Busy, busy

I decided that since it did snow today, it was time to change the color scheme of the blog. However, the snow should melt tomorrow or the next day. I know it isn't good for the ski industry, but from my standpoint it's just fine if it doesn't snow again until after Christmas. So much easier to get stuff done without the white stuff hanging around. Don't I sound Scroogey?

We're making progress on Christmas and I'm feeling pretty good about it all. Ten days until Christmas Eve and no panic necessary. We have lights on the house...

The tree is up -- no decorations yet -- but it's a big deal just having it in the living room.

And we made our first batch of cookies today. I am planning that we will make six batches of cookies this year, because the twins are six years old. Of course, there is no shame involved in making only five batches, or four. Or three. We will just see how it goes. Today we made gingerbread cookies. Here is the huge pile after baking...

and here they are after the twins decorated about 2/3 of them (I did the rest after they went to bed). Oh, the mess, the mess. Rolling out the dough five thousand times, cutting more and more and more cookies. We have a very small dog bone cookie cutter, which Kid A insisted on using over and over. "No more bones!" I said, over and over. Kid A cut out more bones. Decorating them was very messy too -- first frosting, then colored sugar and red hots and little white balls (not the best choice against white frosting, but whatever). But they're done now. Batch of cookies #1.

So we are in pretty good shape. I have done almost no shopping, so I have that ahead of me (hoping to get some done this week, but that might not be realistic). We finally decided (this weekend) to order photo cards instead of just buying cards in a store, so we got the order in today, but that'll take a while to come and then we'll have all the work of writing them and mailing them. Realistically, they will be New Year's cards, not any other holiday. Fortunately, the sentiment on them is something about "warmest holiday wishes," which could apply to practically anything, including Valentine's Day and Easter.

There are so many little bits and pieces involved in this holiday! I pulled down the twins' enormous collection of Christmas books and we started reading them last night. I dug out the Christmas carol books and I've been picking out songs on our incredibly out of tune piano. (Wondering whether we could get it tuned before Christmas. Probably not. Probably all the local piano tuners are working overtime as it is.) We've rented Christmas-themed movies the past two weekends. The kids have been opening the windows of their advent calendars for 14 days now. We've lit the advent candles for the past three Sundays (and often on the days in between), though we haven't managed to go to church. Hanukkah starts Tuesday, I believe, so if I can find our menorah by then, we'll light those candles too. The other day Kid B asked me about Kwanzaa.

It's at this point in the season that it all starts to seem somewhat ridiculous, but it's also so much fun. The kids are frantic about how LONG it is until Christmas, but I'm trying to savor the days. The time seems really really short to me.