Happy Thanks
Good morning, dear friends. I hope you had a slow and peaceful and lovely Thanksgiving weekend. Ours was wonderful. It wasn't all that slow (and Andy had to work Saturday and Sunday) but it was wonderful. The weather has been cold and crisp and mostly clear. Most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves now, and though it's dark and damp, the sky feels more open now, and I like that. We cooked and ate our ways through the weekend, and have been tumbling into bed as early as possible. Mimi is still waking up at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. She goes back to sleep after eating, but I don't right away, really. I doze and turn. Then we all get up around 5:00 (just when I'm pretty much completely back to sleep). Eeeesh, I'm tired, it's true. The bed is so cozy (I have the flannel sheets on now). I could probably sleep until 10, and I've never done that in my life.
This beautiful baby girl is growing so fast. She took four or five wobbly steps on her own over the weekend. She ate spinach, carrots, quinoa, stuffing, turkey, beans, cheese, potatoes, and apple. She is such a good eater. That's her, sleeping off her Thanksgiving dinner outside, after our walk. I love her so much.
Today, oh today. It's our first day alone together in the house in I don't know when. Andy and Aunt Susie are at work. Greta took most of last week off and will be back in tomorrow. I've been making little animals in my spare (ha!) time, getting them "right." I've made a kitters, a fox (he's a boy), a mousie, and a doe. They make me happy. They each have their own outfits: for the girls, a Liberty dress, a pair of boots, and something knitted (a cowl, socks, a scarf); for the fox, jeans and a gingham shirt and a scarf. Then there are two other sets of clothes and things: One set is for cold weather, with a duffle coat, sweater, pants, and a satchel; the other set is a nightgown, teddy bear, and mattress/sheets/wool blanket/pillowcase/comforter. I know, I'm insane. These will all be kits and patterns. They won't be available until sometime this spring. But slowly and surely they are coming together and I'm pretty excited. Amelia seems to love them all but has a preference for the fox and the mouse. So funny. I lay them all out on the table and she picks the mousie. She says, "Hi!" and smooshes her face into mousie's face. Over and over: "Hi!" Waving. Oh dear girl. You are the sweetest thing.
I'm looking forward to decorating for the holidays this year. We have a little tree that we are going to keep on the sideboard instead of on the floor this year. He's the cutest little thing. I spent alllllll day Saturday making a photo book of the last year and sending it in to be printed, hopefully in time to arrive for our little party mid-December. I used Artifact Uprising (and the funny thing is I scoured the internet hoping to find a discount code early Sunday morning to no avail; not ten minutes after I'd given up did they send an email saying that everything was 10% off through Monday at midnight. Score! (Use the code MERRY to get the discount.)) I don't know if you can get a book done today or not, but you might be able to take advantage of that coupon. I've ordered one of their books before, a softcover 6" x 8" and it was really nice. The books I made over the weekend are 100-page hardcovers. It was a big project and I'm very happy to be done, but it does feel really great to have finally gotten sooooooooo many photos organized and printed. I'm excited. I bought books for family, and two copies for us. I thought I would have one for us and save one for Amelia, for when she is grown. I want to do one for her every year. I also got our Christmas cards done. I was kind of a machine. But I hate waiting until the last minute on this stuff.
So, half of my Christmas shopping is done already. I actually went out by myself on Wednesday and got a bunch of things I knew I wanted. My car was broken down (my poor little nineteen-year-old car) and I took the bus and the streetcar downtown. It was kind of an exciting (I never go out!) and exhausting day. I like Christmas shopping early. I was hoping to be completely done by now!
December goes so fast. I'd like to get the house ready this week, and then sock in. Thank you for all of the awesome Netflix and other documentary suggestions! I'm tucking those away until January, when the Christmas movies are over. I'll make my list of those favorites this week. My sister said she heard is was going to snow? I can't imagine; the weather has been so mild. But I've got tea and little mouse sweaters to knit and fake fireplaces and snuggly walking babies (she just took five more steps, chasing the dog, as I wrote this — today is the day, I think!) and road trips and tiny, critter-sized Pendleton blankets to source, so I'm busy. I'll stare longingly at Mt. Hood (I took that photo from the side of Mt. Tabor, here in town) from afar and we'll plan a trip there for after the new year.
Thank you for being here, with your enthusiasm and kindness and interest and generosity, all these many (eight!) years. I've very grateful. I wish you all a wonderful, warm, peace-filled start of the holiday season.
Xoxoxoxoxox, a (and a and a and c and the b :)
