Just a Few Favorite Spots of Home...

Well, as much as I've been wanting to move for years now, I find myself feeling rather nostalgic about this dwelling we've called home for the last decade. It's the first home my husband ever owned. It's where I came to live after marrying him. We welcomed our children into this home after they were born. This carpet has cushioned the first tentative steps of our babies, and then the pounding and stomping of those babies-turned-toddlers. This house has seen gatherings formal and not, of family and friends, for holidays, birthdays, and game nights. We've dreamed here, cried here, laughed (a lot!) here. This home has sheltered us and been good to us. We will miss it and remember it always. But, it's time to move forward and set roots down in an entirely new place. Exciting, yes. But daunting too. Change is always hard for me, even when that change is necessary and for the better. I snapped just a few shots while packing things up this week:

I painted those plates and hung them up there to help fill that blank wall space. But, looking at the photo, the plates just seem to attract attention to that awful "popcorn" ceiling! Definitely won't be missing that.

I love the fabric hoops because it's so easy to change them out according to season or just because I've got some new fabric I want to look at more often!

This piece (fabric covered canvas) is called "In Full Bloom." It represents our family, the four of us, growing together. I made it just after our youngest was born.

The rose in that glass dome is from the first bouquet my husband ever sent me (12 years ago). The sweetest part about it is that he secretly swiped that rose from my bouquet after visiting me at my apartment. I didn't even notice that he did it. The next day he went to the hobby store and bought all the necessary items to preserve it and present it so beautifully! I've had it prominently displayed ever since.

I'm going to miss my daughter's bed being just a hop, skip, and jump away from our bed. She's been within arm's reach of me every night since she was born. I'm going to miss being able to just lift my head to check on her. And listen to her breathing. And...well, I'm going to miss us all sleeping in the same room. It always felt so comforting, a little like Little House, being in close quarters like that.

I'm going to miss the great tree out back that has been home for so many birds and squirrels (and once, an owl!).

The squirrels have provided much entertainment to my little ones looking out the glass door every morning: burying treats under the leaves and carefully covering them up!

Doing acrobatics while eating from the corn cob feeder:

And trying to outwit the squirrel-proof bird feeders:

This great tree of ours is like a sensory, 3-D calendar of the seasonal changes: from rustling golden autumn, to bare stick-like figures of winter, to the fragrant white blooms of spring, and then the lush, green canopy of summer.

I will be away from this space for a while, as tomorrow is Moving Day. Internet availability is sketchy at best where we are headed. It will take a bit of time to work out the kinks and settle back into blogging. Of course, there's all that moving in and settling in to do, as well! That probably should take precedence :) But please continue to check back now and then, as I plan on returning to posting here as soon as I am able. Until then, wishing you happy days and peaceful nights!

A New Place to Call Home:

After much searching, both geographically and in our hearts, I am excited to share that we have found our new home. A place for our family to grow, learn, thrive. My dream is to make this house a home. Where happiness dwells and laughter lingers. Where roots grow deeply & love flows freely.

My husband and I jokingly call this our "Paparazzi" shot because, although she is waving, it looks as though she's trying to block her face from the prying eye of the camera! We just love that we finally have lots of open space for the children to play outside.

Coming from a busy suburb, we can't get over how oddly deafening the quiet stillness of the forest is that surrounds us.

I love this photo. I'll tell you why: At nearly every house we looked at over the last 8 months, there were deer to be seen. Well, the first time we came up to see this future home of ours, I didn't see a single one. I love the sight of deer scampering by, so I was disappointed that we seemed to be in a deer-free zone. I even asked my husband, "Did you see any deer tracks outside the house? I didn't see any. Maybe I missed them? Did you see any??"

My husband and I fell in love with the land and the house, but felt torn as to what we should do. You see, we currently had an offer on another house that we loved and wanted, but it was taking ages to move along (those dreaded short sales!). Prior to that, we had our hearts set on two other houses that we felt sure were "it." However those eventually fell through -- one for a failed inspection and the other one we got outbid in the third round. Heartbreaking as it was at the time, I can see now that those events were just leading us to this place.

Anyway, just before we left the deerless house, I was sitting in the car nursing my son. I said out loud, "Lord, please send me a sign. Show us down the right path." Almost instantly (seriously, it was like 0.3 seconds later), the deer appeared. Several of them. Leaping over rocks and ducking in and out of the trees. It was like that scene in the movie "Funny Farm" when Chevy Chase's character says, "Cue the deer," and they release a beautiful fawn from a cage. The fawn proceeds to scamper right in front of the prospective buyers' eyes. {Does anyone know the scene I'm talking about??} Anyway, I happily took that as my "sign." And the fact that passing inspections, loan stuff, and signing the closing papers literally at the eleventh hour have all come quickly on the heels of that powerful deer sighting, I am taking them all as signs that we are where we are supposed to be. And that brings us such a feeling of peace. I can't think of a better way to start a new year than being filled with a sense of peace!

Too Busy Making Merry, I Guess...

Wow. Did you hear that thud? That was the sound of me dropping the proverbial ball. I promised posts filled with Christmas craft ideas, recipes, and other holiday snippets. What I failed to consider was that my hopes and plans for the holidays almost always involve me biting off more than I can chew. I apologize for my absence from this space for the last few weeks. Geez, has it really been that long? I do sincerely hope that your holiday moments were joyful ones and that you are eagerly anticipating an exciting and fulfilling 2010!

Our holidays were lovely. As a Christmas enthusiast, I always feel somewhat sad after Christmas has passed. I find myself grasping to catch the last few holiday memories before they slip through my fingers. Lingering, I attempt to bask in the Christmas afterglow: slowly packing away the tree ornaments, admiring the new ones from this year and remembering what fun we had making them; folding freshly washed Christmas dish towels, thinking about putting them to use again next year for holiday baking; and taking down the Advent stockings, being thankful that my children were too young this year to care if I forgot to fill them each and every day of Advent.

As always, I have my predictions as to what gifts will garner the most oohs, aahs, and smiles from my beloved recipients. And, as always, the children generally prove me wrong. Except on a few particular gifts. So, I thought I'd share a few of the "hits" (and let's not discuss the "misses" for now, as I am still holding out hope that they will come around and become big fans of the other gifts I painstakingly chose).

I had grandiose plans of raiding my mom's closet for some dress-up clothes and getting my hands on a vintage suitcase that I was going to decorate to personalize it for my daughter. In the end, I ran out of time and purchased various dress-up outfits instead. Many of these purchases were done online, so I was surprised to see the items in person, as they were very...pink. Not soft, baby-pink, but sort of a loud, in-your-face pink. Regardless, I knew Roo would love them and she did Although, she is still afraid to wear the Elton John-like glasses and the clip-on earrings. I'm not sure why, but at least her little brother is finding them fun. :)

These heels were a bit high for my liking (again, hard to know the specs on things like this when buying online), but she insisted on wearing them even though they elicited tears every time she turned her ankle while walking in them.

And below, we have the flapper dress stylishly paired with owl pajamas and a super-pink boa (or furry jump rope, in this case).

My other hit was this Sprig dump truck for Rascal. He enjoyed gathering bits of wrapping paper and bows for "trash" and tooling around the living room. I think he has perfected his dump truck sound effects at this point. Is that a boy thing? My daughter rarely makes "car sounds" when she plays with cars and trucks. Instead, she makes the cars chatter and sing songs. Granted, my son has very few words at this point (he's 18 months), but even when my daughter was his age, she was never into "doing" sound effects. Perhaps it's yet another example of what everyone told me when Rascal was born: "Boys are different from girls. You just wait and see." And they weren't kidding. My son and daughter have already shown this Mama a myriad of differences: some delightful and cute, and some frustrating and challenging. But, I digress.

I took this picture tonight of the flannel board I made. Roo was playing with it before dinner. On it right now you can see the felt pieces to go along with the Eric Carle story, "A House for Hermit Crab." You'll also see some random bunnies and cats on the right side there, because no ocean is complete without its fair share of domestic pets.

I also began work on felt pieces to use with some other stories: Cat in the Hat, Very Hungry Caterpillar, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, and a few others. Reading the story while the children put the pieces on the board makes reading more interactive, which is nice for really little ones like mine (increases their comprehension and memory of the story line, plus it's just fun to make things stick without having to use tape or glue!) Added into the book props are some basic shapes like rectangles, squares, and circles so they can create buildings, cities, and cars. Some trees, grass, mud puddles, clouds, raindrops, and other felt objects make it possible for them to make up their own stories. It was a fun project to work on those last couple of weeks before Christmas. Cutting out the characters free-hand was time-consuming (I wasted a lot of felt and didn't finish up half the pieces I had in mind when I started), but I think it will be a nice (quiet!) activity for them to play with during the coming winter days.

Every year I intend to keep the holidays simple. Especially where gifts are concerned. But, every year I talk myself out of it because I love choosing gifts and imagining how the gift will delight someone and how it will be put to good use. Plus, that Amazon cart is just so easy to fill -- even at 2 am! Gifts for the children are my weak point. My husband and I keep it simple when it comes to presents for each other and adults in general (parents, in-laws, friends, etc.). But, as children, my husband and I both recall coming down Christmas morning to a tree completed swallowed up by mounds of sparkling wrapped presents. We rationalize that Christmas only comes once a year and so it's okay to go overboard. We generally avoid excessive material consumption the rest of the year and we make sure the children observe and take part in giving to charity year-round. So, I suppose we feel justified in piling on the goods at Christmastime. Well, I think what I observed this Christmas is going to push me headlong into gift restrictions next Christmas. This is what I saw:

My normally cheery 4 year old daughter was mopey and teary and quite obviously overstimulated by the gift opening. After she opened the first gift of Christmas morning she wanted to play with it immediately. But, since we were on a bit of a time crunch (we had plans to drive to my parents' house later that morning, we still had to eat the special Christmas Day breakfast, and we had more presents to follow), we told her to put the gift aside and continue opening gifts. Reluctantly, she did so. I noticed that she was becoming progressively less excited with the opening of each subsequent gift. The thrill had worn off.

Later on, she was opening a gift that my family had purchased as a group (as it was a tad pricey, but it was something my daughter had been asking for repeatedly). But, instead of being happy to see the long-awaited present, she was apparently in gift-opening mode, because no sooner had the paper been ripped off the box when she asked, "What else can I open?" *Gulp* Talk about embarrassing. I reminded myself that 4 year old children are allowed (and maybe even expected) to forget their manners once in awhile. But, the message had finally hit home (heck, I think the message was hit clear out of the ballpark): it was all Too Much. Too much rushing, too much unwrapping, too much hub-bub.

We've always been vigilant about talking about the true meaning of Christmas with our daughter. We've given lip service to the idea that it is not about the presents. But, our words and our actions don't always match up. We think that by buying presents, we're doing it "for them," when we're really doing it for us. To make ourselves feel like we are providing enough: enough fun, enough excitement, enough education, enough experiences. Enough love? Maybe on some subconscious level I believe tokens of affection are exactly that: proof of how much someone loves someone else. Hmmm...Well, now I say enough with the gifts.

I will admit that, as an adult, I love shopping. I get swept away by the whole consumerism thing way too easily. Buyer's remorse is a feeling I am familiar with, unfortunately. I don't want to pass that love of "things" on to my children. And I'm certainly not blaming my parents for planting some shopaholic syndrome seed in me, due to excessive Christmas presents during my formative years or anything like that. But, I know there is something to be said (and possibly a great many somethings to be said) for scaling back the "stuff," and focusing more on the sacredness of the holiday. I had a friend long ago tell me that she and her husband give their children three gifts on Christmas. She said that if it was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for her own kids. That's an interesting perspective, I think. And it's something I will continue to think about over the coming year. Replacing some of the store-bought tangibles with the real gifts of the holiday: peace, togetherness, time, gratitude, love. Oh yes, a whole lotta love. That's certainly one gift that's impossible to give in excess!

Nature-al Gift Wrap

As much as I had planned having all the gifts wrapped and stacked by now, it just hasn't worked out that way. So, to get the little ones involved with the task, we put a little spin on the standard potato stamps with our own nature-stamped gift wrap. It was simple, fun, and has that "imperfect homemade charm" to it! My daughter, who loves to help wrap presents anyway, really loved wrapping presents in paper she made herself.

I took some blank paper that came as packing material with a shipment I received this week (hence the wrinkled look) and some acrylic craft paint. Add unused snippets of boughs and a few of our tree blocks from Christmas trees past, and we went to work.

I just love the way the grain from the wood shows through the stamped paint!

Roo found that by rolling the log instead of stamping it on one end only, she could recreate the look of an entire tree trunk imprint:

Such a fun way to spend a morning: Christmas carols playing in the background, cookies baking away in the oven, and stamping our own gift wrap. This day turned out to be one of the few times this Christmas season I actually felt like we had captured a quintessential holiday moment! Even though my youngest wasn't willing to get his hands dirty, he directed his big sister as to where to stamp and generally enjoyed the process as a spectator-sport only.

The wrapped gifts, complete with bows and tags look just precious as they wait to be placed under the tree on Christmas Eve. I think that this just might become one of our new holiday traditions!

Fresh From the Oven...

The past few weeks have brought a few opportunities our way for indulging in some home-baked sweets. A couple weeks back, we needed something to accompany our impromptu forest picnic after chopping down our Christmas tree. Apricot-pecan cinnamon rolls, hot cocoa, and clementine slices seemed just the thing for that occasion. Then, a few nights ago, we celebrated our anniversary by trimming the tree (our annual anniversary tradition). Cherry-chocolate cream cheese cinnamon rolls and hot cider filled our tummies while we filled our tree's branches with ornaments new and old. Such a sweet way to celebrate another year growing and learning as a couple and as a family!

Generally speaking, I make cinnamon rolls from scratch. The whole kneading, rising, kneading, and rising process may be more time consuming, but I think it produces better-tasting, tender rolls. But, since the two cinnamon roll-noshing occasions I mentioned above came at busy times of the year for us, I decided to use a shortcut.

I've been holding onto a magazine clipping for no-yeast/no-rise cinnamon rolls (I think it may have come from Southern Living mag). The results were better than expected. Even my Dad, who doesn't care for cinnamon rolls (how is that possible, right??), raved about them and had second helpings.

So, if you are looking for a quick recipe for Christmas morning goodies, or just want a sweet snack while curled up on the couch, give these a try. Here are the recipes for the two different versions, based on the same basic formula. I imagine you could really get creative and come up with your own combinations too.

Apricot-pecan Cinnamon Rolls:

1 pkg. frozen biscuits (12 count)
1 (6 oz.) pkg dried apricots
All-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Arrange frozen biscuits, sides touching, on a lightly floured baking sheet in 3 rows of 4 each. Let stand 30-45 min. or until biscuits are thawed, but still cool to the touch.


Pour boiling water over the apricots and let stand 10 minutes (this makes the fruit nice and moist for baking. Don't skip this step!). Drain well and chop.

Pat the biscuits into a rectangle, pressing and pinching biscuit edges together.

Brush dough with softened butter. Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over butter. Then sprinkle chopped pecans and apricots over the sugar mixture. My photo below shows the alternate recipe using cherries and chocolate, but the process is the same.

Roll up the dough, starting at one long end. Cut into 1-inch thick slices. Place rolls into a lightly greased 10-inch round pan or 9-inch square pan.

Bake at 375 for 35 min. or until just lightly browned. Cool slightly. When my cherry-chocolate rolls came out of the oven, they seemed lacking in chocolate, so I sprinkled on additional chips.

Stir together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Drizzle over rolls. I do this step once when they first come out of the oven and then again after they have fully cooled. This way, the first application of icing melts right into the rolls and the second application leaves a nice thick coating that hardens on top. I like the extra sweetness and "gooeyness" of two doses of icing.

*For the Cherry-Chocolate Cream Cheese rolls: Prepare apricot-pecan rolls as directed, substituting 1/2 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese for 1/4 cup butter, 1 (6 oz.) pkg dried cherries for the dried apricots, and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips for the pecans. These rolls are pictured at the top of this post, while the apricot-pecan ones are here:

These cinnamon rolls do not have the tender, yeast-like taste of traditional rolls. But, if you are short on time or just don't want the hassle of kneading and rising, these rolls still meet the sweet, home-baked goodness expectations most of us are looking for this time of year.

Things that go beep in the night...

God is smiling right now. I know that He has a sense of humor because of what happened last night. I had the choice to either laugh or cry, so I chose to see the humor in it. Here it goes (Oh! And it's important to set the stage with this little tidbit: we have a vaulted ceiling in our bedroom. It's easily 15-17 feet high. I know you don't yet know why this fact is important, but you will soon):

My youngest child finds The Sandman to be his biggest foe. When the gentle Sandman cometh each and every night for every other child in the world, my son sees it has his chance to rebel and show off his freakish resilience to sleep. He fights it like it's the plague.

It is not at all uncommon for my son to sleep from 7 pm until 8 pm. One hour. One glorious, fleeting hour. Then, from 8 pm until midnight or 2 am, my husband and I take turns trying to coax our son back to sleep. (Oh how I wish I was exaggerating or embellishing here, but I'm not. Sadly, I am not). He often proceeds to wake again at 3 am, 4 am, and then he is usually up for the day around 5 am. There is lots of tossing and turning, flip-flopping around on the bed, screaming, crying, kicking, hair-pulling, and pushing. And let's not even discuss the antics on my son's behalf. {Just kidding. We don't kick or pull his hair. All the aggression is coming from him toward us during these nightly bouts. The poor little guy just hates to go to sleep. We practice peaceful parenting as much as humanly possible, but we do struggle to remain calm and patient come the 4 or 5 hour mark}.

Last night I had to do the whole bedtime routine solo. My husband had some important documents to print up, scan, and fax. So, he drove back to work to do those things. That left me to get both kiddos off to sleep. It's not a huge deal, but if Rascal puts up a fight, I'm on my own to deal with it.

Poor Roo, she waited patiently in her bed while I tried to get her brother to sleep. I told her I'd rub her back and belly once her brother was asleep. She fell asleep while waiting for me. :(

After one and a half hours of me nursing, singing, and patting Rascal in our bed, his eyes began to flutter closed. I waited another few minutes before I dared move my arm away from him, as he was curled up against it. I was almost ready to start celebrating my swift and successful sleep induction. Almost.

Then, approximately 11 seconds after he had officially nodded off (but while he was still in that easy-to-wake stage of early sleep), guess what happened? Go on, guess. I'm telling you that you will never guess because even I can't believe what happened and I was right there to witness it.

Wait for it...

The smoke detector began to chirp. You know that high-pitched chirp the detectors make every 30 seconds or so to warn you that the battery is low? It's an unbelievably loud and disturbing chirp when you are in a dark and quiet room listening to it. And I thought to myself, "Have we ever changed the battery in that thing?? Many a night I've laid awake in this bed for the last several years, looking up at that smoke detector. I've seen it's light blinking in the dark and often wondered just how long one battery could possibly last."

Well, it failed to last about 8 hours longer than I needed it to.

WHY couldn't it have waited until morning? Why couldn't it have started the warning chirps during the daytime, when the children were not using the room for nocturnal sleep? Why did it have to start now -- while my husband is gone and unable to fix it for me (vaulted ceiling, remember? Otherwise I would have fixed it myself).

Just for the record, to demonstrate how ridiculously uncanny the whole situation was, my husband has NEVER gone back to work late at night. He does not hold the kind of job that requires him to do any additional work once he gets home for the day. I remember once when he left his wallet at work, he didn't even drive back to work to get it. He just called and asked the guy that sits nearby to put the wallet in his desk until my husband could get it the next morning. My beloved never leaves me stranded at home in order to run back to work. Until last night.

So, having it MY way, I would have preferred for the chirping to start sometime over the long holiday weekend. When my husband was home for 4. straight. days. Looking for something to do. That would have been a good time to go out to the shed and get our rickety old ladder, maneuver it up our long, narrow staircase, move our queen-size bed out of the way, climb to the tippity top, perch himself precariously on the uppermost step, stretch his long arms up and still barely reach the smoke detector. But, instead, he had to do all of those things late at night. In the dark. After a super-exhausting day of work.

Oh, yes. I think God got a good little chuckle watching that scene play out in our bedroom last night.

And as for Rascal, he fell right back to sleep just as the sun was rising and his sister was waking and it was time for this tired Mama to get up and start her day. Does it count as "starting" a day when you never went to bed the night before?

Hanging the Advent Stockings

I've finally done it. It was down to the wire, as usual, but I did it. I completed the Advent stockings and actually hung them up last night (or was it early this morning??). This little project has been in the works for almost four years now. Four years. But, better late than never, I say.

We've always had an Advent wreath on the table (and will continue to do so), but now that Roo is getting to the age when she is asking "How much longer until Christmas eve?" I thought it was high time I pushed myself to finish this craft. It's the Christmas "countdown" made visible.

I used a variety of winter/Christmas fabrics. I was so pleased to finally use some Superbuzzy fabric that I had been hoarding. I love Superbuzzy, but it can be pricey. When I use their fabric to sew clothes for the children, I always mourn the day when they outgrow the piece I made them (or stain it beyond saving). So to be able to work those particular fabrics into something that will never be outgrown or stained (I hope), but will be brought out year after year for this special time was such a pleasure!

Since this has been a tradition I have been hoping to implement for several years now, I've amassed pages and pages of stocking stuffer thoughts. I love the idea of filling the stockings with ideas for relishing the holiday season. This is certainly not an activity that has to focus on the material goodies stuffed inside (although, there will be some of that here and there). In fact, that is a trend I most definitely do not want to start with my little ones. That whole "expectation" thing is not on our agenda. With 24 stockings and two children, that would be 48 little gifts that I would have to dole out over the next few weeks. So, (ahem), that is not going to happen.

My plan is to use some of the things I would be doing anyway (giving new Christmas pj's, making a gingerbread house) and turning that into the "gift" tucked inside (a scroll tied with ribbon, explaining the special activity of the day. I will try to use as many symbols and drawings as I can since my children are not reading yet). For days when the gift is an actual present instead of an activity, and it is too big to put inside the stocking, then I will put a clue or series of clues in the stocking that will lead to where I've stashed the present. If it is something that I would be spending money or energy on anyway, why not include it as one of the 24 surprises? Plus, the great thing about young children is their genuine excitement over the simplest ideas.

I decided to go with removable tags on the individual stockings, noting the day (1-24). This was partly due to lack of time to sew or embellish each one with a number, and partly due to my urge to change things up year to year (or even within the current year). For instance, I don't always want Day 6 to be a huge stocking. Because what if I don't happen to have something on hand that is appropriately sized for Day 6? I want the freedom to change stocking sizes around to suit what I have planned for that particular day, year to year. Honestly, I am quite sure I will be scrambling a few times the night before, looking for just the right idea for the next day's stocking. So, if I need to change things around, I can.

Today, being December 1st (although the "real" Advent started Sunday), Roo peeped into the first stocking a found a polished stone in the shape of a heart. It symbolizes the love God has for us and the way my sweet little ones make my own heart swell with love.

I will be peppering my posts throughout this month with some of the plethora of ideas swirling inside my head. For the next few days, I have the following planned:

Day 2: Our Book Basket is currently sitting empty. It's time to break out the Winter books! Since we only have our seasonal books out for a short time, it's always a treat to see these old familiar friends again. I will be cutting my fair share of paper snowflakes tonight. When the children come downstairs in the morning, they will check the stocking for Day 2. Inside will be a scroll of paper telling them to look for the clues to the day's special activity (I will draw snowflakes on the paper or maybe I will tuck an actual paper snowflake into the stocking, thus prompting them to look for the snowflake's friends). Looking around, they will see and then follow the trail of snowflakes to the hiding place where I will stash our Winter storybooks. We will then fill our Book Basket with fresh titles and cozy up and read right after breakfast. {This activity falls under the category I talked about above: take something you would ordinarily do (drag the Winter books out of storage and read them) and make IT the stocking stuffer. Of course, adding a little fanfare (the snowflake trail) always helps! It costs nothing to do and makes the ordinary extra-ordinary}.

Day 3: Decorating our own wrapping paper. I have a few potatoes that I will cut into desired designs (here's hoping Roo chooses something simple!) and we will stamp blank paper with our painted potatoes. Even my youngest can participate. There's something so touching about a gift wrapped up in paper designed by sweet little hands.

Day 4: Set up our little snow village on the hearth. My daughter is just like me: she loves to arrange and rearrange things. In this case, it's the village of houses, bridges, barns, and figurines ice-skating and caroling. For me, this is basically a continuation of holiday decorating. But to my daughter, it's an EVENT. She will spend hours setting everything up just so!

That's all I have for tonight. I must get off to the craft room and work on a few presents. But, I have no shortage of ideas related to Advent stockings. So, check back if you're interested in hearing more. If you're not into Advent stockings this year (but you really should consider it for next year or down the road-- it really does help one slow down and savor the joys of this busy season), don't worry. I've got other topics to cover: food, books, and some craftiness.