Happy Y2K10!!!!

Here in the "Pitt" the Food Lion is out of black eyed peas and that is about all the world can take on this New Year's Eve.

I don't know what to say about 2009 except that I am glad it will be leaving us in a few hours. We have had a great time in our new world and getting to know new people but 2010 has a very good ring to it. We have spent many wild and raucous New Years' Eves but 2000 is one of my favorites. We got all dressed up, Pat in his tux and me in my favorite black dress of all time. We started watching the new year arrive in Sydney and moving west...Hong Kong, Paris was fabulous...London amazing. We were there (at least in our minds). It was a Dom Perignon night. We got all of our neighbors to come out and celebrate. 2000 seems so long ago and at the time seemed to hold so much promise, but the last decade has been a very strange one for the world. Perhaps we have been adjusting for the last 10 years and the real millennium begins at midnight.

Happy, Happy New Year to everyone and as usual be careful my wonderful Brinkley and Emily.

If it doesn't move decorate it...

That has been my approach to Christmas decorating. When Winter nights are long it only makes sense to light everything and cover all surfaces with red and green. It must be my attempt to ward off the winter blahs.

Decorating was a tradition when I was growing up though nothing went up until after my brother's birthday on the 21st. Santa brought the tree on Christmas Eve and it was always beautiful and special. Santa (aka my father) always created a Christmas village under the tree with a train. The year of the fairies and angels coming down out of the tree and into the village was my favorite. Some of them are still in our tree. The decorations on the mantel and around the house were always real greenery and the neighbors would always come to our house to admire my Dad's work. Whether we were in Virginia, Japan, Okinawa, Ohio, Georgia, or North Carolina there were always magical decorations.

Pat and I started putting up our decorations the day after Thanksgiving the year we went to New York on the first weekend in December for the lighting of the Rockefeller Tree. We knew we did not have time to get everything up if we did not do it early so...a tradition was started. It is always nice to pull out the things that have been around forever like the Santa that my parents got in Japan. He has been out every Christmas since 1961 and memories always flash through my head when I pull him out of the box he has been in forever wrapped in a piece of the Richmond Times Dispatch from 1970. When all the "regular stuff" is put away and the house becomes Christmas it's as if we have moved. Then it is always nice to put it all away, clean and get everything back to "normal". It's a new beginning.

Peace on Earth, goodwill to all. (not just men).

I chased the rabbit down the hole but I am back.

Well, it has been quite a couple of weeks...the activities in the "Pitt" have been all consuming as you can imagine. Kristy and Brinkley just left to return to Atlanta and the house seems too quiet. Millie has gone and Katrina is an only dog again.

We had a wonderful Christmas as always. Emily and Brinkley are the best gifts any parents could have and we love them more than life itself. Kristy being with us is always a joy and we love her. Alonzo our elf still stays in our tree and writes his little notes. He has been enthralled with the deer since we moved to the "Pitt".

The thing we all miss most about Atlanta is our Christmas Eve party and the friends who came by. Maybe one Christmas Eve everyone will come. We did have a birthday party for my brother and it was great fun.

First Sunday

On the first Sunday of every month Pittsboro has a street fair. The shops are all open and craft people sell their wares on the street. Many knitted scarfs and hat sets offered yesterday. This past Sunday was a bit different because the Chatham Arts Studio Tour was taking place AND the annual Christmas Parade. The "Pitt"was the place to be! I must report on the parade...it was a parade like you have never seen. Pat and I were surprised that crowds were setting up chairs along the route as early as 1:30 for a 3:00 start. How did we miss this last year we wondered; it is huge for Pittsboro. The parade began with the city officials throwing candy at the crowd, followed by the local high school band, and fire trucks from every municipality in the county. Moving equipment from the NC Forest Service seemed a bit out of place in a Christmas Parade but I can assure you it was downhill from there. The Mustang Club was the strangest entry....many (30 or 40) cars that were supposed to be Mustangs, but all weren't, came by revving their engines and displaying no signs of the season. Inexplicable, random people and vehicles continued to pass. A local real estate company had the only REAL float and the Pittsboro Elementary School classes came by on flatbeds which was cute. I have to say it was the weirdest parade I have ever witnessed...pictures to follow.

The Chatham Arts Studio Tour was a different story!!!! there are fabulous artisans all over the area. we only got to one yesterday, Mark Hewitt a potter. We had heard about him when we visited the Seagrove Potters last year and were glad to finally get to his place. The setting is gorgeous and his work is as well. We purchased a piece and got to speak with Mark.

Raucus in the "Pitt"

It's a cold and rainy afternoon here in the "Pitt". Pat and I have turned on all the Christmas lights, are dressed in our best sweats, and watching UNC v Kentucky and East Carolina v Houston. Awaiting Alabama v Florida. Pat is making his famous stew. Come on over.

Flash from DC!

Brink is attending a fund raiser with Roy Barnes in DC today. The event was in a restaurant and low and behold Senator John McCain came in and began working the crowd. People were a bit confused (Barnes is a Democrat) and finally someone inquired as to why he was there....whoops, wrong room, wrong group. Roy told him that he could come to Georgia any time and raise money for the Dems.

There is a post in my head about Obama but I get so depressed when I start to write...so it will have to wait.

Meanwhile the ACC is not faring so well against the Big 10. Somebody must have put something in Clemson's Gatorade, they looked like a high school team at the end. But at least UNC beat Michigan State (again). Like I said, Michigan State should not have been #1. Bama v Florida will be exciting this weekend...roll Tide!!! (speaking of football) Are you going Brink? I am looking forward to Florida going down. I will never get over 2000...hate Florida.

Speaking of martinis, there must be a mea culpa speech that arrogant, asshole men can download and release to the public when the National Enquirer reports their obsession with women who have pumped their lips, boobs, and butts with collagen. They all say the same thing...it would be nice if one of them would come up with something a little different. Do these man children think that no one is going to find out and report it? This has become a business for the collegen endowed girls gone wild. John Edwards was at the UNC game the other night with Elizabeth.

Blog backup.....burp

THE Season has begun and there is just too much activity in the "Pitt" and environs to keep the blog updated.

Emily was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. It was a lovely ceremony and reception. The speaker was Dr. Oliver Smithie winner of the Nobel Prize for something to do with DNA...Emily explained it to me and said "don't you remember when you did an experiment in high school showing bla bla, guish meh ya ha?" Emily, I replied they didn't know about DNA when I was in high school. She just stared at me with an amazed expression. Dr. Smithie was adorable and a real inspiration.

Millie, Brinkley's supposed dog, is still with us. Katrina is fit to be tied because she was sure Millie was leaving after Thanksgiving. The Millster is really a great pup and has to date eaten no furniture. The yard is a different story, but I have given up. I just told Millie to go give Katrina a kiss, she did...Katrina's response, grrrrrrrr.

We have made our home tacky once again for the season and we love it!!!!! We went to a farm this year to get the tree and it is quite large. (we had to fight the Rockefeller Center people off). If you have ever given us an ornament you can be sure it is on this monstrosity. We took the dogs with us and that will be the end of that.

I wondered today as I motored down the 15/501 how all the dead dear end up on the median. Do they just automatically say to themselves "I've been hit by a car, get on the median." It's that time of the year again...dear running wild. We have put our pumpkins out in the woods for the darlings but they evidently do not care for them. Big orange lumps just sitting in the woods....looks like something from outer space, and definitely does not go with the Christmas decor.

The Food Lion has stocked up for the holidays...cans of green beans that are so large they would feed an army. I have never seen a can of anything so big. Many more types of Little Debbie products than usual and marshmallow cream coming out the wazoo.