Weekend Update: Christmas Checklist

Checking Off:

Gift Shopping

Wrapping

Send Cards

Lights and Garlands

Outside Lights

Advent Calendar

Nativity

Christmas Village

Ballet

Christmas Parade

Christmas Tree

Still To Do:

Visit Longwood Gardens (tonight, members only!)

See Christmas Lights at Herrs

(the potato chip factory puts on a lights display, no Canterbury, but it's pretty)

Make Christmas Cookies

Gingerbread Men

Make Reindeer Food

Watch Elf

Plan Christmas Eve Dinner

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!

Weekend Update: Christmas Coming

What a weekend.  Whew.  Up at 10:30 last night still doing laundry.  Christmas Parade.  Decorating.  Indoors and outdoors.  Christmas Village up, paper chains made, nativity out, Advent calendar started.  Then why did I think this was the time to enroll the girls in Taekwondo classes three times a week?

I...am...officially...insane.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer at the theatre next Saturday, get the Christmas tree Sunday, girls are to go shopping with Mom on Sunday for my gifts, then an invite to Karelyn's best friend's Christmas play.

Whew.

Last weekend before Christmas is dedicated to cookie baking.  This tradition we will not miss.  No way.  The presents are all purchased, most of them wrapped, cards are sent, decorations are out.  So why do I feel so darn wiped out?  Too much at once I guess.

But I adore this time of year.  I like having so many traditions and things to look forward to.  I really wish we could hold on to these feelings all year long.

But this pace.....never.  I'll almost be happy when I'm at Mom's house on Christmas Day, girls having already come astonished downstairs to see what Santa has brought and safely tucked off to their Dad's and I'm sitting eating her delicious dinner with a glass of wine and warming myself by the wood stove.

Ahhhhhh.....sweet rest.


p.s.   love the advert!  how sweet!!

Here and There: Favorite Christmas Songs

When we're talking Christmas, and the background for wrapping or cookie baking or decorating the Christmas tree, for me it doesn't get much better than Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song.




But like you I have a fondness for Christian hymns and sweet songs.  My favorite being this one.  I love Enya's voice as well, it lends itself well to Christmas hymns.




My other favorite is "Silent Night", again another beautiful voice.  I grew up in the Episcopal church, going to midnight services on Christmas Eve.  My favorite moment was at the end of the service when the organ quit playing, the lights were lowered and it was just the voices of the people inside the church singing this song as midnight came.  It brings tears to my eyes even now when I think of it, such a feeling of peace.




Then there's The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker.  This I think will be the first year I haven't taken the girls to see it. I almost tried to get it to watch on video but figured it wouldn't be as great as seeing the live ballet. The first time I took Emily to see it at about age four or five, she sat on my Dad's lap and said "oooooh, she's beautiful" so loud when the Sugar Plum Fairy danced out that everyone around us got a chuckle.




And I cannot forget my favorite singer. The little hippie in me cannot resist the lovely ending to this classic, listen through...





And last but not least, bet you didn't know there's Harry Potter Christmas music?  Oh yes, this Harry Potter freak of course owns Jingle Spells.




How about that?

You were right, there were way too many to narrow down!!

Here And There: Grateful

I'm stressed out over Thanksgiving dinner which I say every year I'm not going to be, but it's a big meal.  A huge meal to make for one evening.  Luckily I am on vacation and today I will cook the turkey the day before to free up the oven for the big day.  Here is our Thanksgiving menu:

Roast Turkey and Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Stuffing or perhaps Dressing?

Roast Carrots, Leeks and Mushrooms

Green Beans with Dill

Succotash

Fresh Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

Pumpkin Pie

Bread Pudding

Wish I could send you a slice of pumpkin pie, it is my favorite part!!

**********

Tomorrow we will be writing down five things each we are grateful and putting them in a jar and then will try to guess who wrote each one.  

In preparation here is a list of things I am grateful for right now

A warm home.

The sounds of the birds migrating.

The way the trees looked in the fog this morning.

Christmas Carols playing in the background.

The lady who let me use her discount card at the grocery when I forgot mine.

Having my family so close to me.

Having my Christmas shopping 3/4 of the way done.

Vacation, vacation, vacation

Little girls outside splashing in puddles.

A friend a country away emailing me a last minute recipe.

Having a gaggle of good friends including you!!

Weekend Update: Holiday Preparations

Fall has come and about all the leaves are gone, blown to the ground.  It's been alternating between balmy and frigid temperatures in a completely odd way we are not used to.  The leaves we put on the windows are a nice reminder and look at the extra benefit I didn't know we would get.  This weekend I noticed when the sun comes out I get these beautiful shadows on my curtains.  We are getting ready for Thanksgiving this week, so I hope these at least stay put. My sister and I are preparing to go do the shopping for our big dinner on Thursday and the girls and I are cutting out some paper leaves for everyone to write what they are thankful for to collect from the family.  Lots of preparations underway, dare I say, even got my Christmas cards and a handful of gifts done this past weekend as well.

weekend update: lots of leaves

sunday going home

(karelyn and grandmom)

(after grandad adjusted her seat and filled her tires)

It's been a beautiful fall.  I took the girls to my Mom's house Sunday to ride their bikes.  The lane to their house is about 1/4 of a mile long.  My sister and I used to ride our bikes back and forth and back and forth.  I don't know why I didn't think to take the girls and their bikes there before, but then again this has been the first year both girls are on two wheels.  It's a most definite thing that next year I need to get a bike and join them....that and a bike rack.  After this my Mom went shopping with my sister and the girls and I took their dog Elijah for a walk through the woods.  Karelyn told me this morning that Grandmom's was one of her favorite places to go.  It reminds me how lucky I was to grow up there.

here and there: fall

this is what i love about fall.  this is the edge of the woods behind my house.  there is a little path that runs from my house to my grandparent's house.  i love more than anything watching the leaves turn.  i remember learning in a science class that these are the natural colors of the leaves that finally come out as the sun dies away.  that has always stuck with me.  there is something about them showing their true colors that pleases me.  it's almost as if they work up the courage to be their true selves and then let go.  something i've been trying very hard to do these last few years.  the reds are my favorites.  i love the way they jump out at you as you are walking along.  i always seem to pick up the red ones.

the girls and i have been steady collecting them.  picking up the ones we most like.  we have pressed them all in one of my heavier cookbooks and will spend this time in November pressing them in waxed paper, cutting them out and hanging them on the windows: a perfect natural sun catcher.  it has been a strange fall here, we had summery weather up until recently and then snow last weekend, not even all the leaves have changed over in the backyard.  the acorn crop (also a favorite to collect and put in glass jars) was stunted too.  it seems with us still running around in our summer clothes so late, Halloween crept up on us and we were running around getting our pumpkins to turn into jack-o-lanterns at the last minute.  the girls always carve their pumpkins with their father.  it is nice that they have a tradition they keep with him. it helps me as well since i have no artistic ability when it comes to creating something with my hands and the last time I held a decent sized knife I ended up in the emergency room with my finger sliced to the bone.  (i was trying to cut a bagel in half, now buy them pre-sliced).

so we have Halloween night, October 31st.  a night we dress up in costume and parade around neighborhoods so the girls can collect candy.  i used to always have them posed on the porch or on our old patio, perfectly placed in their costumes, individually and then together, and they were the cutest photos.  now i was lucky to even get a quick shot in before they ran out the door.  we go to emily's best friend's house since we live on a dark and quiet road, they live in a development of homes.  i caught these two quick photos before they headed out.  no placement, using flash in the house, so they are not the best, but at least i have some kind of record.  they were both ninjas.  we have thus moved on from the princess and fairy phase of their lives.  karelyn, looked tough as nails in her costume, and emily, well always the glamour queen, she of course went in her very own style.  the make-up job was her own, no help allowed from mom this year.  to me she looks a little like an elf fighting for Middle Earth, but that would be Emily.  i always have felt that when we do this thing at Halloween, we are really taking advantage of having one day we can kind of step outside the box and show what we could be or maybe what we are when we think we can get away with it.

So Halloween is over.  We've had the harvest festival, we've made scarecrows, we've had the Halloween party, we've been to the apple butter festival, we've carved our pumpkins.  We're headed to November now and that will see us finish up with our leaves and our preparations for Thanksgiving.  We will stuff ourselves silly as we prepare to go into the winter months.  I am not fond at all of winter.  Maybe the animals have it right.  The girls and I were talking about it the other day.  How the animals will fill their bellies or their burrows.  How they will curl up in a cave, or underground, or in a tree or in the deepest part of the creek and wait out the winter.   They will nestle in head to tail and sleep out the winter months when the weather is brutal and there is not much food to be found.  Please.  If only I could.  Can you think how lovely that would be, a long winter's nap?  Wake me up when Spring arrives!!

Here and there: Autumn

It's Halloween today, but it's really not the celebration here that you have, and certainly nothing will be happening in my house. Next week will be Guy Fawkes' Night, or Bonfire Night, which was a much bigger deal than Halloween when I was a child. I am hoping it doesn't rain, and the Prof and I, plus the Young Philosopher and Miss S if they are around, will be wrapping up warm with scarves and gloves and heading off to the local firework display, stopping at the local chippy for a big bag of English chips to keep our hands warm. I don't know if you have 'English' chip shops? they are not like a bit like American fries, though I like those too, but they can't compare to a big bag of steaming hot chips, liberally doused with salt and vinegar.

I love the colours of autumn, though don't see much of them where I live. Unless we go out for a drive in the country, the only trees I see are here and there along some of the residential streets, like the tree in the photograph, which is across the road from my house. In the other photos are the pyracantha which grows along my fence, and the virginia creeper in my back garden - every year it loses its leaves just as it starts to go red, such a shame. I found a few rare red leaves to photograph, it's mostly bare now.

At the weekend the clocks went back, and now it will be dark so much earlier in the evenings. I love these chilly autumnal evenings, the curtains drawn early, the fire blazing, feeling warm and cosy on the sofa, and the knowledge that it will soon be Christmas.

Snowy Weekend

A great storm blew in Saturday, not even Halloween yet, here we sit in October and I awoke to sleet on the windows.  It changed to snow and then a mix as the day went on.  I had heard earlier in the week that they were calling for a snow storm.  I just shrugged off the idea.  It was almost delightful because it was so pretty yet I knew it wouldn't last and make a mess of the roads.

It was a good excuse to curl up on the couch all day and do nothing.

weekend update: sunday breakfast, october style

it's officially fall now, the date having changed almost a month ago, but really feeling it now.  this morning i tried a new recipe for baked oatmeal.  i used thawed frozen blueberries and fresh apples, but you could actually make it with any combination of amazing fruits.  it got a triple thumbs up, the girls having devoured two great big platefuls this morning fresh from the oven.  even emily's friend "witchy cat" newly found from the basement with the halloween decorations seemed to agree.  next sunday will be the morning after the girl's halloween party.  do you do all the halloween shenanigans and trick-or-treating there in England?  I imagine after entertaining a dozen young girls for the evening Saturday, we will be having a very easy breakfast next weekend.

Weekend Update: a little bit of fall

Weekend Upate: Harvest Festival

It's Sunday and Harvest Day.  

It was unseasonably warm and we welcomed Autumn in t-shirts. 

We brought home another member of the family, her name is Sally.

I'm reasonably exhausted and in bed right now, Sunday night at 9:00 p.m.

But wow we had some fun.

changing seasons.

Hello my friend!  I hope you are mending.  I think of you and your last post and realize how strong in spirit you are. Much stronger than I am.  I hope you are getting your rest and enjoying quiet moments.

It is my turn to write about the coming of autumn.  Now I feel like it is real.  I always want to tell you what the temperature is and then realize we measure our weather in different ways!!  Just last week it still felt like summertime and I was running around in halter dresses, now we're easing into some chilly nights.  The rain seems to keep hanging around, getting a day or two with sunshine and then it's back.  The woods still smell of the mushrooms which seem to be the only ones enjoying the quantitites of rain we are getting.  I am fond of rain but even I am a bit tired of it at this point.

But we've had a couple nights with the windows open and had to find jackets in the morning.  Tonight we sat and we made a list of the things we wanted to do this autumn.  I posted my own list on my blog today. This is my favorite time of year.  I know that for a lot of people spring is their time for renewal and beginnings but  I always feel fall does that for me.

here are a few things of my favorite things:

Right Now: 9.21.11

Jennifer - Fall Is Coming

photo walk

Everyone keeps speaking of Autumn coming.  Your words the other day brought the season so vividly to my  mind.  It is mid-September, yet it still feels like summer here.  We are all still running about in summer clothes and it is hard to believe crisp weather is peeking around the corner.  I know that soon we will be walking out to see the first signs of frost on the ground.  Karelyn called me out to see the dew across the electric line and a spiderweb glistening this morning as she went to feed our rabbit.  It was a funny coincidence  considering we just read together last night the scene from Charlotte's Web where the first words appear written in fine silk across the doorway of Zuckerman's barn. 

I took a photo walk today after work to shoot some photos of the field across from our house.  I had to walk further down the road to be able to capture a shot with no electrical wires strung across the view.  I was disappointed the sun was still too high and the light too bright.  I did manage a couple of shots like the one above.  I've been taking so many photos lately of life inside the house.  It was nice to get out and walk for a bit with the camera even if the results were less than anticipated.  Sometimes I feel I need more intent with my photos, like I should be photographing something in particular, but more often than not I find I just like to document life, as it happens.  Today was a beautiful day.  Sunny and warm, perhaps one of the last few of it's kind, so why not go grab a piece of it.  So that is exactly what I did.

8.1.11

Jennifer-Sweet Summertime

the tastes and sounds of summer.

I have just officially posted the same photo on two blogs.  Oh well, it's not that I don't have other photos it's just that I like this one very much.  This morning's breakfast, that's banana there in the middle and fresh blueberries, all the farms are touting their blueberries right now.  Strawberries are gone until next year (boohoo) and blackberries are just coming on, we had some of those also, not shown.  This is the time of year that I am happy to live in the country.  Not so much in the winter when I'm sliding and weaving my way down the  back roads, white knuckled in the snow and ice home from work, but this time of year is lovely.  The crickets and the cicadas are kicking up some beautiful music at night.  I know you detest flying bugs so I'm guessing jumping crickets and giant cicada's aren't high on your list either?

But I love them.  My ex-husband hated crickets.  He grew up in the outskirts of the city.  If we got one in the house the sound made him crazy, not me.  I grew up surrounded by ten acres of woods so that is summer song to me.  We had no air conditioning and the upstairs was always sweltering and we always had the windows wide open to get any sort of breeze you could in.  Hearing those babies is like being home to me.  Add the call of a whippoorwill and I'm twelve years old again.

Last night I stood in the window about midnight, getting ready for bed and just listened and listened.  Time is going by so fast.  One season seems to roll right in to the next and then all this will be gone.  Soon though we get fall, perhaps my favorite season.  Crisp air, falling acorns, the smell of woodsmoke again, apples and pumpkins, colored leaves.

Aah, I'm in a good place this weekend, a complete opposite to earlier in the week.  Another reminder that letting go is the best medicine.  And those twelve thousand things that were waiting to be done here this weekend; they are still waiting.  I know you know how that goes.  Life is too important to let the petty stuff get in the way.  The layers of dust on my surfaces will still be here this fall and winter but a moment standing in the peace of a summer evening, that goes all too quickly.