When the Cat’s Away, the Mice Will Play

This is one of those rare occurrences where I’ll let Suz’s lame placeholder title remain.

I’m not exactly sure what Suz’s uber-productive mentality when I’m in absentia says about our relationship.

Does my semi-slothlike presence hinder her naturally occurring sparks of ingenuity and creativity?

This girl makes lists when I’m gone.  Projects galore.  Baking to excess.

When I arrived in Raleigh after a visit to the Bluegrass on the 30th, her enthusiasm for all that she had accomplished in the days prior was palpable.  A light box had (nearly) been constructed, multiple parties had been hosted, and pounds of deliciousness concocted, simmered, and spiced.  Then I settle into the family home and we spend a day lounging around watching Mad Men.

Was it me?  Did I suck the life out of the room of this productive family?  Or was I welcome reprieve, a counterbalance?

Yeah, I’ll go with that for my own self esteem.

I’ll be making my return to Charleston this afternoon.  Hope you got your shot at partaking in Suzanne’s creativity while it lasted.

Perhaps changing this whole situation should have been my worthwhile New Year’s resolution.

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James Island County Park Christmas Lights

An ice storm moving swiftly into the Bluegrass last Wednesday resulted in us having to condense all of our holiday plans into one short evening, which included our first go-around at James Island County Park to see what amounted to the most spectacular display of electrical Christmas cheer this side of the Griswold House, or to a lesser degree, those crazies on that one show on television.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With an onslaught of family Christmas activities in the next two days, this post on the lights James Island County Park will also be condensed into a much shorter product than I would like.

From the different themed areas of lights to Santa’s insanely elaborate village, complete with both members of the Claus couple getting their ears bent by eager kids, a full service train, sand sculptures, absurdly sugary hot chocolate, crafts, and rides too small for me to spend a night upon screaming my head off, the display was pretty unreal.  It took us almost 2 hours to see everything there was to offer and the (at the time) frigid temperatures added to the atmosphere of a real life Christmas community.

I’ll let Suzanne’s photos do the rest of the talking.  I need to get busy reading my copy of Black’s Law Dictionary.

Yes, I actually requested that for Christmas.

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Christmas Arrives Early on Wentworth Street

They (you know, the omnipresent “they” everyone always mentions when talking about anything under the sun) say that the Christmas season comes earlier with each passing year, and I pretty much subscribe to the notion.  I spotted my first evidence of the coming onslaught a few days before Halloween at a store on King Street and since that time, the collective array of trees, santas, lights, and greenery has only proliferated towards some infinitesimal degree of holiday cheer.

And we’re certainly not an example of chomping-at-the-bit-to-decorate abstinence.

I’m sure we weren’t the first to don the holly and bells in Charleston.  I doubt we were the first on Wentworth Street, and to be fair, probably not even the first on our block. Regardless, this past Sunday (November 14th) was far and away the earliest I have ever placed the slightest anecdote of Christmas within everyday sight.  But that’s what happens when you realize that you really won’t have much of a Christmas holiday in Charleston and you have an incredibly crafty girlfriend’s mother visiting to help you create some worthy-of-Pottery-Barn-for-99%-less-expense arrangements.  You have to make every moment count, even those that entail using kitchen scissors to clip the branches off of some loblolly pines outside Lowe’s while frantically looking each way over your shoulder multiple times to make sure the act isn’t being closely observed.

The decorations’ visible presence has put us both in a perpetual good mood. Finley even seems a bit more frisky.  Either she feels the good vibes coming forth from her impending first Christmas or she is surveying the inventory for a future snack of pine needles.  She’s known for that, you know.

We stopped shy of putting up the Christmas tree, however, along with at least a dozen boxes of other festive goods.  I did allow a small table tree to be erected, however.  I had to draw a line in the sand somewhere.  We compromised on November the 16th.  More appropriate than the 14th though, right?

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