Christmas starts when the preparations are done!

I think I am done cooking, chat. I think I threaded the Christmas needle.

Crimbus dinner for feral kitties

I want to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with this quick sketch of two Microraptorine dinosaurs in the snow ❄️. I hope everybody is having a great day and enjoying the presents! 🎁 🎄 🎅 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄🌟 We all love a good reindeer at Christmas! These ones were painted in Font-de-Gaume cave in France 18,000 years ago! Rudolph the Red-backed Cave deer? 🎶🦌 #RockArtThursday #archaeology 🏺

Yule log cake!

Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice

Winterzauber ❄️ #Frost #birds #kleineKunstklasse

My nominee for "Least Sentimental Christmas Poem" goes to Hilaire Belloc's "Lines For A Christmas Card": "May all my enemies go to hell, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel."

Fruitcaaaaaake! I baked it in early November and have been feeding it with bourbon.

The Nativity #Nativity BL Add MS 49598; The Benedictional of St Æthelwold; 963-984; England, S.; f.15v

Festive Rice Krispy treats! (Kid's design scheme)

Christmas Eve Eve. I felt off yesterday. I slept a lot last night, and I think it's done me good. Chores today! Bathrooms, beds, some preliminary food prep. My parents arrive late tonight.

This is just a note to say that I have eaten the falcon in a widening gyre and that you were probably saving for anarchy Forgive me it was delicious so rough and full of passionate intensity

Roasting a bunch of fancy potatoes because I don't know, I just am.

Good Day! A Moonlit Winter Landscape by Remigius Adrianus van Haanen, Date unknown Oil on Canvas (Private Collection)

Got moving early so kid & I could hit the fancy grocery store before it turned into a madhouse. Bought expensive food for the holiday. Home safe.

Sadness arrives uninvited. Joy demands more—it requires us to search, to kindle, to protect the flame against every wind. When we choose joy despite everything that argues against it, we don't just save ourselves—we illuminate the way for everyone around us.

Day-4!!! 🎄🎅🏻 #whimsical #cottagecore #frog #christmasvibes #christmas

Started having Anglophilic feelings then remembered I'm within (theoretical) striking distance of Pike Place Market. Not that I'd go there during the holidays!

This is a 13,000-year-old mammoth tusk carving of two reindeer swimming, on display at the British Museum. It was produced in what is now France by people of the Upper Neolithic Magdalenian culture. It serves no known practical purpose & is the oldest artwork in any British museum collection.

We did it, folks! We killed the Holly King! The days get longer starting tomorrow! Yaaaaay!!!

This afternoon I helped my daughter edit an essay down from 1500 words to 650. She looked a little hollow-eyed when we were finished.

They had my favorite tacky chrysanthemum again this year! I'm so happy!

Welcome to winter break! I started by sleeping for ten hours, how about you?

The shortest day is practically here, and I'm doing better than I was last week. Still waves of anxiety/dread/guilt but they aren't attached to anything sensible, so I'm shooing them away. It sure is dark here a lot.

I did my usual first 3 guesses... after which I asked Google for help. Because I love myself.

Seeing some shiny illuminations on this dreich winter's day (@glasgow.ac.uk, MS. Gen. 1111, v.1, Flanders, C15)

slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums

Thursday. Tried to clean the TV den, which is kiddo's hangout, and... erk. I made some improvement, let's leave it at that.

I stumbled onto a small herd of Icelandic ponies near Gimli yesterday. They were a bit far from the road and the weather was nasty, but I managed to capture this lovely moment.

MY 4-YEAR OLD: *calmly, while coloring a picture of the Grinch* If baby grinches die, we can eat them. If they’re clean. That’s ok

Cheers! BL Arundel 299; Astronomical miscellany; Germany or Austria; 1491 CE; f.4v

So many fun initials in the @rialibrary.bsky.social manuscript of the week! MS 23 P 10 (iii) is a 15th-century medical treatise, containing an Irish translation of Oxford physician John of Gaddesden‘s Rosa Anglica and other works 📜🎉

My mother taught me to knit & crochet when I was in early elementary, so I tried to teach my daughter and... it didn't go. Now she's a freshman in high school and, last night, came to me for crochet instruction. We were both so much more patient.

Wednesday. Started the day with a dreamy browse through the Smythson website (no. absolute no. just dreaming.) and now, my schedule tells me, it's time to clean my study. I got a lot picked up last time around, so let's see what I accomplish today.

Baked gingerbread cookies, because I like them, from a King Arthur Flour mix, because I'm lazy. They aren't as strongly flavored as my go-to recipe. Note for the future.

🎶Noooo ooooone shoots like Gaston, Mines his youth like Gaston, And goes stomping around in reboots like Gaston As a filmmaking trend it's EXHAAAAAAAASPERAAAAAAAAATING Why do we need more Gaston?🎶

Watered the poinsettias, gave the fruitcakes their final feed. After a wet, blustery night the sun is out. Ten more days.

O, horrible, O, horrible, most horrible!

Operation Let It Not Be Said That There Weren't Christmas Cookies is complete.

Omgggggg I just figured out that my own library is a reciprocal system with Seattle Public Library... and that their online offerings slay. I can access the full OED again. Hallelujah! (1535 Let all people saye: Amen, Amen. Halleluya. Bible (Coverdale) Psalms cv[i].)

Saturday. This past week felt bonkers. Special holiday stuff is making me drive around a lot more than I'd like. Today I'm washing towels, cleaning a bedroom and the upstairs hall, doing that bedroom's 2x/year Full Bedding Wash (ie not just sheets), and maybe making cookies or looking at lights.

In 1990 I was ten. My mother took me to see Edward Scissorhands, and when we came out of the theater, it was snowing.

Lunch, because whatever.

Day 10: Hyperion. Like the apple tart bonbon, this one had a bit of crust inside, this time gingerbread. On top was the gingerbread-spiced caramel. The spice was aggressive, which I liked.

Day 9: Saturn's moon Phoebe. This was delightful to bite into: inside was appley stuff on top of a bit of pie crust. But there was a strange aftertaste? Anyway, I really liked the pie crust component.