphone camera, at least. And seriously, anything called a Magic Wand is just pretty darn cool!
For my part, I attempted the impossible by buying a couple pieces of cookware that Philippe hadn’t specifically requested. Thankfully, my hunch and feverish research on the topic paid off and he absolutely loved them. So, it was once again a fantastically fun and joyous occasion. That’s the best part about this time of year. Getting things you wouldn’t ever buy for yourself. And honestly, as adults, that’s the toughest part of the season since we typically just buy for ourselves what we want or need throughout the year. But, in this singular magical time, the rules bend a bit and you can find yourself receiving something completely unexpected. For me, it’s not the gift so much as the permission to enjoy something completely unplanned. With a full list of dreams playing out in my head, it always seems like I’m always waiting for that next dream to come to fruition. Yet, with just a bit of holiday magic, I can experience dreams I never even had the opportunity to imagine. Once again, I’m swept into the beauty of this miraculous season, and find myself blissfully enjoying those last little minutes of Christmas.
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That Bob Ross game sounds hilarious (if a little macabre). Somehow, I think Bob Ross would be a lava lamp kind of person. I’m glad your Christmas turned out so well. Ours started out rocky – a planned Skype session with family in England didn’t work out, and the restaurant we went to hadn’t recorded our reservation. Waiting in hard on Mom, and a family that was about to be seated let us take their table. So in the long run, that bit of trouble made things all the more special. Faith in human nature restored, we all had a lovely dinner and a marvelous Christmas!
Yeah, if you lived closer I’d invite you over to play that game with us! hehe 😉 And what a lovely story! Sorry things got rocky during the day, but what a beautiful and inspiring ending! 💕
Lava lamp score!!
Joe and I had a nice day mostly involving cooking and eating dinner, and I finally broke down and made half a batch of my favorite sugar cookies. They were great! And they lasted all day long. Now I’m good for another year or two before I have to make that notoriously difficult dough again.
After you’ve used that scanner for six months, post a follow-up on whether you still like it, and how well it is holding up. Joe could use a new scanner.
Have a good time eating leftovers and playing with your toys!
Charlie, when I saw a Lava lamp at the Hallmark store the other day, I thought of you! 😀 Our family celebrates 12 Days of Christmas. When the children were little, we would all do small good deeds, and on the eve of Jan. 6th (the Twelfth Day), they would leave shoes at the front door to hold gifts from the Three Kings.
hehe! Yeah I was excited to finally get my lava lamp! 😃💕 And that sounds like a lovely tradition. I’ve always though that celebrating the 12 days would be lovely, but my family never did that.
Thanks, Lisa! 😃💕Those cookies sound awesome!!! hehe… I love sugar cookies!! For all Philippe makes, he rarely ever bakes cookies. Yum!! As for the portable scanner… I’ll only have a couple weeks in Paris as my test. Though I already know it’s not going to beat my desktop one at all. If he just needs a scanner at home, after a full year, I still highly recommend this one – https://amzn.to/2QODk9j
I’m so glad you got your lava lamp! We had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating with our first grandchild, Autumn, who is 5 months old. The day was filled with fun, memories, and dreams for the future, all rolled into one.
Thanks so much, Sharon! 😃💕 That sounds lovely!! My love to you and yours and especially Autumn (what a lovely name!!).
Yeah for Phillippe for giving in to your lava lamp desire! Sounds like a magical holiday. We had a wonderful day also. We do the family thing Christmas eve. So on Christmas everyone stayed in their pj’s all day and snacked, so by dinner time, no one wanted to eat. So I didn’t cook! Great Christmas present ever! I received a Snow White Barbie from my boss. 🙂 She knows me well. I was taken back to my childhood when I loved playing with Barbies. And yes I took her out of the box.
Your holiday sounds magical as well, Lori! 😃💕 And that’s the way to do Christmas!! hehe One should never have to cook in the evening if the day is spent properly like that. And yay for taking the doll out of the box!! lol That just made me giggle with happiness. Only a boring grown up would think it has more “value” while not being played with properly. 😉
Yay on the lava lamp!!! Happy that you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a gift, food filled and lazy day. ..the best part was talking to family and friends who are too far away to share the holidays with us in person.
Thanks, Mary!! 😃💕 hehe… yeah, it should come as no surprise that something as simple and silly as a lava lamp was my favorite gift of all! And love that you got to talk to family and friends. It’s nice how technology can help us stay connected even miles apart!
Charlie said “it’s not the gift so much as the permission to enjoy something completely unplanned”
Absolutely true, but in the case of the lava lamp, I’m betting the gift itself brought a great deal of glee.
You write and paint with a joyful flourish. It’s a joy to share the joy!
Aww thanks, Sarah! 😃💕 I’m so thrilled you enjoy my joy! That’s a gift in itself!
Compliments of the season to you & family!
Thanks so much, Maria! 😃💕 A wonderful season to you and yours as well!