hey look, it's snowing

The snow came and we played.  I got to try out my new snow boots, very excited to actually use them just a week after buying them.  Bundled up, we ran around, throwing snowballs and pulling sleds.  We even got a snowman started before heading back in for hot cocoa by the fire.  Extra marshmallows, please.  We got married in the backyard here, and one of my favorite photos from that day was of the two of us walking away along the fence in the fourth (above) photo.  Now anytime that scene ends up in a picture I can see us walking along there, newly married, hand in hand.  It was a much different day, about 60 degrees warmer, but I can still picture the mid summer us of seven years ago walking along that fence.  Snow or sunshine, I see us there.

Claire was gifted a sweet wooden sled from nana and pipop.  And the awesome pajamas (which I so very highly recommend) that she's wearing on the couch up there while reading one of her new favorite books (The Tomten) with her Aunt Jen (Jenni-baby, according to Claire).  I was thrilled that we actually got the chance to try out her sled just minutes after she received it.  That marked her inaugural sled experience (Winter didn't really come through for us last year in North Carolina, and the year before she was still a wee one and, well, we had no sled) and she quite liked it.  Today we headed back out to sled (um, pull) some more and to finish the snowman.  Which happened to also be her inaugural snowman making experience.  Some good firsts during this visit, for sure.

good times

there has been a lot of sweets making, sweets eating, pajama wearing, game playing, rudolph watching, and general lazing about these past several days.  there were carols at a neighbor's home and then christmas eve saw claire and I taking in the children's christmas pageant at the episcopal church in town, a service that started with definitely more than three wise men and many, many animals and angels, and ended with candles and song.  and then dinner at home, the three of us.  christmas day at home was cinnamon rolls and coffee with beeba, claire loving the teepee that beeba made for her, some peeking in on neighbors, lots of papa swinging her around in the full body harness that was his special gift to her (again papa! again!) and a dinner of homemade pierogies and mushroom soup (a 'la my late grandma helen) shared with my dad.  all followed the day after by a much longer than usual trip up the shenandoah valley (neither of us had bothered to check the weather first, oops) and some postponed family visits due to lots of stomach flu cases (fortunately not affecting the three of us).  there is very light snow falling right now, with the promise of continued and hopefully a bit heavier snow for the rest of the day, and an afternoon date for some present opening with nana, pipop, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  my belly is full of blueberry muffins and hot tea and, just now, looking up, I see that the heavier snow has indeed come.  so now I'm off to watch claire watch the snow fall and to make sure I know where the hot cocoa and popcorn and cookies are, to start a fire, and to make a provisional pile of warm winter wear for some chilly play.


*linking along with amanda for 'this moment'

welcome winter

We were going to welcome winter this year with a candlelit solstice/advent spiral, it was even all set up and ready to go.  And then the first day of winter came along and decided to be, well, wintry.  30mph winds and flurries and such.  The cold and the flurries were no problem, but no way was the spiral itself going to hold it's own against the wind.  And candles?  I bet not.  So instead we tossed a bunch of seeds to the birds and squirrels and moved the greenery indoors, with a simple little wreath with a candle in the middle, representing the sun.

We shared a meal with friends and, before they parted, we all gathered around a small table adorned with the wreath and talked briefly about it being the first day of winter, the shortest day, the longest night, the day after which the sun begins to shine brighter and stronger and longer each day...... we took turns lighting our own candles from the center candle, signifying the light and strength that we can each take from the sun and the lengthening days, light and strength that will help us through the winter and fuel our reflective and quieter days ahead.  Of course it was the adults present, all two of us, who likely gave all of that much thought.  Though maybe the children did, too.  We (the grownups) set our intentions for the coming year and attempted to 'have a moment' amidst the excitement and chattering of four little ones.  Such lessons there are in parenting.  In practically every single moment, if you look.

Claire started singing a lovely song that she learned during her brief stint at Montessori school as the school prepared to sing for the U.N.'s International Day of Peace:

Light a candle for peace,

Light a candle for love,

Light a candle that shines,

All the way around the world.

Light a candle for me,

Light a candle for you,

That our wish for world peace,

Will one day come true

Sing Peace Around the World

Sing Peace Around the World

Sing Peace Around the World

Sing Peace Around the World

And I thought she would assume lighting candles would go with the birthday song...... such soul and depth there is behind those little eyes.  After our friends left and it was just the two of us, she asked to do it again.  And again.  And again.  I had to get a new 'sun' candle and by the time she had had enough, the candles we had been lighting were half the size they had been when we started.

The wind continued to howl all night long and by the time the wind chimes stopped plinking and things settled down I bet we'd had nearly 24 hours of bitter wild winds.  I can't say that I'd given much thought to the whole Mayan-calendar-ending-in-2012-and-what-oh-what-could-that-mean thing, but I've heard folks say that perhaps what the Mayans were onto, if anything, was a coming global shift in consciousness and not the end of the world as we know it.  So maybe the wind had to blow fiercely for 24 hours to get all of that bad juju out of the way to create space for a new era of peace and enlightenment.  Wouldn't that be nice, anyway?  Sing peace around the world.  It sure can't hurt.

printing and painting

We've been having some fun around here in the printing and painting department these pre-Christmas days.  There was our first try at block printing, using soft-kut blocks and printing up some cards... Claire's print looks kind of like Chinese writing.  Or at least it does to me and my untrained-in-the-way-of-foreign-languages eyes.

She also worked on several canvases for gifting.... some were just crayon and/or pencil on the canvas, others were painted, some were a combination~  she likes to mix up her media.

And then.  Then I got to spend a few hours yesterday morning all by myself  (by which I really only mean I was able to remove my mama hat for a bit) at a friend's studio screen printing some shirts with her lovely and fabulous designs.  She is a designer, a fabric artist, an author with a new book coming out, and surely many other things as well.  She so kindly hosted drop-in screen printing hours at her Asheville studio this week in order to raise money for Girls on the Run.  I feel like I'm supposed to say that I made lots of gifts.  And I did make a few.  But I also made several for myself.  I had a hard time calling it quits, but lunch and work and other responsibilities were calling, so I kinda had to.

Now a bunch of my old and tired and worn thrift store t-shirts are pretty dang exciting!  There's a bicycle, a little whale family, a lovely old barn....... some of the to-be-gifted garments are donned with insects and birds, a medical diagram of the human heart, a rooster (a hot pink rooster that is, for Claire), and something else for papa that I won't mention yet in case he happens to stop by and read this in the days between now and said gift's journey to his stocking.

Me, I'll be wearing my new shirts a lot.  A LOT.  And looking forward to my next go 'round with the screen-printing process, for sure.  Thanks, Jen!

glowing comfort

I could sit in stillness near the tree for hours.  Staring at it all until my eyes are hazy and everything blurs together into a big silvery-golden haze.  The fire cracks and the fan on the wood stove hums behind me, lulling me further into a peaceful contentment.  On Friday night she fell asleep on my shoulder (as she often does these days) and I sat there, holding her in the comforting safety of the tree-light, for no less than thirty minutes before I could bring myself to put her down.  I later crawled into bed with her, so humbly and heart-breakingly grateful to be able to do so.  And then I repeated the same pattern for the next three nights.  Breathing her in and snuggling against her as much as I could without waking her.  I can't begin to imagine what those dear people in Connecticut are going through right now, but I am holding them in my thoughts and prayers and hoping beyond hope that they are somehow able to find peace and comfort in the days ahead.

paper whites and christmas lights

Today Mike gave me a belated birthday gift.  A new lens.  Three months ago, on my birthday, he gave me a card with a picture of the lens and I said ooooh and aahhhh, and then we both went on about our business.  I asked why he didn't just wait and give it to me in my stocking, or wrap it up and pretend it's from the jolly man himself, but he said nah, it's your birthday present.  I accepted, said ooooh and aaahhhh and thankyouverymuch.  And then played around with it all day.

making merry

 
This morning, Claire and I sat in front of a nice warm fire listening to the Vince Guaraldi Trio and stringing popcorn and cranberries for the birds.  She helped with the stringing by eating lots of popcorn and occasionally handing me the real big puffy ones after I showed her how they were the easiest to string.  As we sat there I was thinking about how I was completely content to have that be my primary focus for a big chunk of the morning.  Sit, listen, munch, meditatively string one piece of popcorn after another.......  sometimes it is so easy to get carried away in all that we think we should be doing and seeing and making and planning, and so quietly stringing popcorn felt pretty good.  There's that balance to be found this time of year, between making merry and drawing inward as the days get shorter and the mercury drops.  Around here we are daily doing some small something in recognition of this lovely and joyous time of year~ whether it's trips to that oh-so-special ballet, stringing garland for the birds, making gifts for loved ones, or a simple story or song, there's something there.  I sit here writing and realize that we are now halfway through her advent calendar.  And part of me feels rushed, as though there's so much I need to do... but there isn't, there just isn't, and so I tell that part of me to kindly can it, thank you very much.  Tomorrow's little surprise will be a tiny piece of fir tree with a note about going to pick out our tree together tomorrow night. (we tried once before, but weather and schedules and such did not mesh, so I'm hopeful for round two)  If there's time, maybe we'll even make some ornaments for our tree in the morning.  And maybe not.

The ingredients for peppermint bark are all sitting on the counter staring at me, daring me to bring them together in just the right way.  It will be intended as gifts and a fair amount will make it as such but I expect many casualties.  It's tasty stuff, after all.  And of course there are cookies to make, sugar cookies with brown sugar and a hint of orange peel.  So much yummier, in my opinion, than the standard lemon.  What keeps me from diving into those two is the notion that we probably shouldn't eat just peppermint bark and cookies for a week straight.  Probably, right?  So I'm waiting.  Just a bit.

The garland is on the mantel with clove-studded oranges, candles, and pinecones.  And my cell phone and some tiny hairbands and barrettes of Claire's.  They just kind of end up there.  I move them away and then put them back, reminding myself that I live in my home with my family, and not in a place where it is unacceptable for there to be proof of that strewn about.  Trust me, it is strewn.  All about.

But back to the wintry adornments.  The lights and the swags (I think that's what those things up there are called?) and the garland and the stockings and the snowman dish holding tiny candy canes.... I think part of why I love them so much is that they force me to stop and take it all in.  They help serve as reminders to be in a mindset of celebration and cheer and, well, mindfulness and right-here-right-now-ness.  This is now.  This is special.  This will not last forever.  So.  Enjoy.

It makes me want to start adorning my house all year round with something seasonally appropriate and festive.  To be reminded that this is now, this is special, this will not last forever, so, enjoy.

I am...

still wishing that the rain had been snow (it is December, after all)

taking in the blooming paper whites and the simmering mix on the stove (apple cores, orange peels, cinnamon, and cloves~  a brew I grew up smelling on the stove this time of year), as they battle out which will prevail as dominant smell in our house... which makes for an interesting olfactory experience

fighting the good fight with lots of vitamin c, d, and elderberry syrup administering after Claire's facial orifices seemed to have sprung a leak this week (and I think it's working)

watching (and listening) as she does lots of cutting and gluing and drawing and pretending, all very important work of course

thinking that if she keeps up with the improved sleep and I keep up with the somewhat decent bedtime for myself, I just might be able to become that morning person I always dreamed of being..... at least some days

in possession of white chocolate and peppermints, now I just need the dark chocolate and then I can start making that yummy bark

thinking about the homemade gifts (edible and non) that I still want to make for some special folks in our world..... fun, fun, fun

getting just a tad twitchy about the still tree-less status of our home... but that will be remedied very, very soon

also remembering that for many, many people in the world, the lack of an indoor evergreen in December would be nowhere near the top of the list of things that they are concerned with, and I gratefully acknowledge my blessings

decembery weekending

a slow start saturday morning, and then errands and piddling around the house until parade time.  we walked down for the parade (a fun and quirky event complete with the high school band, amateur wrestlers, wolf-dogs, newfoundlands, boy and girl scouts, firetrucks, unicyclists, and all sorts of small local businesses) and then over to the lake afterward for the luminary lighting (etc) event.  we walked around once and spent a few minutes on the playground, and then passed up on the et cetera in order to join friends for dinner on the way home.

sunday morning was french toast for two and then another prolonged round of piddling and errands followed by a trip to asheville for the nutcracker (!)  claire and I were joined by two of our dear friends, the same dear friends who accompanied us last year.  so, now, it's a tradition.  I realized not long into the show that the difference between bringing almost-two-year-olds to the ballet and almost-three-year-olds is pretty dang striking.  I mean, we made it through last year, and the girls certainly had a good time..... but there was the never-ending doling out of snacks, the occasional walks in the hall, a good bit of well-natured (I think) shushing, and a bit of nursing all the while.  this time there were snacks, sure.  but no walks, no nursing, no need for reminders about how loud we should be in the theater.  mostly just me trying to decide what I enjoyed watching more.... the ballet, or the sweet little loves as they watched the ballet on mamas' laps and occasionally shared a seat, arms draped around each other.

claire and I shared a meal at one of my very favorite asheville restaurants (the noodle shop) after the show.  we lingered over noodles and people watched through the window.  she pointed it out to me when the 'tree' was lit outside.  a new dessert.  I'm not so into red bean paste, I guess.  and then we headed home.  I love having a reason to drive through black mountain at night when it's all decked out for christmas... and I love being just 20 minutes from asheville.  good places.

a good place to call home~


*linking up with amanda at habit of being