Blog Vacation

As much as it pains me, and it really does, I'm taking a short break from my blog world. I have come to realize that I am addicted to my laptop once on it. I need to concentrate on home right now to keep the Holiday stresses at bay by getting my housework/family chores done. I am the great procrastinator, and happily shove everything to a later day without pause.
There are now curtains to be hung in Jedd's room, bookshelves to be filled in the stairway and a dog who desires to be walked daily. I have put these things off with glee to be popping from blog to blog. But I'll be back in the new year. I love checking in on all of you and seeing what's new in your lives. Don't forget me okay? It's simply two short weeks:)!
So... Merry Christmas All!......may Jesus fill your heart this season....

Winterthur anyone?

Good Day!
Well, it's going to be in the 60's today...60's! What a silly weather for December. I'm going to throw open the shop door and glory in it. Annie's working today for Anne, so Jedd is coming to work with me. It'll be hard to live up to the day his sister gave him yesterday, schooling on the shed roof with hot cocoa, but I think I'm going to come up with chores so he can earn Christmas cash.
Tomorrow is my day off and I plan on keeping Emma home from school and having a play day with the kids. Gift shopping, movie, lunch out. You get the idea. I thought about a field trip to Baltimore or Washington, but I don't want to deal with the crowds... I thought about taking them to Winterthur, but I don't know how enjoyable that would be for any of us with Jedd along. He is all boy and hates things like that. Gardens and pretty houses? No, not so much.
If you've any day trip ideas, please send them along...What do you think? Should I force the boy to Winterthur? Does anyone else want to join us in that trip if we do it?

Burnt Fingers and Aching Backs or The Joys of Christmas Preparations

I have spent the last half hour wrapping gifts. It must be done craftily (by that I mean sneakily,not martha stewart style) obviously, with an 11 year old bursting with curiosity lurking in the corners. He is the most unusual kid in that he will sleep like a teenager...till 10 if I let him go. When I was his age I was up early looking for peep frogs outdoors or whatever. So, this is my time to wrap. I bring it all down to the kitchen table and spread out, after Emma leaves for school and before the other two awake.
I was at a get-together last night for the women merchants of downtown Cambridge and the hostess was surprised when I told her I used to have it all wrapped by Thanksgiving night. There were a few years there when the kids were little when Thom and Damien would take the kids to the movies on Thanksgiving night and I would stay home and wrap to my heart's content and my back's despair. My hostess said she always waited till Christmas Eve to wrap all the gifts and decorate the tree. HUH! Talk about putting some pressure on one's self! I would be the ghastliest human on earth that night if I did that!
Right now I think the pressure is too great on Jedd as it is. He's wondering where the gifts are hidden this year. I did change the location. How does he know? Has he been peeking when Emma is at school and Thom, Annie and I are all at work? There aren't many times he's totally alone, but there are enough to cause great temptation at this time of year!:)
Tonight I need to bake 13 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange tomorrow night. I always enjoy it while I'm there, but I'm always dreading it this night before. If anyone has a really easy recipe to roll out 100 balls per tray and bake for three minutes or less, I'll pay big bucks if you'll share it by 5 p.m. tonight!
Dear Father in Heaven, please give me wisdom and guidance throughout this day and an extra measure of calm about this baking business tonight I plead....

Seventeen!!!!

The twins have turned seventeen! Seventeen! Normally I'd go into their birth story here, but they've asked me not to this year. I think they're tired of it. I tell it several times a year:)

December 7th. What a lovely event to redeem the date for those who love us( think grandparents), and were part of the Greatest Generation and heretofore would think of Pearl Harbor.

They can never decide what to do on their day, jointly. This year options were tossed around. Finally, the other day I said,'Stop! We're doing pizza and cupcakes here, invite friends."

It was amazing. They stopped and invited friends. It was as if the decision was too large for them to make and they wanted it taken out of their hands. I had fully expected resistance and instead I got what I took as relief. It was very nice, indeed! (that word is there as an inside joke for Kate Howard:) )

Here are some shots from charades:

And the cupcake queen delivers the goods...... Linnea was thought of here and greatly missed, with her wonderful cupcake wedding cake.....

There were so many memories of past birthday parties with all these girls present. We've missed a few years of parties due to swim team...but some of these Salisbury girls have been to birthday parties here since they were tiny....I love watching these girls grow up and become such interesting people in their own right....not just so and so's daughter. Do you all know what I mean?

Thanks to all of them for coming and making MY daughters' birthday so lovely.... Big hugs to all of them and all of you...

A Happy Heart

I left with a light heart to go off to work yesterday, because of the prospect of snow.
A customer was standing by the windows and said to the others in the store, "You know they call me weather woman because of my accuracy...it's going to start snowing in the next few minutes." We all kind of said, "that would be nice"..."hope so"....etc. But I'd heard just a few minutes before it would be later in the afternoon before the snow fell...
About 5 minutes later it was coming down like mad!!! Oh happiness in the store with a bunch of grown women jumping and screeching like children.
The three customers were infused with Christmas spirit and their spending expanded! Happy shopkeeper!
...and then holiday happiness continued throughout the day. It just never stopped. At 10 p.m. Jedd and I were walking the dog in amazement as the snow still fell. We went down by the boats and across the park and delighted in it all. Every once in a while a giant snowball smashed my back and a happy boy snorted with glee...The dog was bouncing through it all, licking it , oblivious to the snowballs smashing into his back.
The return trip home was frigid, walking into the wind, but an 11 year old was willing to walk snuggled under his mom's arm for warmth. Joy!
Right now I am sitting in front of my fireplace with a dog at my feet. Some kids are sleeping, one is awake. I have a giant cup of coffee at my fingertips...
Thank you! Thank you, Father, for the happiness in my heart. Please help me to appreciate these moments in the coming weeks. Please help me to not get caught up in the stress of Christmas and miss the joy of your son's birth....

a december haiku

Where does the snow fall?
blanketing over the earth
why here, is it rain?