Woke up to this:

And of course I got all teary-eyed when Coop said, "Now it's REALLY Christmas!"


Husband in the kitchen making Saturday morning breakfast: a tradition I grew up with and I hope to pass down. My daughter's-in-law will call me blessed.

And thanks to Kate, for reminding me that I don't have to be elaborate or fussy to create an Advent activity for my preschoolers. Sometimes I'm an all-or-nothing kind of person, but per her suggestion, I've decided to jot down an activity the night before on the back of each ornament and then if we need to keep it simple (e.g., read a Christmas book) then so be it. They are only 4 and 2 yrs. old.

So here's what we worked on yesterday, made out of chipboard and patterned paper.

(I don't have a mantle or even a wide doorway, so everything goes on our bookcases...)
Today's activity: Make Christmas fudge for Daddy. This 5-minute fudge recipe is what we use; making it once a year is all we really need (or want). Happy Snow Day to you!

Giveaway post is here. Two more days to win!

Free from tree-skirt bondage

In the spirit of the Nester I laid aside my lofty goals of making a tree skirt and I "settled" on using this fun polyester I picked up at Goodwill for $1. A friend suggested I make a tree skirt using leftover fabrics from the stockings (yet to be made) so maybe that will happen next year.

In the mean time, the tree is up, the children carefully placed all the ornaments in one section (and their mother remembered that it is supposed to be fun, not perfect...and then she rearranged everything after they went to bed), eggnog consumed, and and everyone's mood is generally better just for seeing those white lights all aglow. I even put a strand up in the children's room, although the solar flare was a bit much for sleeping.

I have more Christmas projects than ever before, and yet for some reason I feel very little stress about it all. There is sense of urgency in needing to move forward every day on all I'd like to accomplish, but not tear-your-hair-out stress. I think it's because this is the first year- since we got married!- I have not had a baby under 7 months or been pregnant. It does make a difference.

The youngest puts the angel on top of the tree... a tradition from my family.

Loving their tree...

I'll be doing a lot of this...

Giveaway post is here.

A middle-school moment at the fabric store

(If you are looking for the Giveaway, it's one post down.)

I have a sweet friend who agreed to babysit my children every-so-often in exchange for an afternoon of informal sewing lessons. Yesterday she made a gored skirt from her own pattern; we're really just learning together and I'm helping her if she gets stuck.

But anyway...WH and I went out on a short date last night after dinner. In this stage of life, a trip to the grocery store without kids qualifies as a date. A thought that has time to be verbalized without interruption is what dates are all about. The plan was to run by Goodwill, the fabric store, Starbucks (I don't think that was in the plan but the Gingerbread Latte was a treat!) and a few other places. Goodwill took a little longer than my husband was expecting...lots of great finds there, including two gallon-sized bags of legos for $3. I'll disinfect them several times and give them to the kids on a rainy day. Next stop: the fabric store, where I needed to buy some interfacing. I told WH it would be a quick stop but apparently he was dubious so he set out to find something amusing. I took all of 5 minutes, checked out, and as we walked to the car he was chuckling to himself, all boyish and silly. He admitted a discovery of wind-up timers in the back of the store, and he set them to go off every five minutes, just in case I took longer than expected. Of course we weren't there to hear even the first one ring and it's not like you can "undo" a timer. So if you are an employee of the Joann's in my town, I humbly apologize. Although he was still laughing to himself at bedtime, so know you gave an overworked 30-something man a good laugh. (And I might have laughed a little.)