Happy new week and happy solstice!
Last week's Chat Thread is here.
For most of us, today is the Winter Solstice. Welcome back to the Sun! With the return of the light, I'd like to wish all of my dear friends on this thread a happy holiday season and a new year blessed with joy, abundance, good health, serenity, and love!
The solstice occurs on 21 December at:
2303 GMT11:03 p.m. in the U.K.6:03 p.m. in the eastern U.S.3:03 p.m. in CaliforniaAnd for AQ: Happy Summer Solstice on 22 December at 9:33 a.m.This solstice is special because it happens within 2 and a half hours of the New Moon. I'm seeing this cosmic event as a fresh start and a new beginning. Woo hoo!The photo is of the Sun in the midst of a powerful and spreading coronal mass ejection. The photo was taken by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a partnership of the European Space Agency and NASA. The image is free for non-commercial use. SOHO (ESA & NASA)
A Happy Christmas to Everyone.
Have finished everything. Just washed my hair as I don't think I will have time in the morning.
Hope you ALL have a fantastic time. whether quietly or with your family and friends.
Thank you for your lovely cards and wishes.
Brenda - thank you for your lovely Christmas card. I hope you have a good journey and a lovely Christmas with your family.
My Daughter and family arrived safely about 6.30pm after a good journey up the A9 so I am beginning to feel more relaxed now. Have got all the food in and cleaned and decorated everywhere; Amber is even more excited now and has been dashing about with my grandson, she had been expecting them ever since I told her this morning!! Their old dog Jody has settled into her usual corner and looks very happy. We have had a couple of drinks, so feel really able to start enjoying it all!
Tis the season to be merry . . .'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseI searched for the tools to hand to my spouse.Instructions were studied and we were inspired,In hopes we could manage "Some Assembly Required."
The children were quiet (not asleep) in their beds,While Dad and I faced the evening with dread:A kitchen, two bikes, Barbie's town house to boot!And, thanks to Grandpa, a train with a toot!
We opened the boxes, my heart skipped a beat . . .Let no parts be missing or parts incomplete!Too late for last-minute returns or replacement;If we can't get it right, it goes in the basement!
When what to my worrying eyes should appear,But 50 sheets of directions, concise, but not clear,With each part numbered and every slot named,So if we failed, only we could be blamed.
More rapid than eagles the parts then fell out,All over the carpet they were scattered about."Now bolt it! Now twist it! Attach it right there!Slide on the seats, and staple the stair!Hammer the shelves, and nail to the stand.""Honey," said hubby, "you just glued my hand."
And then in a twinkling, I knew for a factThat all the toy dealers had indeed made a pactTo keep parents busy all Christmas Eve nightWith "assembly required" till morning's first light.
We spoke not a word, but kept bent at our work,Till our eyes, they went bleary; our fingers all hurt.The coffee went cold and the night, it wore thinBefore we attached the last rod and last pin.
Then laying the tools away in the chest,We fell into bed for a well-deserved rest.
But I said to my husband just before I passed out,"This will be the best Christmas, without any doubt. Tomorrow we'll cheer, let the holiday ring,And not have to run to the store for a thing!We did it! We did it! The toys are all setFor the perfect, most perfect, Christmas, I bet!"
Then off to dreamland and sweet repose I gratefully went,Though I suppose there's something to say for those self-deluded . . .I'd forgotten that batteries are never included!
Good Morning, and Happy Christmas Eve, Everyone! Brenda - what a lovely card, thank you. Rita - glad your family have arrived safely, and you're able to start celebrating. AQ - Thanks for the brilliant, hilarious verse!!!
Just echoing what LINDA said!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
Good morning, all! Loved the verse, Aquilareen - that totally sums up the joy of 'Some Assembly Required'! We're a rather sniffly household at the moment, though I'm happy to say I'm still on the post-works drinking session high after last night. Always great to get together with my lovely workmates.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.