Tuesday Twitterdeedum

This photo fits in the "night on the town" category as we did some culture last night. My niece Laura and the Triplet Nation Plus One (Jade with arms around Gracie) came up from Plummer to attend this year's Pend Oreille Arts Council edition of The Nutcracker.  

I met Laura and the gang at the Panida, and we had a brief visit with Debbie who spent a full day attending to details related to the performance, which featured the Eugene ballet and several local young dancers. 

I warned Laura that a darkened theater can cause me to nod off, no matter how great the performance.  Well, this one must have been off the charts cuz I stayed wide awake and fully engaged from beginning to end. 

Beautiful costuming, phenomenal sets, meticulous organization and splendid dancing----all combined for a wonderful show.  I enjoyed every minute.

One thought kept occurring to me as I marveled at the athleticism of all the dancers---how do they avoid leg cramps?

For someone who suffers night cramps from a mere change of walking shoes, I'm amazed at their ability to keep those muscles doing what they're told under what has to be supreme stress.

The house was full, and the audience---filled with enthusiasm and several longtime friends.

As I walked from the theater to my car in the city parking lot, I was struck with how magical downtown Sandpoint is during these winter nights. 

Like the ballet, the town is truly exquisite.

~~~~~
Next chapter of the Christmas tree saga.  Bill has the new stand assembled.  I bought it yesterday afternoon at my classmate Mary's Moose Valley Farms in Naples.

She has two left ($21.95), and they're the kind that could keep any errant tree in line.  One friend, Kelli, told me her tree had fallen down three times.  It's now hooked to the furniture, she said. 

She's looking for answers, and I'll know as the day goes on, after the third decorating session, if I've found one.

Stay tuned.

~~~~~
As if Christmas trees were causing all the problems, I'll give our tree a break for a minute and talk about the coconut macaroons I baked yesterday.  

Can someone tell me the difference between parchment baking paper and wax paper?

If so, maybe I'll believe that the macaroons will separate themselves easily from the paper after baking.  

They do NOT separate themselves from wax paper, but if you scoop really soon after baking, you can re-form the buggers into looking like real cookies. 

That's especially important cuz they do taste great, especially if you sprinkle some creme de mint chocolate chunks on them. 

The things folks don't see with "behind-the-scenes" Christmas action!

That's all I've got to say.

Well, I do have one more story to tell. 

My light show on the front side of the house keeps growing by the day, as I keep finding strings of twinkle lights that really do work.

Yesterday I found two long strings and ran them along the front shrubs and to the north end of the house.  

I was so pleased that our home might even nudge closer to a "magical" state with all those lights.

Well, when I drove out the driveway to go get the new Christmas tree stand, only one iddy biddy set of lights was working.  All the others had gone off.

Just like the day before when I told Bill to just leave the tree and we'd go for a hike, I drove on out the driveway, figuring I'd problem solve the lighting debacle later.

A couple of hours later and in a state of relative calm----after all, when your Christmas tree falls down, your macaroons stay glued to the wax paper and almost all your outdoor lighting show goes down, you can get a little stressed and start wondering if there's a message in all this.

I was rather pleased with my composure.  Taking a methodical, quiet approach, I figured out that the household (those are the skinny ones) extension cord had been overloaded when those two new strings of twinkle had been added.

I went to the barn, found a heavier cord with a branch for three plug-ins, found all the male ends, and "voila!" all lights came back on and have remained so. 

It's important to note here that yes, Laura, "patience," as your priest noted on Sunday, is truly virtuous at times (Has he ever had to put up an unruly Christmas tree?), and a little magic with the sugar plum fairies can go a long way in diminishing the stress of the Christmas season. 

On that note, I thought that by the time I finished my blog posting this morning, I'd hear activity downstairs with Bill transferring the tree from the cracked stand to the new one. 

Not a sound.  I'm betting he's waiting for me to come down and join him, so we can have a team effort in this next chapter of the ongoing Christmas tree saga of 2013. 

Stay tuned!  Happy Tuesday!  Patience!