i'm a little humbug today. short on sleep, long on uncooperative projects (i'm looking at you, shark), and grumpy that my day is broken into odd chunks of time that aren't long enough to make serious progress (or nap). be that as it may, i am determined to fight off the humbug, so let's talk about trees and casseroles and all things good:

 my new Muppet-skin coat and hat! a Christmas gift from boss #1. who knew that Muppets were so warm?! it's REALLY not a color i would ever have picked out for myself, but i'm pretty in love with it.

 i pin a ton of things on Pinterest, and love to actually attempt as many of them as possible. this garland was trickier than i thought, but i love how it turned out. :o)

 did i mention that E and i are brewing beer with the water we brought home from Fest? we're making Scottish ale, and saturday, we siphoned it from the brew pail into a glass carboy for a secondary ferment.

 i'm told that some people harvest and save that magnificent yeasty goodness and use it for their next batch of beer. i'll bet it would make a kick-ass sourdough bread starter, too! we need to learn how to do this.

on sunday, we decorated our little tree, and left it lit until we went to bed. again, i'm quite happy with how it turned out, and so is E. it's plenty of tree for us, and we've already enjoyed a tree-lit cup of tea.

 ahhhhh, i can feel the humbug receding already. time to get ready for work, and maybe do some yarning or the last bit of Christmas shopping if i have a break between clients. i'm hoping, too, to pick up some chicken shwarma and tabbouleh for dinner later, and maybe wrap some presents....

oh! the bean casserole! it was more of a bean gratin, i guess, but warm and homey and creamy and oniony and with a delightful cheese-and-bread-crumb topping. it came together in under 20 minutes, too, and was just the thing for a cold winter weekend. i will give you the recipe, but it will have to be later in the week because it's in an actual book and i left it at E's. sorry!