Christmas Around the House

Today, for your viewing pleasure, I have a few Christmas around-the-house photos by Sue. That is all.

And this . . . 

My Audacious Pants

When I left the house yesterday to visit the boys for a kaffeeklatsch., Sue followed me out the door and demanded that I stop for a picture.

As soon as I arrived, Nick made a similar demand.

It was the pants, you see. My pants, indoors or out, are always plain, except for maybe bedtime and Christmastime. And since it is Christmas time, I decided to let my hair down, so to speak, but not my pants I'll have you know. No, those pants stayed up — flamboyantly so. And so the local paparazzi insisted on recording the occasion, likely for future extortion.

You may also note that my hands are weird in the second photo. I had my thumbs up but just put thems down, for I realized that thumbs-up gesture has been forever spoiled by . . . well . . . you know who.

As is her wont, Sue fancied up several versions. I'll keep one for actual Christmas, perhaps, but I will post this one for now.

A Happy Seasonal Combination

On a search for Christmas stocking stuffers, we walked into The Granary last week where we were greeted enthusiastically and told that there was a  20% sale of chocolate products on that day.

In passing I note that The Granary is a locally-owned health food sort of store.

We purchased several items including a Camino hot chocolate mix. I am not sure what specific variety we purchased, but this image will serve the purpose.

We are also pleased to know that Camino is a Canadian company in our region and that it is also a fair trade company. Who could ask for more?

A day or two later, I found myself in the liquor store where I purchased Baileys Irish Cream whiskey. We tend to do this come the Christmas season.

We don't drink much hot chocolate, and we don't drink much alcohol, but my oh my! has this combination of Baileys plus Camino been a most wonderful dessert drink for the past four nights!

I just might purchase another bottle to get us through the entire Christmas-New Year season.

Not on a Shelf

Have you been seeing the latest meme, taking off from Elf on the Shelf? Most aren't Christmassy although the first two could fit very loosely.

Here are a few more.

Shrek on a Deck

Ewe on a Pew

Buck on a Truck

Ghost on the Toast

Seinfeld on a Minefield

Taylor on a Bailer

Willie on the Chilli

Shall I see myself out now?

O Christmas Tree

You may remember photos like this one from last December although I think that I posted them later in the month. The bridge was lit is the red and green Christmas colours.

Sue needed a Christmas lights photo for her group project, so we went again last night. They weren't on, perhaps because we were too early although it was dark at around 5pm. 

We did find that the tree at Market Square was lit. I believe that this is the first year for this tree being lit. I know it's not exactly the Rockefeller Center, but it is ours.

I took that ↑ on against a dark western background. Then I turned around ↓ and got the market market pavilion in the background as well as some town lights.

There is something to be said for seeing it in situ even if the background isn't grand.

Explaining My Moniker

I have had a reader request an explanation of Anvilcloud as used on this blog, AC being a short form that people use but that I didn't invent. I get this a lot. Just the other day, someone asked about it over coffee. Many people wonder about it; folk look up curiously when they ask for, and are given, my email, for example.

It has to do with my surname, Rayner, and with a fun class that decided to play with the name and call me Mr Storm Cloud. While it might make me seem a gloomy sort, I wasn’t, and it was done in fun. It was only one class that ever called me this — a grade 10 geography class. Good times.

I never forgot although probably those kids did, and so, years later, the internet became a thing, and one had to choose email addresses and blog names and so on and so forth. I chose anvilcloud, a variation of storm cloud. 

You see, storm makes me think of thunder, and a tall thunder cloud may typically have an anvil shape at the top, as the winds of the next layer in the atmosphere, the troposphere stop the cloud from rising farther, and sheer it off in effect.

Not only does the moniker suit my name, but causes me to recall that fun class, and it also connects with my subject, geography, for it is a wide-ranging subject, and we did venture into the topics of climate and weather from time to time.

Now you know the rest of the story if I may borrow shamelessly from Paul Harvey. 

FYI

Meeting Up WIith Lorna

Somehow or other at sometime or other, I got to know Lorna via the blogs. She posted as Lorna in Wonderland and then Still in Wonderland, but she wrote her last post almost five years ago. 

We lived far apart at first, but once we moved to the Ottawa Valley, we got acquainted with Lorna and Dave on a personal level.  After a two-year hiatus, we met up once again this week at the Coffin Creek Coffee Shop near us, and I will post two pictures of the grand event.

I am posting this because within the last year, someone or other, either here or on fb, asked about Lorna, and it might be that said person will chance upon this post. For most of you, however, it won't mean anything because of when Lorna stopped posting.