"There is no way to happiness, happiness is the way."

~Gautama Buddha

Abraham Lincoln said "on the whole, most people are about as happy as they decide to be".  I think he and the Buddha would have had some interesting conversations regarding happiness and what it means and how one gets it.  I spend a lot of time talking in our groups here (especially this time of year) about happiness and gratitude.  It helps me remember that the only person responsible for my own happiness is me.

One of Peter Kevin's supervisors came into work sick last week which caused a cascading chain of events leading up to Elanor now coughing and sneezing.  It must be a fairly new virus because EVERYONE in our family caught it this time.  Pk spent the weekend preceding Thanksgiving sitting in one spot and vegetating.  I succumbed on the Wednesday before the holiday and El waited until the festivities were over.  It's a full on head cold and I can't remember the last time I had one like this.  We ran out of tissues and had to make a run to the store on Black Friday to get some more.  By that point, using napkins or any other less than soft paper product was not an option.  Today I am still congested but am feeling better-less sneezing and less runny nose.

But we managed to have a lovely holiday nonetheless.  For a change this year, I made French Apple Pie at Pk's request.  It has dried cranberries instead of raisins in it and has a confectioner's sugar glaze on the top.  Otherwise, it's pretty much an apple pie.  The dried cranberries add a tang to the pie that is delicious.

I changed the pumpkin pie a little bit as well.  I added just 2 tablespoons dark molasses to the custard and it made the flavor deeper and more complex.  Very very good.  It surprised me that such a small amount of molasses could make such a difference in flavor. 

I got this lovely thing in the mail.  It's the first part of a birthday present from Em and Jim.  Very pretty merino/silk fingering yarn.  I've always wanted to make Traveller's Stockings by Nancy Bush and I think this will be it.  The color is called Mermaid's Tail.  And the best part is?  I get 5 more months!  What a great gift.   Em cooked a delicious Thanksgiving meal.  And Pk fired the first penguinski shot across her bow.  He snuck one of those inflatable penguins into her guest room.  And now we have to be prepared for retaliation.  

 

We did apply a little bit of penguin love to our windows.  Did you ever feel these window stickies that are made of a gel like stuff?  It's sticky to the touch and feels really icky.  These are really popular here right now.  We have a couple of ice skating penguins on the front door.   The rest of the inside decorations will wait until Pk finishes putting up the sheetrock.  He has some time he has to use or lose at work so he's taking off 2 days each week in December and doing the sheet rock and putting on a coat of primer.  We are still trying to decide what color we want to paint.  The only sure thing is that we want some kind of neon color in the kitchen.

 

Hard to believe Christmas is only three weeks from today.  December is going to slip right through my fingers before I even know I have it in hand.  Tonight we are going to the Woodworker's Guild holiday dinner at a local Italian restaurant.  And there are things going on all throughout the next couple weeks.  The trick will be to attend the ones that we want to attend and let go of the things that we really aren't interested in.

 

I think it's time to make a schedule.....

 

 

I found a t-shirt that says this on it.  What a cool idea.  Pinatas that just appear so you can take out any aggressions and then get prizes! 

 

Sounds good to me.