December Juggling

 After all the things I talked about yesterday, almost none of them worked out like we thought.  

We did end up going to the nursery event, and it was so much fun.  It would have been so easy to NOT go, and I would have been more than fine with it, but we fortified ourselves with Starbucks and headed to Issaquah, which is just time for half a cup of a tall peppermint-mocha drink with just half the peppermint and mocha shots, or whatever they call the way they make them.  I never go there on my own, so it's always a treat.

The girls got peppermint steamers, and Emily and I got the above.  I got a cheese Danish because it was the first thing on the menu, and there was no reason not to.  Someone got a grilled cheese, another a cranberry something, and everyone was merry and full of sugar by the time we got there.  

We had wanted to get an earlier start, but we didn't, and the parking lots seemed full, but we lucked up and got a place a few steps from the door.  Thanks goodness, because the weather was not cooperating with us or the nursery.  

I seem to have taken my quota of pictures when we first walked in because there was a hummingbird that kept our interest for a while.  It seemed to fly along beside us.  I can't think of a better place to be than a nursery and greenhouse on a day yesterday.

I'm hoping Emily took more pictures but probably not.  She xeroed in on a beautiful table of red and white cyclamen and grabbed a red one.  I think this is what she's holding in the picture here.  I meant to get one too, but I got distracted and never did.  She and the girls picked out a wreath, and we looked around a bit before going into the Holiday Shop.

You can see Emily's cyclamen in front of her and the table of them behind the girls.  

I think I just couldn't decide on a white one or a red one, and I am still fighting to keep my plants I brought inside happy at home.  I want another Lenten rose, but I think I'll wait on plants I can't take care of until the holidays are over.

It seems the style lately is oversized everything, and the bells and acorns and pinecones are beautiful but not for me.  It would so overwhelm my little space.

And no more pictures from me that trip.  I took the girls into the shop where we immediately found a replica of Woodrow to hang on the tree.  We loved looking at all the things, but I feel like I can't let down my guard with either me or the girls on knocking one of those delicate ornaments off the tree or dropping something.  They're so good about not touching, but sometimes you just have to.  

I learned they like dragonflies so have ordered them a little dragonfly ornament that's not $30 and more their size.  The highlight of that part of the trip seeing a CAT!  Imagine that.  A pretty manx who followed us around and didn't have to worry about getting her tail stepped on.  I love these girls and their enthusiasm and ability to get joy from every single thing. I had mentioned at one point that I didn't need any more ornaments for my little tree but I would like to get some of the little bottle brush trees that I seem to have collected over several years.  They spent a lot of time bring me sample for my approval (unbreakable - whew), and we finally decideone just the perfect color of dusty pink to go with my tree bows.  

This is the picture I took last night. The new tree is on the right.  It really doesn't matter that the people in the scene are sometimes bigger than the houses and there's a random plaid box in the midst of it all.  As long as you get a happy feeling when you look at it!  

And this is the pictures I took just now.  So much has happened.

The fluffy yellow tail in the window doesn't mean Bowie was responsible for the state of the tree table.  I saw Layla tiptoeing through the landscape gingerly, thinking no one would notice her.  

When we left, we considered going by Michael's for ribbon but Saturday, pouring rain, warm home..... and our gifts will remain ribbonless for a while.

There was talk of my going over and watching Christmas in Connecticut with the family.  The girls love the old movies.  The grownups too.  But I didn't end up going since it was dark and raining and warm at home.  Maybe next time.  Gray had had a soccer game where she "played hard and got a killer goal."  

It was a good day.  

I'm up fairly early on Sunday morning working on my book list for the year.  I've been invited to eat lunch with sweet neighbors that I haven't seen in a while.  I have one gift wrapped and one in a bag.  I have a long way to go, but I'm going to enjoy every day for the rest of this year except maybe the 16th when I have to see two doctors.  Sometimes enjoyable, sometimes not.  We'll see.  

Always Exciting Friday

 Emily calls on the way to work sometimes, and that's one of the few times we can talk without kids or work interrupting.

She sent this sunrise picture and was talking about how Bellevue is such a pretty town, even though it's more of a city now with a downtown that looks like some Seattle areas.  That's from my limited experience at either place.  I only go to places where I can creep in on the back roads, the scenic ones by the lakes and waterfalls when you aren't in a hurry.

She's going full speed ahead with the opening of the Bellevue Clinic, and even thought I don't quite understand all that's involved, I know it's a huge undertaking.  I can tell she's excited underneath it all, although it makes Christmas planning a little harder.

Ryan is taking the girls to Bellevue after lunch to meet up with her to go see Wicked, so I won't see them this afternoon.  It should be a nice fun night for them.

Em and I had wanted to go to an event at Squak Mountain Nursery in the morning, but I think we're going to call that off.  We knew it was doubtful we could fit that in.  Gray has a soccer game, and we'd like to catch the Snoqualmie Winter Lights event from 3:00 to 5:00.  These activities are always out of my comfort zone as far as staying warm, but if I layer and prepare for it, I'm always glad I got out.  We haven't even had many freezing temps this year, and I doubt we'll have a white Christmas either.  I'd just as soon have snow away from holidays so I can burrow into my cave and not come out.  

I just looked at the calendar of activities on the community pages for this weekend, and if you had the energy, you could stay out from breakfast until bedtime, shopping at the markets and bake sales and listening to the choirs and band ensembles, ending with the tree-lighting ceremony and singing carols.  This is with fitting in soccer and possible birthday parties and cookie exchanges and school activities.  

The family likes to go to Leavenworth on Winter Break where everything is snow and hot chocolate and sleigh rides and whatever else you can find to do in the cold and snow.  They're thinking they won't have snow this year, and I suggested they stay home and just rest.  Emily said that's all they did in Leavenworth - rest.  Cavort around in the snow, get warmed up, and go back to the cozy cabin with coffee and hot chocolate and do nothing BUT rest without any temptations to do housework or wrap gifts or go to parties.  I guess she has a point.  

I suppose it's time to start wrapping gifts.  I don't mind it, but it's just getting all that stuff out and making a big mess and then having to clean it up...... Maybe some Christmas music.  

Getting a Jump on Christmas

 I'm not organized enough to even post, but I don't want to forget things. 

This is the earliest I've done my "shopping," which is just opening my computer and ordering, but the decisions I made earlier I'm already second-guessing.  I have to stop that.  I'm not sure why we keep on doing it anyway.  There's nothing the girls want except the one thing they are asking Santa for.  I'm going to get some Starbucks and Swirl gift cards for them in addition to their few surprises and stop fretting about it.  

One afternoon Graysen begged to learn to crochet, and we tackled it.  I'm so not a teacher, and she's left-handed, but she was pretty willing to try it and thinks she'll be okay doing it right-handed.  One reason I don't like teaching children anything is their lack of patience.  I want them to learn one skill and perfect it before they go on to the next, but GG was in a big hurry to go from learning to make a slip knot to making a chain to doing single crochet before she really knew how to hold the yarn.  We laughed about it, and she didn't lose patience with me.  She found a friend at school who takes her crocheting to school, and this might give her the incentive to slow down.  Or go even faster, since Mia is making a scarf!  

I started this scarf for Ryan because someone was mourning the fact that you can never find anything he wants or likes, and we drive ourselves crazy trying to find one gift to give him.  Some comment was made about knitting a scarf, and I just did it.  It's totally half double crochet, but the yarn is so soft that now everyone who sees it wants one - except probably Ryan!  He'll like the fact that someone made it for him though, and he knows he on the list for a quilt in 2025.  

Speaking of quilts, our closest quilt shop is closing, and it's so sad.  I don't go places much and have not been quilting very much at all, but it was such a pretty and friendly place.  I hate it for the owners.  They're still going to do online sales but not in that beautiful shop.  

Knowing I didn't need to add a thing to my overflowing quilting area, I still looked through a few pages.  One thing that I wasn't looking for but caught my eye was this fabric.

I made Elise a quilt many years ago.  Fifteen years ago?  I really can't remember.  She liked it, and it was fun to do, but she could never find a backing she liked well enough to use.  And then we folded it up and put it in a box and forgot about it.  Now she's decided that just because she can't find the perfect eggplant shade of purple, something else might do.  

When I saw this, I sent it to her and asked if she liked it.  She answered back, "I love it," and I was thrilled.  I'll have to go back and find out the name of it.  It's already off the web site.  With it being 108 inches across, I could have made do with 2 yards, but I went ahead and took the whole 3 yards they had on sale.  At least, I paid for it and asked them to hold onto it until Emily could run by and get it to save shipping costs.  Emily wasn't sure she was going to have time, and I know how rushed she is going back and forth to Bellevue and Issaquah, etc., so I decided to travel the few miles and get it myself.  I really am still not loving driving out of town, but I'll do it if I have to.  I called Ryan to see what child, if any, I would have after school so I would know when I needed to be back.  When I mentioned I had something to pick up in Issaquah, he immediately offered to pick it up for me since he was there right then.  I don't usually have nice things like that just fall into my lap, but that was NICE!  The girls didn't come here after school, but Graysen ran down and delivered the fabric to me, and I'm really excited about moving on with that quilt.  

A few more pictures I've taken or received this week.

I've been told these look really nice from the front, but I haven't walked out to see.  

Noreen started it with her window snowflakes, and I had to have something similar.    She did her dining room window, which I can see from my dining room. 

This is all I did to my dining room window.  I found these little mitten lights from last year that Elise brought and popped them over my plants.  It's looking more like Cinco de Mayo.

The Win-Bins and Wheats at the Nutcracker.

I've run out of energy so will finish later.  Graysen had her first band concert last night, and they just did such a good job.  It was their first time playing as a group, and they were perfect.  The seventh and eighth grade groups showed what they have to look forward, and I was amazed at what a year can do. 

 She and her dad had an indoor soccer game tonight out of town while Katherine and Emily went to martial arts.  Such busy lives, and I think I'M tired.