Monday, December 22, 2008

Happy solstice!

The sun starts wending it's way back to our side of the globe today. sunsets will continue to get later until the first week in January, but sunrises will start getting earlier every day.

Judging by the oh-so-scientific measurement taken from the top of the picnic table, it seems as though we have about 2 feet of the absolute fluffiest, softest and most Christmas-y snow imaginable. It is glorious!

Zach, who was laid out on the couch with weird and flu-like symptoms yesterday, disappeared last night at around 9:30pm for a while and came back covered in snow and looking like a frosted donut. I suppose a more observant and loving wife might have thought "Huh. I wonder where my feverish husband has gotten to? Perhaps I should make sure he isn't face down in a snow-bank," but I was too busy staring at a sock I am knitting trying to figure out what in the hell I was doing wrong. I had picked up stitches, as you do after turning the heel, but the thing didn't look right AT ALL. It took me a good 15 minutes to figure out that I never actually turned the heel, and what I was looking at was not, in fact, a sock, but a very lovely and warm, alpaca tube. ( I blame The Perfect Storm. I was so busy taking deep breaths just because I could, and being grateful I wasn't drowning that I wasn't paying nearly enough attention. Pick your movies carefully if somewhat tricky craft maneuvers are in your future. That's all I'm saying.) Just before I was about to throw the whole sock down the disposal, you know to teach it a lesson, Zach came back in and distracted me. He took me to the window to show me what he had been doing, and the dear man was outside all that time, making a snow maze in the driveway for the kids to find in the morning. Aahhh, nothing like a fever-induced work of art late at night. The kids were enchanted in the morning. So enchanted in fact that they spent a few serious minutes walking around it and looking at it and admiring it and then went and played in a snow-bank for an hour. After which Zach had to snow-blow the whole thing away so we could go to a cookie decorating party.

Yes the sugar consumption continues apace here. Although I must say that I, not being one for self-restraint, appreciate the Jackson Pollack-like glee with which my children decorate any surface that looks like it could use a little cheer.

The kids are headed to Grandma's this afternoon to, and I know this will shock you, decorate more cookies, these to be hung on the tree. Although given the dog's evident love of decorated baked-goods, I think we will limit the cookies to the top 1/3 of the tree.

So I send you all the merriest holiday greetings and hope that the next few days are fun and somewhat peaceful. We intend to spend the cross-country skiing and sledding and wrapping presents. No more shopping, we are done.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Too funny. I was knitting a mitten the other day for my little dude, and watching a movie...I finished the darn thing, was so happy and proud of myself, then realized I had somehow not gotten the increases matched up with the thumb, but instead they got lost somewhere in the hand portion giving it a nice lumpy look. Almost needless to say, I haven't made the other one, because I can't decide if I want to be a perfectionist and tear it out and make it over, or just pretend like I didn't notice and just make another damn mitten (notice I didn't jump at the tearing apart idea, heh). Moral of the story? Don't watch movies during crucial points of a tricky project! Happy Holidays to you and your sweet family!