9 days: all wrapped up

This has been a hard one for me in past years - I really love wrapping gifts, but it has always been an event of major procrastination.  This year I decided that Christmas Eve was not going to be spent scrambling around with scissors and tape.  What's the point of finishing the shopping before advent if we allow the wrapping to get in our way?  So Calvin and I have been wrapping a couple packages a day all month long and today we placed the last package on the pile, making us all wrapped up for Christmas.

10 days: and they're off.

Our Christmas cards, that is.  Never mind that I started working on them back in mid November, or that I had intended to send them off the first week of December, especially since we have a new address this year, today we mailed the huge pile and they should mostly make it in time.

11 days: past the half way point

We're down to 11 days now, and that means we are more than half way through our nativity calendar.  Our calendar is one of our very favorite seasonal items; it has 24 doors surrounding a stable painted on a metal backing and each door hides one part of what, by Christmas morning, becomes a very charming nativity scene.  It was a gift from my parents the year before Calvin was born and back then Jon and I would take turns opening the door of the day and adding a figure to the stable scene.  That first year we fought over who would be the odds and who the evens, and Jon places each of his characters defiantly on the roof of the stable.  Now, of course, it's all Calvin, but it brings us even more joy to watch him eagerly attend the task than to take part in it ourselves.

12 days: What do YOU want for Christmas?

Twelve days separate us from Christmas morning. Today we got up, had a quick breakfast (because it was way later than it should have been), dressed in our outdoor finery, and headed to town for the Victorian Christmas celebration. While there we took in story time, snacks, and crafts at the library; met and pet a real live reindeer (Donner, if you ask the elf who was handling him); and walked into downtown Dexter to watch ice carving demonstrations (now really, I don't think chainsaw powered ice carving can actually be considered Victorian). Also there, in the middle of the park, was Saint Nicholas, with whom Calvin has been eagerly awaiting a short visit. He was patient waiting in line and when his turn arrived waltzed right up, without parental chaperone, and was quite at ease when Santa picked him up and placed him on his lap. He wouldn't look at me for a picture - I have no idea what he was looking at - but he was chatty enough with Santa himself; when asked what he wanted for Christmas he answered, without any pause, and just as crystal clear as you please, "an African Wild Dog". Now, do you think that's better or worse than wanting a hippopotamus for Christmas?