Holiday Prep

Isn't our door thingy cute? I am proud to say that I made it. The greens come mostly from our Christmas tree, with a few fronds from our yard. The ribbon has been kicking around for years, and three of the four ornaments Owen and I thrifted a week or so ago are wired onto it. Here is a heartbreakingly adorable chat that he and I had as I finished up the door thingy (anybody know what it's actually called?):

Owen: "Hey! This ornament wants to go up on the door with her sisters and brothers!"

Me: "Honey, we do this kind of decoration with three ornaments. That one can go on the tree, and she'll see her sisters and brothers every time the door opens."

Owen (speaking in the ornament's voice): "But I will miss them! I want to be with my family!"

Me (thinking, why didn't I just buy the three? ... oh yeah, because I wanted to keep all four together, like a family. I remember having that thought in the thrift shop.): "Your family are very close by - you'll see them every time the door opens!"

The Ornament: "Oh, you're right! I am glad I will see them."

These little windows into Owen's mind are always so interesting.

Here are some more prep pictures:

When I was a kid, we made an advent calendar out of wrapping paper chain links. And now that I'm the mom, we still do it:

From the kids' perspective:

Here's the Santa and reindeer that my Mom made and then placed on our mantel every year from when I was small:

Last year, my Mom gave it to me, since she and my Dad come here from their Colorado home for the holidays. Every time I look at it I get a little thrill.

Here is the tree - the 'sister' ornament is in the lower middle:

It is sort of skinny, totally asymmetrical, and still too big to fit into our tiny house. And like every year, I just love it.

As we made our preparations, the weather hadn't even dipped below forty degrees in many weeks and it still felt like fall. Then the day we got our tree, we also got our first snowfall!

Now we're ready.

Artist at Work

It doesn't take much to make Owen happy right now:

From Spring 09

From Spring 09

The keys seem to be paint suitable for windows - in our case, tempera mixed equally with dish soap (I was skeptical about getting it off the windows, but surprisingly it comes off quite easily even after hanging around for several weeks) - in at least two colors, newspaper for the floor, a nice tall window, and, most importantly, the step stool. Because, what fun it it painting only to your own height?

I love four, the age at which yellow + blue = green is pure magic... especially when you add in the step stool.

Late Fall Amusements

With a turn of bad weather upon us recently, we have been more indoor creatures more than outdoor ones. We've found several ways to keep busy, luckily.

First of all, I've got a place to quilt again! After so many non-sewing months, I can finally stretch a part of my imagination that I'd nearly forgotten about. Also, for the first time since we moved into this house 3 years ago, my fabric is out of boxes and set up so I can find what I need to make stuff... and so can my guys:

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

In case you were wondering, Owen is making a blanket for Darth Vader. Because you just never know when an evil Sith lord might need a cozy blanket, do you?

At the world's best thrift shop, I found one of those paint-flinging-spinny-whizzy-things for 75 cents! Only instead of paint we've used markers (saving paint for a day when poor Ben's not home to see the disaster until we have had a chance to clean it up). Luke and Owen love this thing:

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

From Fall Blog

It makes really cool pictures, no?

I've saved my own current obsession for last: The Twilight books. I borrowed the first one from my sister-in-law, waited for a whole month for the second from the library (torture, extreme torture), and borrowed the third and fourth from a 13 year-old friend.

Because the thing about this series is, it appeals to girls young and... well, not so young, I guess. They are so well-written, and funny, and poignant; they make me remember what it was like to be in love for the first time.

I cannot stop reading these books, and even when I do I still end up in them - while teaching an aerobics class this morning, I told the ladies that I was there physically, but otherwise still in the little town of Forks, WA, with the vampires and werewolves.

And I got a good laugh when I realized that a high percentage of them were right there with me!