December Light

I am sitting here in a softly glowing living room in the calm of the small hours, before the storm of Christmas actually begins... a brief moment of stopped time, all in readiness, lights glistening on paper and ribbon before me. 

The children are, in fact, nestled all snug in their beds.  I am the one who can't sleep...

Time then, for a little catch up...

Last Saturday:  Welcome to baby Maya!  Our friends recently adopted their first baby and we gathered to shower them with love, gifts, and more advice than they asked for.  Baby Maya will want for nothing, it is clear.  She's got a great village already...

Watch out world!  This one, in her fancy dress and earrings!

 The kids got all dressed up for the theater, attending Mary Poppins with their Gram while Nat and I finished some Christmas shopping and looked at appliances.  She reported that both kids were riveted for the entire two hour performance.  I love that my kids love theater and that they are lucky enough to have the opportunity to see it from time to time..

Sunday: A magical night at Stan Hywet.  It is always magical there, of course.  The Sieberlings planned it that way and oh how well they did their job.
That magic was multiplied tenfold by the addition of lights, fires, and an abundance of decorated trees.  Wish I could share with you the beauty of the interior of the mansion, but we were instructed to not take pictures.  So these will have to suffice.

Upon entering this area of the grounds, dubbed Gingerbread Lane, Ivy exclaimed, "Look mom!  It's a world of WONDER!" And it was.  

Perhaps my favorite part (aside from how much my kids loved the house!) was the "blue room" in the conservatory.  Nothing but blue builds inside a glass space = pure magic. 

With the official beginning of winter break (hooray for not having to go to work on a Monday!!) came increasingly warm temperatures and a few days of adjusting to the strange reality of being together as a family all day  long.  It's wonderful, being together all day, really it is.  As long as we have something to DO for some of that time...

Monday-- ice skating at Wade Oval.  Sunlit and lovely, our outing was made better by a meetup with one of Jack's old friends from Pre-K.  Sadly the boy did not enjoy skating in the rental hockey skates, but he seemed to cope alright by spending most of the time having cocoa and doritos by the fire pit.  Not so bad.

Tuesday:  Playdate of the year!  A few school friends of Jack's, plus a few younger siblings = six kids playing Mario and Minecraft, making crafts, and playing "Hullabaloo," the game Nat and I have spent our week designing and creating as gifts for the cousins.  It did well in its first field test!

Then, an afternoon at the lake. Nothing like beach time on December 23rd.

December lake:

The Metroparks continue to impress with their management of Edgewater.  We were greeted not only by a calm lake and quiet beach but also by this grand snowman and a "winter maze"set up in a pavilion.  Bonus!

 Today.  Christmas Eve.  Busy and full in a quiet and domestic sort of way.  Shining up the house, wrapping the final gifts, baking one more round of cookies.  And, because a white Christmas seems a long shot this year, we embraced the 60 degree weather with another lake visit...

 Time for Christmas Eve dinner at Gram's house.  Becca cooked a magnificent prime rib for us and it was a splendid meal.  The children were on their Christmas-best behavior the whole time. The dogs, on the other hand... !  It is a little crazy with three spaniels at family gatherings these days!

After supper-- off to Trinity for the Blessings of the Beasts service.  It was so nice to spend time in my childhood church home. The evening was bittersweet as this may be my last service in this sanctuary: Trinity is selling their building this spring.  I'll miss it here, for sure.  So many strong and warm memories of this space and the people I spent time with here.

Jack and Ivy seemed to really enjoy the service.  And what's not to love about a service that had two read-aloud pictures books, 5 great carols to sing, an 8 piece band including two trombones, and a sanctuary full of dogs and cats?
Corydon was duly blessed, we rang bells as we sang (Jack even read music in a hymnal to learn "Angels we have heard on high!") and the children got their semi-annual dose of religion.

Home to gram's for a few presents and candle-lit time together..

 Then back home for real, for cookies and stories and preparations for the magic...

The great present-arranger meets her match...

...and is victorious!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Whirlwind

December is always a mad rush.  I know this.  Yet it still seems like each year goes fast than the one before, more to do, less time. We are in the last countdown to the big day, and the pressure is on to make it magical.  Glittering presents with fluffy bows are appearing each day, our tree glows merrily, cookies have been baked three times this week, cards have been signed with thoughtful notes.  Wrapping paper and candles and Christmas bric-a-brac clutter most of the surfaces in the house right now.  Holiday madness, in full swing.  I want desperately to slow it down, to let the moments linger longer, even as we count the days and wait eagerly for the "real thing".   

As I sit down this evening to write, in a pause between the cookie baking and present wrapping (ignoring for a moment the chores and schoolwork that don't stop just because I'm busy...) I know that it is a sign of a rich and beautiful life, this desperation I am feeling.  I want more time.  I want to treat each of these evenings of wrapping and preparing and planning and dreaming like they are the real thing, instead of racing through with barely time to breathe. 

Tonight's post?  It's me grabbing, desperately, onto these December moments as they race past....

Birthdays and beautiful friends...

We celebrated Nat's 40th with a quiet family celebration on the 4th..

look at that blazing inferno of a cake!

 ... and the much-anticipated party at CMA.

It was perfect.  Twenty wonderful friends, drinks, dancing til my feet hurt, soaking up the beautiful space.  Afterparty at our place-- piano music and sing alongs, friends old and new gathered in conversation... how I love them all!

A day in Lakewood... My choir rehearsal, touring LHS before the old building comes down, hanging out at Becca's house with movies, video games and fun with puppy and Joe, and then Light Up Lakewood-- reindeer and cocoa and bitter cold wind, a parade, and finally, fireworks.

Christmas prep is hard work.  Good thing my kids are troupers..

Preparations....  Decorating the tree, shining up the house...

Glow at the Gardens...  Lights and lines and really splendid Gingerbread houses...  A quick trip this year with children too tired to linger-- but beautiful nonetheless..

Adventures in decorating:  Ivy likes to gather all the things together.  Kind of randomly. In circles.   I think they are having a party...

And have I mentioned all the cookies???  The kids take it quite seriously and honestly, they could be a lot messier.  They are learning well...

Jack was very excited to visit the History Museum with his class (Nat chaperoned).  We are at this museum probably once a monty-- but its so different with your friends, right?  Not much cuter than a group of over-excited second graders...

A birthday party with our friends...  Ellie turned four and it was a great excuse to gather our Hiram crew and their offspring for cocoa and conversation while the children made a mess of the house.  Our usual, right?

Second Sunday Soup returns!  More gathering, conversation, mess making.  It was a splendid soup, really, a full house, two great soup choices, and more cookies than you can shake a stick at-- all illuminated softly by candles and tree lights.  These days, our children run upstairs in large groups and get up to no good, all on their own, while we sit and talk.  How did they get so big? ?

Puppy-sitting!  The wonderful Louis came to stay this week and our children have fallen for hiim, hard.  He's a sweetie, a wiggly velveteen bundle of enthusiasm who is a great snuggler when he's tired..

  Gymnastics show!  We have all enjoyed our Thursday routine these past 6 weeks-- an hour and a half of activity for the kids, time to talk with our friends while we wait, then dinner as a group at McDonald's after.  Our friends Max and Sam ride to Mcdonalds in the van with Jack, Ivy and Nat.  It's a thing.  Ivy calls it the "party van."  We may have to sign up for another session just for that.

I love these two pictures-- our little ones, so big, so independent in the world, making friends and being so at ease over there without us.  It is amazing  how this has happened.  I blinked and there they were, away from me.  So little still, but so big.  Real people, brave and strong and silly and gorgeous.
It's hard not to love them madly, standing there watching them show off somersaults (Ivy) and handstands (Jack) and then stand, so proud, arms up, smiles on, facing the world head on.