Merry Christmas from SPISHS

Christmasing

I just got my laptop back after having sent it away to get the fan replaced. It had been making a loud whirring noise every time it had been on for more than a couple of minutes. Seems okay now! Here's some photos of recent Christmas-y stuff.

Food for Birds

We made these today.

We made these yesterday.

It was mostly driving.

Today was park day and we got there alarmingly* late. We only stayed for about an hour and then started the long drive back home to our house at the very edge of the world, only this time we stopped to pick up Pat, pizza, and Pepsi. Also breadsticks, but that's not as alliterative, so it should have its own fragmentary sentence, don't you think?

Here is what I thought about today: 10 years ago I was 27. Saren was 4 and Harper was 1. We lived in a brand new but cheaply built townhouse apartment where you had to make below a certain amount per month to qualify to live there. Every time we payed our rent the people in the office treated us as if living there was a privilege and we had better be good enough to deserve it. We only lived there for one year and couldn't stand it. 20 years ago I was 17 and halfway through my last year in high school. I was maudlin and thought I was depressed, but in reality I was just a little lost.

10 years from now, Saren will be 24 and Harper will be 21. 20 years from now maybe I'll have grandchildren. I don't know why time and it's relative shortness or longness always fascinates me, but it always does. Little children become big people in the blink of an eye. I can close my eyes and picture my room when I was 17; the stickers all over the mirrored closet doors, the peach colored blinds. Mysterious.

*no one was alarmed

Today

~ a walk followed by hot chocolate with whipped cream on top
~ playing with blocks and cars with my boy
~ finishing A Game of Thrones and wishing I had book two, but knowing I have to wait for 48 other people to be finished with it
~ chicken soup in the crockpot
~ listening to Rilo Kiley while knitting a gift
~ wondering what waste yarn is
~ knowing I'll figure it out when the time comes

Stocking

I made this stocking for Irina to replace the mess of a stocking I originally made her when she was a wee babe. I think it turned out quite well. Now only Silas and Irina have stockings that I actually like. I need to replace everyone else's when I can get some more felt. Not mine though, because my mom made it for me when I was a wee babe.

Paper Chains and Diamond

Today's advent activity was making paper chains. So here is a boring picture of that.

Harper and I (and sometimes Saren) go to Petsmart on Sundays to volunteer our cat-taking-care-of services. Today there was only one cat there, the very shy Diamond, who didn't even want to come out of her cage.

Dino Museum

We went to the museum of natural history for our advent activity today. I know that's not very holiday-ish, but it was something I wanted to do while Pat was on vacation, so I figured why not? Just the littles went this time; the bigs were not interested.

Ice Skating

Today's advent activity: ice skating. A few friends were there too because today was a homeschool day ($5 per skater and adults free! Woooo! Also, free hot chocolate!). It was Silas's first time. The first time around he really didn't like it. Then he asked to go a second time and started to enjoy himself more. But that was as much as he was willing to do.

Afterward, all the desert kids went crazy about a pile of snow left in the parking lot by the zamboni and had a snowball fight.

Traditions

Our advent calendars went up a couple of days ago. There's the stocking advent calendar, which is a garland of 25 mini-stockings, each filled with chocolate, one for each child, each day. Then there's a tree-shaped advent calendar with little box drawers, each with an activity in it. And someone at Pat's work gave us two of those cardboard calendars with little doors to open up and chocolate behind each one (which I now strongly suspect have been sitting around for a couple of years!).

Today we cut paper snowflakes and will hang them from the ceiling later. I'm reading one Christmas book a day until Christmas. We have a collection of our own because we buy one (or two) for under the tree each year. And I supplement those with books from the library. I had to check out a stack in late October because last year when I went to check some out in early December, they were all gone. So I just renew them when needed. Sounds like cheating, but you do what you've gotta do in this competitive holiday library season. I make no apologies!