Dec 6—Saint Nicholas Day

We did some serious lazing around yesterday, and thanks to a lack of sleep and we also did a fair amount of cranking and avoiding chores, and even a little napping. All of which is good for the soul from time to time, but today felt wonderfully normal. No bickering, no sleepiness, and not even an ounce lazing. No chores, either, but one step at a time is good enough.

Today was actually Saint Nicholas Day—oranges and pocket change in wooden shoes by the front door. At least, that's what it means to us. And a new Christmas book and music are part of the tradition, too. We found a great L. Frank Baum book for this year—beautiful art in a picture book version, and the original chapter version for reading aloud. This year we also gave him a puzzle that we spent part of the morning assembling before some math, some geography, and the thank you notes for the gifts he received from family at our Sinterklass Avond party on Sunday.

Tomorrow is good for chores.

Of course Playmobil would make a Sinterklaas figure (and of coures Oma would find him!)—very fun.

This year's ornament.

holiday shenanigans

I've had to take a couple of days away from the computer to enter into the magic of old-world holiday life—a Christmas celebration in our little downtown on Saturday, and tonight our annual Saint Nicholas party. These things always fall on the same weekend, along with the Messiah performance, which I'd love to see sometime, and Christmas at the historic farm in Waterloo, which we'd also like to see sometime. But we had a great time in town yesterday, and a wonderful, warm evening with family tonight, and thankfully tomorrow is just a normal day, followed by a couple of normal weeks, when we can maybe take a break from all the holiday shenanigans and do things like laundry, and reading, and Legos, and...

Homemade ornaments

More sewing today, among other things. We ran errands all day yesterday, but first thing this morning the boy announced a serious interest in a second go at the sewing thing. As it would happen, a couple of years ago at the local fair he won a felt critter sewing kit. At the time he was too young to make good use of it so we put it away. Thankfully my memory was working well this morning, and I was able to find it.

Two hours, one blunt needle, lots and lots of thread and untangling later, and he's now the proud creator two off-color frogs (that I failed to photograph).

Then we returned to ornament sewing (or...orniment sewing, as it may be). He even drew up some instructions for those who might be interested. Or you might be interested in the instructions I used originally, an those can be found here (we altered them for the feathers—no ric-rac—and the penguin—no horns, plus I embroidered the date on the back).

Surreptitious owl...

dated owl...

Penguin in a tree? How can that be? No worries, he's good pals with the hippo...

His hand is a lot bigger than it was in 2007...

Don't sew with cats

It is snowing rather insistently outside at this moment and that adds to the festive feeling that is beginning to take over the house. Our morning project was to light the tree and, although it's still awaiting all but two ornaments, it does add a cheery glow to the place.

It actually rained all day—a driving, frigid rain that finally talked us out of running the errands we'd had planned. We spent the morning on the tree and on a few tidbits here and there, like piano, Legos, and rediscovering favorite annual books. Then we got as far as getting dressed after lunch only to stand in the front window and watch the rain blow in sheets, listening to the wind batter the house, before we turned right around and changed back into pajamas. It was just that kind of day.

So a little more decorating, a little time spent with human evolution and migration (we found a great new book: Evolution, The Human Story), and some rediscovering of our favorite seasonal books (ahhh, the Polar Express, just for my train lover).

And then there was a lot of crafting.

We did some prep work for Christmas cards, and then we tackled a sewing project. Sewing on the floor with a cat in the room is near impossible (I could not convince her that the thread was not a toy). Still we actually finished two ornaments together and learned along the way; I learned a blanket stitch, and Calvin got his first go at sewing, something he greatly enjoyed.

And that snow outside, if it does what they say (although when does it ever?), will blanket us with up to five inches of wet snow over night. I love that first morning of waking to white, but I hope it doesn't slow us down on the errands that now must be run—our St. Nicholas celebration practically right around the corner.

Tree in the house

Part of our weekend plans had been to find this year's Christmas tree, but a full day of rain made us push the plans back until this afternoon, so after a morning of good books, Christmas carols on the piano, and some journal writing, we headed out to hunt our tree.

Cutting a fresh Christmas tree has been a part of my Christmas traditions for as long as I can remember. In recent years we've gotten our tree from the same local, family owned tree farm just twenty minutes away. It was a little warmer this year, and a little quieter, since we went on a weekday. We picked a tree quickly and enjoyed some giggles with the young lads of the family while they shook and wrapped the tree. Apparently in their family if they didn't know the difference between a pine and a fir by the age of six they were in trouble. And they love Rudolph (which is apparently on TV tomorrow night) and A Claymation Christmas (which is our all-time favorite).

So the tree is up, and that means we'll have a chance to get the last of the decorations off the floor and up where they belong—a crucial step in getting the house neatened up. Hopefully we'll get to that tomorrow.