fly-by days

Oh these pre-holiday days. They just fly don't they? Last Friday I carved 6 hours of unscheduled time into our day and when it was done I feel like it may as well have been 6 minutes! No matter how much I try and keep our December weeks simple and somewhat free I get to this point in the month where I realize this is the season for busy and that our days are filled with fun and amazing things - time to embrace it.

Things on the blog reel have been sparse, but it's kind of that time of year when I can't tell you what I'm working on lest you get it in the mail in a couple weeks - or a couple months - we all know the issues I have with actually mailing things. Maybe I should put my husband in charge of that. Hmm.

We have been doing some super fun activities that I can tell you about though-

- a trip to Bishop Hill, IL - a small Swedish community for their St. Lucia festival with my mom
- bell -ringing for the Salvation Army with John's mom
- a few Christmas movie nights - with lots of popcorn
- a skype visit with Grandpa Dave and Grandma Vera and Great-Grandma Masil
- playing with friends - and more friends to come tomorrow!

We're also working our way through our advent calendars. Yes we have two, but we're doing things a little different this time. Instead of the usual small gifts and candy and activities we've done a book advent, using a mix of our own christmas/winter books and some library books and then a Lego advent. It's been fun and the kids seem no less excited - although I've had a few requests from Guthrie to purchase a couple of the library books. I'm thinking that would make a special 'under the tree skirt' present when we take down our decorations and tree after the holidays.

The rest of the week holds some more - a wedding, a birthday, the Hobbit, a trip to Geneva for some last minute shopping. Hopefully by the time we hit our Solstice celebration next week we'll be on the downslide and in for some relative relaxation. And I'm putting in my request for snow now. Please!