First snow

With the arrival of the first snow at the weekend I thought I had best crack on with my advent creation. The snow may have all washed away now but December is still approaching fast.

Nana has sewn little bags from the gingham and I have started preparing some little notes to go inside.

I have talked to Hermione about the things she enjoys most about the holiday season. The thing she enjoys most of all apparently is 'tree day'. It's always a full day thing around here. Much of it is taken up by Craig dragging the said tree in and out of the house, sawing a bit more off, marking the ceiling with sap again in the process of finding out it still doesn't fit, having a minor 'I'm sick of this - didn't you learn last year that we don't have a vaulted ceiling' strop, refusing to drag it out and back in again, bringing saw into house to make necessary adjustments, sawdust everywhere ... you get the picture. Once the tree is finally erected we crank up the carols, crack open the ginger wine and heat the mince pies. We all join in the whole affair and have great fun.

Other things she has talked about are going into the woods to collect evergreen and decorate the house, making orange pomanders, writing out her Christmas cards and baking mince pies. We always do these things. I'm going to make a little note about each - just a few facts or a bit of historical information and put them in the gingham bags. This way I can ensure that the things which are most important to us will actually happen because we will open the bag each evening, read about the particular thing and agree to do it the following day. It's going to take a bit of planning but at least this way we get to do the things we really want to as we can plan them around social engagements and I can make sure I have the things we need for activities to hand because I know when we are going to do it.

I'm going to include some new things which we've not done in previous years. We are going to make gingerbread houses, read The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Anderson, discuss an interview with Santa (something I have written myself after reading this one here and liking the idea but not liking all of the content), visit a local animal rescue centre and take some dog and cat food, include a token for a movie evening with popcorn and another token for a moonlit walk and more. Basically emphasising the *doing* and *being* as opposed to *receiving*. Things are cheap and easily forgotten in comparison to experiences I feel.

I'm trying to make the notes look old. I've soaked them in a weak coffee solution, splodged them with used tea bags, put them in the oven and attacked them with a lighter! Still not happy with the look but I've a few more days to play before they're needed *grin*.

Must get back to my bits and bobs. Life seems to be very full these days. I'm feeling a huge upsurge in energy in the sense of new things coming about, opportunities, possibilities and so on - unfortunately my physical energy is lagging behind *grin*.

Thank you for stopping by to read about our stuff even though the formatting of my blog is totally up the creek again. Sometimes I just hate Blogger grrrrrr