‘Tis The Season

Oh friends.  I’ve been so busy.  Pardon my absence.  I’m reminded this time of year why I like to take the month of December off of homeschooling.  We’ve had a concert, or recital, or dress rehearsal, tournament, or party pretty much every day this month.  I’m running.  Except during my work-out time at the YMCA during the boy’s Tae Kwon Do.  I’ve been too wiped to work out.  No elliptical there.  I’ve been laying down in the locker room away from my kids.  ‘Tis the season.

 

I haven’t changed the “message” on the slate board over the fireplace from Thanksgiving yet.  I usually do a pretty detailed one at Christmas.  I’m getting there.  This week, maybe.  Our house is definitely getting decorated in stages this year.  Even so, this room is magical this time of year.  It’s hard to pull ourselves away from the tree and the fire and the stockings at night.

The snow is gone, but we are supposed to get dumped on with several inches at the end of this week, much to my family’s relief.

 

We are actually still doing Advent, which doesn’t always happen every year.  We went from starting a few days early to being only a day behind right now.  We had a few late nights at events in town that messed up our loose routine.  There’s messes surrounding our advent candle, and the Christmas tree.

But isn’t that Christmas anyway?  Jesus comes into our mess.  He was born in the midst of busy.

My parents are flying in about this time next week to spend Christmas with us.  Usually when they come over, my mother in law still hosts Christmas for all of us, but this year we will only spend Christmas Day at her house.  I get to host Christmas Eve, which will be a first for me.  I’m so excited about that, and trying to prepare as much ahead of time as I can.  My parents are super laid back, and usually work so much when they’re here I can’t lift a finger, so I’m not too worried about getting stressed out-down to the wire about it.  I’m just trying to get some good planning done so that doesn’t happen.

I haven’t really gotten anywhere with Christmas cookies.  Knut and I had an evening making the best Norwegian lefse ever, though.  Since we have that, I feel like everything will be okay.  We usually do only 2 batches, but I had enough riced potatoes to make 3 so I just whipped up a third one.  It may not have been the best idea because we were up to nearly midnight, and that last batch I think he and I were both swaying a little from fatigue and trying not to fall asleep at the griddle.  Oh, but it’s yummy.

I’m also pleased to announce that I’ll be getting a spinning wheel for Christmas!  I have been asking for one for years and this dream is finally coming true, even though I rarely get a gift this big.  I’ve been spending probably too much time online researching wheels.  The closest spinning wheel shop with a good variety is about 3 hours from my house, and I emailed the owner who has been so helpful.  Can I just say I love working with small business owners?  They’re just awesome.  I feel like she’s walking me step by step through this.  We’ve emailed back and forth multiple times now, and I think I’ve decided on which wheel I want.  The problem is, the wheel that meets all my “wish list” for what to have in a wheel is a bit out of the budget I had for Christmas.  I talked to Knut about it, wondering if I should get another great wheel that wasn’t quite as pretty, or just skip it for Christmas, or what.  He said if that’s the wheel I really want, I should just wait another month or two until we have the money saved for it.  I just have to wait until we have the cash in hand.  I thought that was fair enough.

So I’m getting an unfinished Ashford Elizabeth 2, that I plan to finish with linseed oil.  I’m just so beyond excited to start.  I wouldn’t have much time to tinker with it this Christmas season anyway.  It will be my new hibernation activity in the slow, snowy days of winter ahead.

In the mean time, I have to finish up a bunch of knitting projects, none of which I can show you of course.  Christmas is just around the corner, and ’tis the season for surprises.