Silly Snowmen

The silly snowman under the wonky tree were made by daughter -in-law, Joni out of old shipping palates...those things they put under piles of boxes so they can keep the merch off the ground and have an open space to slip in the fork lift when it's time to move them. They are usually thrown away when they get old and splintered and I've seen a lot of creative reuses for them, but these snowmen are the most charming. We rediscovered them when we were searching for the missing star.  I've leaned them against the wall under our kitchen window. The star has been officially declared gone.

Our little party last night was great fun. We are a disparate and unlikely group in some ways, but we all like each other and continue to gather for coffee on Friday mornings and for the occasional potluck appetizer dinner. Maggie, who teaches a Zoom Pilates class for John, Bob and me can't always make it to coffee because she teaches a lot of other classes so it was especially fun to have her join us. The crackers had all the requisite items---paper crowns, little toys, silly jokes but were disappointing because they didn't pop when pulled. they just fell apart. We had an especially good time with the cellophane fish that you hold in the palm of your hand. The way in which it curls up tells your fortune although Dan, the analytical one was sure it had something to do with the heat of your hand, so to test his theory we passed it around the table.
It did pretty much the same thing for all of us, so I'm not sure if that proved his theory or not.

The food was good, the gift exchange was fun, the company was wonderful. 

Silly me, I thought since it was raining Dana and Jim probably wouldn't walk up here with Blake. as they usually do before the Farmers' Market. They did drive up, with Blake and, as an added bonus, Will who is home for the holidays. We gave him his birthday present, chatted about the  Christmas Day menu and Will's cheerful admission that he likes to  complain about just about everything.  . He thought it would stop raining before he played  golf but I suspect he was complaining about that too.

Based on Will's assumption that it would stop raining, we decided to put Spike in the car, drive to Sonoma for a little Christmas cheer and take Spike for a walk on the way home. As it turned out, it was raining quite hard after we finished our errand in Sonoma, so we just came home. It's a good thing Spike likes the car, because he never got out of it.

After lunch John took a nap. His neck is still bothering him but he slept in the guest room last night and  suffered in relative silence. I slept quite well so while he took a nap I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to remove some stitches that were left in my arm the last time I visited the dermatology clinic. I will draw a veil over that attempt....
 
We had a great conversation over dinner about all the Christmas movies available on streaming tv this time of year. I think one of those might be on the agenda rather than a gritty detective story.