Little Altars

I've been neglecting my little altar. I notice last night that it was dusty, so I took everything down and washed it. I put new cornmeal in the rabbit's dish, clean coarse salt in the salt dish, and new sand (I have a baggie full of Siesta Beach sand from the last time we were there) in the sand dish sitting in the woven basket.

Everything sits on top of a little dresser, maybe intended as a jewelry box, I'm not sure. The drawers hold a crystal pendulum in a Chinese silk bag, matches, Chinese coins, and candles.

On top, there's a statue of Ganesha, the Remover of Obstacles, along with an amethyst Buddha and a Native American bear fetish that Bob brought back for me from a trip to Minnesota. There's a tiny "sand castle," along with some shells from the beach in Sarasota, a carved rabbit in the dish with a cornmeal offering for protection, and the salt in the pale blue lotus cup is for purification, as well as a reminder of the ocean.

 

Christmas Trees

I am not the most emotionally stable person at the best of times, and the holiday season makes it that much worse. I try, but I'm not always able to be in good spirits. Christmas decorations do help, though! This tree was at the little cafe/bar across the street from our office. I don't normally participate in the Friday afternoon happy hour, but I did on Friday. I had one drink (a Bloody Mary), then got a Diet Coke for the road and headed home to Bob.

The second tree is in our common area at work. We had a "family lunch" at work on Friday. We're doing that about once a month, where one of the teams cooks lunch for the whole company. My team was on point last week; I made spinach dip (it was a big hit!), Aaron made tomato basil soup and Julia made vegetable soup, and Joey and Aaron teamed up to make grilled cheese sandwiches. Nicole made brownies for dessert. It was a great lunch and a lot of fun.

I think part of the fun was the interaction, i.e., the "short order cook" aspect. It wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if we had all just brought casseroles or something. I don't know what we'll do next time, but I'm sure we'll think of something interesting.

The third little tree was sitting on the kitchen counter at work. I don't remember it from last year, but it must have been on display somewhere, because it was apparently in the closet. Actually, for some reason I think this one started out as mine. I can't remember why, though. I just sort of vaguely remember feeling a little regretful that I had given it away, but I don't remember the circumstances.

I do have another little tree that I'll set up on my desk in my office this week. We never set up a tree at home until a lot closer to Christmas, since we will probably have a live tree. We leave it up until Epiphany, January 12th, so we don't want to get it too soon.

Later: I meant to mention that I kicked off the Christmas movie watching season with "Love Actually" on Sunday. Perhaps not the best thing to watch, since it always makes me cry, but in a good way. I also watched Men in Black 3, which didn't make me cry.