I Go To Collage. Again.

So it's one week until Christmas and what am I doing?

Well, I'm sneezing, for one thing. That's because I am coming down with a cold.

Condolences appreciated. As always, timing is everything.

The other thing I'm doing is re-doing our dining table.

You may recall, it's a giant collage of black-and-white family photos, the vast majority of which have been taken by me.

This all started many years ago. The collage table in its present form has been redesigned twice, the last time in late 2014 to add Dagny. But it needed a near-total overhaul because photos and tablecloths fade.

Also, to our great delight, Chad and Brittany have joined our ranks.

So, a couple of weeks back I began curating the new pictures that will populate the table surface. I combed all of my galleries and assembled a dedicated table gallery of about one hundred fifty photos.

Then I had to edit them all to black-and-white, if they weren't already.

Next came uploading them to the site of the vendor who made the prints, and ordering all of the photos.

Then I had to order a new tablecloth.

As I mentioned, the black tablecloth that provides the canvas upon which the pictures are arranged had become faded on the ends, from the sun streaming through nearby windows.

The new cloth is a black-on-black plaid whereas the old one was a shadow stripe.

I'll have to run a warm iron over the hang-down part all around, once I'm finished and the glass is put back on top.

For now, the glass is sitting off to the side on a utility mat that TG brought in for me.

And the photos -- approximately one hundred sixty-five of them -- are now lying willy-nilly all over the table. I haven't started placing and taping them yet.

Burning question: Can she get it done within this calendar day?

It remains to be seen. TG and I are finishing up our shopping tonight. If I have to complete the table collage tomorrow between sneezes and utilization of dozens of Puffs Plus, so be it.

The family are all gathering on Thursday for Melanie's thirteenth birthday pawty.

After burgers and fries at Freddy's in Lexington, we're coming back to the house for homemade Coca Cola cake with vanilla ice cream, and presents.

We'll also have a fifties-diner photo booth backdrop with colorful cat-eye glasses to wear as props.

I know you can't wait to see those pictures. Never fear; I shall share.

At the conclusion of Thursday night's birthday party, I'll whip off the plastic black-and-white checked retro-theme table cover, say ta-daaaaa, and we'll have a family gawk-fest at all of the new photos.

On Friday we'll have partial Christmas -- and a spaghetti dinner -- with the branch of the family tree that won't be with us on the day. Actually it will be the second time we've done that this year; the first was yesterday. Not spaghetti, but opening of Christmas presents.

I'll stop before I confuse both myself and you.

What are you doing in the final days before Christmas?

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Happy Monday :: Happy Christmas Week

It's Christmas. Season.

Dagny is old enough this year to have figured out that Christmas involves receiving toys. She has lobbied relentlessly for a doll house to whomever would stand still long enough to listen.

This from a child who prefers playing with stuffed animals to actual dolls.

We shall see what develops.

And we won't have long to wait, since Christmas is but two weeks away.

On the day after Thanksgiving I grabbed my granddaughter, squeezed her, and said: Merry Christmas!

I wish you could have seen her face and heard her reaction: It's CHRISTmas?

Her voice went way up high on the end, the result of total incredulity.

Turns out that while she "gets" the idea of Christmas (mostly), she doesn't yet understand that technically, Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie a memory, it was the Christmas season that had begun.

Meaning, there is a whole time frame culminating in real-deal Christmas Day.

TG was out and about a few days later and spotted a metal Countdown to Christmas hang-on-the-wall thing, complete with magnet that you move through the days until the genuine longed-for day.

He consulted with me about whether we should buy it for Dagny and Audrey, and even took me to see it before making the purchase.

We gave it to them on December first and each day, they've been advancing the magnet towards the twenty-fifth of December.

Since traditionally they travel the five miles from their house to ours and spend the night for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day too, they'll have to bring it with them to move the candy-cane magnet one final time.

This will be an entertaining tradition for them, we hope, long after Dagny is able to distinguish the Christmas season from the day we open presents and eat like pigs.

Meanwhile, until recently our weather was springlike. We were sitting outside one day basking in the sun, when Dagny decided to crouch at the edge of the pool and drag a stick around in the water.

I removed my phone from my pocket to take a picture of this cuteness, but of course I was too late on the draw and by the time I clicked, she was getting up.

Resulting in a shot that I call Dagny Hangs Ten.

Little surfer girl, riding a Christmas wave. Little drummer boy, welcoming The King of kings. It's all good.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Monday :: Merry Christmas Season