a week

I'm surprised to see that it's been a week since I last posted.  It was a week of busy-ness - mostly good, but busy nonetheless.  Today it feels good to be tucked inside with a big cup of Christmas Blend, a book and a a good WiFi connection.   It's chilly and damp this morning - barely over 50 degrees, and drizzly.  It finally is beginning to feel like Christmas is coming!  I noticed when driving my children to school this morning that more and more trees are taking on yellow and pale orange tones, and the sidewalks are beginning to be carpeted with leaves.  I know that sounds crazy to those who are already crunching through the snow on their way to work in the mornings, but this *IS* what Winter looks like here.   It feels cozy and good to wear a long-sleeved t shirt this morning and a red sweater over top of that.  Socks, too!  I'm wearing honest-to-goodness shoes today.  It must be December.

PSA:   Caffeine - Breakfast = CrAzY.  Behold.

So, Christmas.   20 days from today, or so I hear.    We will be needing to tree ourselves this week - which means we will need to find a spot to place this lovely evergreen.   Last year we had one less piece of furniture in our living room, and so it will require some creative shuffling this year to make space.   My husband suggested this weekend that we just plunk it down smack-dab in the centre of the room.   Don't laugh;  that may yet happen.   It beats having to crawl beneath the tree to make it from the living room to the kitchen, doesn't it?   Maybe we just don't need to use the back door at all for the month of December... hmmm......

Otherwise, our Christmas plans include tossing some lights up around the house, baking a load of treats to give out at the school  - - Christmas "Crack", Sparkly Ginger Cookies and... hmm... I'm thinking of adding a new cookie to the repertoire this year - replacing last year's Shortbread.   I'm gratefully accepting all recommendations and tried-and-true recipes!    We're seeing The Nutcracker, and maybe - MAYBE - if I can get my act together we'll even do a bit of ice skating.  The youngest girl has been asking to ice skate since July and, while it's *possible* to ice skate here, it's not exactly an easy thing to do.  Texas just isn't covered with ice, as it turns out.  Go figure.

I remember for a couple of years my Dad used to flood a part of our backyard for the Winter, and we had our own skating rink.  It was rather cool.   That wasn't actually an uncommon thing  - to have your own backyard rink - when I was growing up.  Pretty much everyone had a pair of skates, and once you hit the age of 4 you could make your way around a rink pretty well.  Like all neighbourhoods have outdoor pools here, where I grew up most neighbourhoods had standard, hockey-sized rinks.  On weekends, parents would dump you off for a couple of hours with your skates and 50 cents for a hot chocolate.  I can still remember the smell of wet, woolen mittens of the indoor space where you'd leave your winter boots and put on your skates.  I still can feel how your toes would feel after an hour or so of skating in -10 C temperatures.   First they'd feel cold and, yeah, painful... soon, you'd feel the warm, tingling sensation of frost bite... then, you didn't feel them anymore at all!  Ahhhh, precious childhood memories.     We were made of tough stuff back then.

So - tree.  Lights.  Cookies. Nutcracker.  Skating.  Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Gingerbread cookies.   Carols played around the clock from now until the 26th of December.   It sounds like Christmas to me.