Quote of the Day: Ian Fleming
“History is moving pretty quickly these days, and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.”
― Ian Fleming in Casino Royale
Between Christmas and New Year’s, Mr Chiots and I have the tradition that we try to watch as many James Bond movies as we can. I’m not sure exactly when this tradition started, we’ve been doing it for a LONG time, probably 10-12 years ago. It all started way back when one of the movie channels did “the 007 Days of Christmas” and showed the movies 24/7 during that week. We started watching and then purchased the complete blu-ray set a few years ago.
So far this year we’ve been able to watch five movies and we still have five more days to go. Hopefully we’ll get to watch at least half of them. It’s a really fun tradition, something a little out of the ordinary, especially this time of year. We’ve even convinced a few of our friends to do it as well.
Do you have any uncommon traditions around the holidays?
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2015 Calendar
Last year I didn’t make a calendar and many of you were disappointed. I have to admit, I regretted not making one a few months into the year. This year I knew I needed one to visually keep track of everything that is going on in our lives. Digital calendars do not really work for me, I need something that I see on a daily basis and a place to write down important information and dates. My new calendar will live in my office beside my desk.
As usual, if you’d like to buy a calendar head on over to Lulu and get one. There is a large one (13.5″x19″)and a small one (11″ x 17″ open, folds in half in the middle like a regular calendar)..
Do you prefer a paper or digital calendar to keep track of events?
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Merry & Bright
It was balmy here in Maine yesterday, around 50 degrees. We took advantage of the nice weather to get a few outside chores finished up. Mr Chiots washed the cars and I cleaned out the duck ponds.
Breakfast was overnight French toast with maple syrup, then we watched Christmas Vacation. There wasn’t a big fancy meal, we had a meat/cheese plate and some wine. Then off to the neighbor’s house for desert, I baked Bourbon Pecan Pie to take.
We had already opened up our gifts the night before. It’s always been a tradition in my family to open gifts on Christmas Eve. That way the parents could always sleep in. Even after we all got older the tradition stayed, there’s just something nice about opening gifts when it’s dark outside. As usual, Mr Chiots and I are very practical gift givers. Many times they are things we’d be buying anyways, it just seems more fun to wrap them up and put them under the tree. These are the things we found beneath the tree:
A handmade terracotta egg crate for all those lovely eggs laid by our chickens. Truth be told I could use about 5 of these in the summer when I’m getting a dozen eggs a day. This will be perfect to have sitting on the counter to keep the eggs within easy reach.
Mr Chiots is always complaining of congestion the day after spending time on the tractor or cutting/splitting firewood. A Respro mask seemed like a perfect gift. It’s supposed to be super comfortable and the filters keep out the toxic fumes from diesel and small engines along with small particulates.
Mr Chiots is always complaining of lint & cat hair on his clothes, I found this wonderful wood & rubber lint brush made my redecker. It works very well and now there is no longer a need to buy those sticky lint rollers.
Our neighbor made us these sweet little felted bacon ornaments. Handmade gifts are the best of all and these are so cute!
Mr Chiots has been in need of a new set of hair clippers. After going through a cheap set every year or so, I decided it was time to invest in a professional pair that should last for years to come. After much research, the Oster Classic 76 was the pair I selected. They are made in the USA and get great reviews. If you have someone who cuts their own hair, this would be a fabulous gift!
Being a Tolkien fan, this new book of his art was a perfect gift for Mr Chiots. This was actually purchased as a birthday gift (which is in January), but one of his Christmas gifts didn’t get finished in time. So it will be given at Christmas and this was given now.
We’ve been needing new outdoor thermometers, ours are falling apart and not accurate at all. Now we have a large French enameled thermometer that should give us accurate temperature measurements.
Mr Chiots also got me a Kindle for Christmas, definitely not a gift I’ve been pining for. I’m a tactile person and love the feel of an actual book, though it will be nice to get Kindle books from the library. It will also come in handy when I travel, I’m usually stuffing five or six books in my bag, now I can have an entire library in my purse.
All of my kitchen towels are getting old and warn, we did get most of them for our wedding sixteen years ago. Mr Chiots got me a few waffle weave linen towels from Fog Linen. When it comes to kitchen textiles linen is the best since it gets softer, more absorbent, and better with age.
Last but not least was the lovely men’s grooming kit I got for Mr Chiots. He’s always been meticulous when it comes to keeping his nails cleaned and trimmed. He has this really crappy set of nail clippers, the kind you get at a gas station for 99 cents. Now he has a lovely set that will last the rest of his life!
What did you find beneath your tree yesterday?
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Merry Christmas
From all of us at Chiot’s Run, we hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
We’ll be doing what we usually do, watching James Bond, hiking, eating cookies, and relaxing. We hope you enjoy the same. See you on Saturday!
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Winter Bloom
Both of my small ‘Hedgehog’ aloes are blooming. The flowers are rather insignificant, but quite lovely in their simplicity. I love that they come this time of year when the garden outside my window is devoid of color.
This particular plant lives on my beside table. It’s nice to know that it not only brings beauty to my room, but it also cleans the air as well.
These two plants were pups from the big aloes that I had on my front porch back in Ohio. They’re spectacular plants when grown in large containers. I left one for my neighbor, it lives in her living room now. Mine came to Maine and I harvested pups the first winter because I didn’t have space for the giant pot.
The photo above was when I first planted them. When we finally moved they were about twice as big and they were stunning! I really love the structure of the aloe plants, the shape of the leaves, the fleshiness , and the thorns. They are very artistic in their form.
It will take a few more years, but these little beauties will once again become large spotlight plants in my garden. By then hopefully I’ll have a better space for overwintering large tender plants. Until then, they’ll live with minimal fertilizer and water to keep them growing as slowly as possible.
Do you grow any succulents indoors during the winter?
