My Churchill's Tea Advent calendar arrived yesterday, a day earlier than promised, even with how late I ordered it so I had it up on my non-fiction unread shelves last night and first tea on Dec 1 proper! Also, look how cute this year's Advent calendar is -- instead of plain numbered envelopes full of tea and a description card, the envelopes are numbered doors. So fucking CUTE!!!! I'm saving these envelopes in my holiday decor boxes for a future Advent project of some sort! They're too cute to toss! 

 Spent today at home with Waffles and Spock and Mikaela was dropped off around 10:30ish after M's Botox migraine in sections. As soon as she got here I laid a fire then made me coffee to go with the bagels M brought for us. Then we we unwrapped put all my collection of ornaments on the tree. then spent all the rest of the day reading sprawled near the fire (Mikaela was on the couch, but me and the dog were floor sprawling by the hearth) and light snow lightly falling all afternoon/evening. Then this evening had dinner with my parents, drinking wine and snuggling sleeping doggo's while catching up on figure skating with my mama while my da plays poker online with his buddies. Aurora borealis is dancing right above me since about 6pm, but I'm in the snow cloud belt (enough to cover everything make it sparkly white beautiful!!!) so you need to be up at least Wausau/Appleton north of here to see them. But my friends with cabins up north and who live up in like Hayward have posted some AMAZING pictures and the allll the pictures posted in the Northern Lights of Wisconsin facebook group are incredible, some gorgeous gorgeous shots from when the x flare hit this morning (1a-6am) and then again starting about 6:30pm tonight!!!! So I'm in a very good tranquil happy space here right now tonight after such a cozy hygge day.

Mostly this post is a reminder to my future self that I need to go listen to everything I can find by Jean-Michel Blais. He's a Québécois pianist-composer based in Montréal and Lajoie & Lagha (Canadian ice dancers) are skating to his composition Roses this season and it's such a beautiful piano piece it brought me close to tears just at how beautiful parts of it is. You know, when something is so beautiful your heart gets so full of the beauty and wonder you tear up at how happy you are such a gorgeous beautiful thing IS. It's such a gorgeous piece. Very Chopin meets George Winston's Spring Into Summer. It's been a long time since a new to me pianist/composer has moved my heart so deeply with its beauty. 

So this is a love note to myself about that piece of music and to go look up everything else I can find by Jean-Michel Blais. 

Also this is a promise to explain later, not tonight, about why Tues was a rather rough morning/day in my life. 

But yeah. Jean-Michel Blais! So excited to discover more of his music later tonight or tomorrow!!! 

To make up for how short this update is and my recent quiet here, have some pictures from today of the  tree and my dog and the fire (including my purple-y aura whenever my hands or me trying to get pictures were too close to the heat of the fire)

Waffles has been extra EXTRA clingy and snuggly the last couple days since being told that in two weeks (one a half weeks now) I'll be leaving for two weeks. I've TOLD her she's going to stay with my parents and Sophie and they will spoil her with lots of delicious meat scraps from their meals. I started teasing her that maybe she'll love their table scraps dog spoiling so much she might prefer living with them over me. And that's when she got super clingy to me, when I started teasing her she might prefer living with my parents and Sophie, instead of Spock and me. Life lesson: don't tease a Cancer pup that they might be happier with someone else instead of you -- they bond even more deeply clinging to you once they choose you than your recently deceased emo Pisces princess pup who still comes to visit you in dream space bonded to you. Although, I never once teased Audrey that she might want to live with anyone other than me -- the moment I showed up at the rescue after the lady thought our personalities matched based on my email, Audrey came running to me immediately and the first time I said "I was thinking to call her Audrey" after being told she never responded to the name jenny, Audrey Puburn came running and sat at my feet knowing she had been called. Spooked the shit out of the lady at the rescue. So Audrey was always mine and she visited me in dream spaces before she was born to tell me she was coming soon and so I needed to look for her. So I never once in our nearly 15 years teased Audrey about maybe she'd rather live with anyone but me. I teased Waffles about it because when the prospect of rehoming her first came up, it was unclear if she would be living with me or my parents. That was before she setup SUCH a ruckus about me forgetting her after my visit last November, lol.

Hope you're also having a lovely Friday night however you're spending it. Though good luck having quite so cozy hygge as my day and night have been!