The Changing of the Lanterns

 Brain cancer is...

 ...replacing our paper lanterns.

More than a year ago, Mitra and David hung over our patio the paper lanterns that were important to the festive atmosphere welcoming the little person we all now know as Nova B.

Our lanterns started as pink and gray (see them new here).  They made us so happy that we decided to leave them up and watch them change over time.  It didn't take long for them to fade to white, a new kind of beauty (here).  

 

Many have come down in heavy winds, and the few remaining, as you see above, have done their festive duty for us.

 

We therefore one-click shopped a new batch to welcome the new year.

Nothing makes a space say "happy" like paper lanterns!

 

Many people in many traditions around the world celebrate with a festival of lights (as in here), so by celebrating our changing of the lanterns, we join a rich set of traditions.

 

Here's to the world's people and their beautiful traditions!

 

Today's Bloom

 

Our spathiphyllum (peace lily) is at it again.  At first we thought, "Oh, we have posted that a couple times in the past" and were about to look for a new bloom, but we decided that flowers that just keep blooming deserve a special shout out. 

We used a filter to see the lily through newly appreciative eyes.

Today's Planetary Convergence Photo

Birthday girl Melanie certainly knows how to celebrate.  Some nice people in San Clemente decorated the world's tallest tree for her (here). 

 

And, for the first time in 800 years, the planets of Jupiter and Saturn are converging at night (here)...just for her.    Melanie caught the planets converging tonight over the ocean.

Saturn and Jupiter are just below the palm tree.  The full "great conjunction" is tomorrow night.

Well, if anyone ever deserved the world's tallest tree and a rare planetary convergence, it's our sister Melanie.  Happy birthday, Sis.

 

Darrell decorates the tree. I decorate Darrell.

 Brain cancer is...

 ...plain.

Keiva and Kristine dropped by and shared holiday cheer today.  So great to see them!

Look how awesome they look with balls on their heads.

 

Darrell's in the background with his own head looking, well, a little ordinary.  Unadorned.

Good news for Darrell and his plain head:  The next flock of bird ornaments arrived!

The tree looks great with our new sparrows, sure.  But Darrell looks even better, yes?

After the first application of birds, I decided that if four birds on the head are good, the whole flock is simply exquisite!

 

Darrell is such a good sport that I deserve zero presents under any tree; his patience and playfulness are all I could ask for.

 

Happy Saturday, loved ones!

 

(PS...We are actively envisioning the clever alternate titles that you could no doubt whip up for this post.)
 

Today's Blooms

Christory

 Brain cancer is...

...experiencing so much goodness that we needed a new word for the day. (Because still no one has told us we can't do stuff like invent new words.)

Christory.  (Noun.) A period of time (as in a day) that celebrates Christmas and the fact that history is being made simultaneously.

 

The Awesomeness of Christmas Today

 

 

We had a Christmas breakfast celebration with Gordon.  He has cookies from Cookie Bake, Christmas Tree #4, a holiday arrangement, and quite the set of dance moves, obviously.

 

The three of us started rehearsing our Christmas carol (we all agreed to practice, Dad!). And we had fun putting stickers on his holiday cards.  So much laughter; so much Christmas.

LuAnn gave us very thoughtful gifts.  Audubon Society? Get OUT! And a blood pressure cuff and sharp kitchen knives?  It's like she knows us!  

The Awesome History of the Day

Our family has lots of medical workers.  The first family members got their COVID vaccinations today.  

Meridyth

Alex

LuAnn and we, as parents of those medical workers, felt an actual wave of relief to think of our children as a bit safer in the work they do.  

We don't just feel hopeful for our own children, though; we feel the same wave of hope for all the world's children.

Here's to all the world's children being a little safer.

Today's Blooms

LuAnn's aptly named flowers

Paperwhites

Canary Flowers (Wait.  There's a bird + flower combination?  Genius.)

Sweet and Evolving Traditions

 Brain cancer is...

 ...a behind-the-scenes man for Cookie Bake, always.

There are traditions to be maintained.  Every Cookie Bake, we take a picture of the bakers in front of the Christmas tree.  Darrell's usually behind the camera. 

New times, new Cookie Bake.  As you see, we three bakers (Andi, Hallie, and Ruth) are still in front of "the" tree (at our own homes this year), and Darrell is still off screen.  He and the other spouses are usually part of the baking support team.

Cookie Bake has always evolved with the times.  It started when we three were young moms with three preschool boys in Andi's kitchen.  And then there were six kids, and then they all went away.  And we just kept baking.  So jumping headfirst into our three-kitchen-zoom-Cookie Bake felt very natural and just as joyous as usual.  

It started a few days ago with safely prepping the kits

and swapping kits for other ingredients and presents

before we baked today.

Some added benefits of the virtual format were that we started with tours of our decorations in all three houses and that three of the six kids (plus one new cat, dog, and child of those six kids) joined in the fun on camera for a bit.

What is sweeter?  Traditions and trading stories or sugar cookies?  Let's go with the traditions.

Here's to sweet and evolving traditions!

Today's Blooms

I asked Darrell to pick a flower today.  Here's his choice:

Get it?  Flour?  Flower?

He said, "You know, with Cookie Bake and all!"  Nicely done, baking support team man. Nicely done.

Today's Sunrise

Dang, Beth!

Murrieta California

So Much Christmas!

 Brain cancer is...

 ...really glad we don't need to talk about our feet today.

On or about mile 5 out of 7 today, it was feeling like a pretty slow news day.  The most notable story was that our feet hurt.  (Second to our minds hurting when we get back to longer distances--so much is mental!--are our feet.  Our dogs were barking for sure.)

But then...so much Christmas!  It was like an avalanche of Christmas.  Here are some images of  how much joy found us for our daily holiday celebrations:

 

We hung our kitchen frame with some images from the past few Christmases.  Happy memories galore.

We received the most beautiful baking sprinkles ever, in preparation for Cookie Bake 2020:

Cookie Bake offers more happy memories of friendship and a tradition lasting 30 years...and counting.   (Here's the post for Cookie Bake 2019.)  Tomorrow is the day!

We came home to a magic porch full of bath toys for granddaughters and instant Christmas.  Look what Bekah of the Mayfield clan made!  Oh, our hearts!

Long time readers have read lots about dingle balls in the past.  (Here's last year's post of us taking the dingle ball stroll with the Mayfields in 2019.  Bekah is wearing the Santa hat.)   

Dingle balls are important to us.  And now we have our very own dingle ball!  Here it is at night:

May you, too, experience holiday joy equivalent to receiving your very own dingle ball, friends!

Today's Blooms

Are we the only ones who can hear flowers sing?

Thanks for that cheerful moment, Ruth and Tom!

Poster Child

 Brain cancer is...

 ...a local poster child for GBM longevity.

Dr. Park required Darrell's appointment to be in person today.  Darrell's at the Cancer Center, above.  

 

We hypothesized that Dr. Park wanted to see Darrell in person to take real vitals signs and push on his liver and such (not that we know where his liver is or why it needs pushing, come to think of it).

 

However, in retrospect, it seemed more important that Dr. Park merely connect with Darrell and tell us, "You don't know how many times a week I tell Darrell's story!"  

 

No matter how many times Dr. Park tells it, that story just never gets old for us.  Things could change tomorrow--for any of us--but not today. Nothing can take away that super hero/poster child status,  Big D.

 

Dr. Park agrees with Dr. Cloughesy that, barring changes, Darrell will continue with scans every four months.  We wonder how the world will be different when Darrell has his scan in late March...next year.  

Here's to all the poster children in your lives, Team D!

 

Today's Blooms

Kindness without a Face

 Brain cancer is...

 ...impressed by the kindness of Victor.

Today was "catch up on phone calls and e-errands" day.  Above you see an excerpt of a chat with an employee named Victor.  He sincerely hoped that we and our loved ones (that's you!) are safe and healthy during the pandemic.  We think he really was sincere.  What a touching act of kindness from a stranger!

When our business was concluded, Victor thanked us for being the sweetest customers.  Mmmm hmmm.

Here's to a little bit of kindness, with or without a face. 

Today's Bloom

Our chores kept us inside today; no new flower pic.  However, the first flock of cardinals for our tree arrived already.  That counts?

For bird or story lovers:  We picked cardinals because we saw them on our stop in Arizona during our grand road trip of February 2020.   

For fact lovers:  We couldn't figure out why there were so many cardinal ornaments on Amazon, then we discovered that seven states have cardinals as their state bird.  Arizona is not one.