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Good Tuesday morning!  Only 5 more days till Christmas!  I can't wait.  I love this "week before".  It's full of anticipation and glee and joy and cinnamon and sugar and baking and secrets and just plain fun.

I've had to get a new app to keep blogging from my ipad.  I adore the new ipad pro that Pk and I treated ourselves and have had fun learning how to use all the new features.  And then I discovered that some of my old apps were useless.  Take Blogger.  I would get a paragraph typed and then have to delete something and it would delete EVERYTHING.  The first time, I was surprised.  The fifth or sixth time, I was annoyed.  Finally, I decided I should look for a replacement.  I hope this will be it......

So, back to Christmas.  You know our family has a thing about penguins.  Well, I found what I think is the perfect penguin gift for Pk this year.  Only since it's really kind of a decoration, I decided to give it to him early.

 And so here we have a penguin nativity.  There are kings, and shepherds and an angel and a Holy Family.   All penguins.  He loves it and today is making a manger for them to live in.

We have been slowly but surely getting ready for the holiday but that doesn't mean we don't stop and enjoy the beauty around us.  Like this sunset early in December

 The sky was on fire and I just stopped and stood there staring.  

I made Elanor a pair of mittens.  I finished one of them in one day (something I have never done before).  They're made with some handspun called Iris. They came out just beautiful and she loves them.  The yarn is a wool/silk blend and El didn't wait for me to block them.  She put them right on her hands.  That's how we know our gifts are appreciated. I made a loaf of challah.  It's such a pretty bread.  This recipe uses orange juice and it has a light citrusy flavor which was nice with some turkey soup for dinner.

I bought new dining room chair which are brown seated with black legs so Pk painted our old table to match and it looks like a new set.  I always feel lucky that I am married to such a handy man.  He is always able to figure out how to fix something or make it work.  

All of the gifts we ordered have arrived and are wrapped and everything!  We have curtailed some of our spending because of Pk's unemployment but we will still have a festive holiday.  The baking will start this week.  I am not baking quite as many cookies as we have in the past.  The reality is that there are only 3 of us in the house and we do not need a million calories of cookies sitting around with their seductive come hither ways.

Are you ready?  Is the holiday sneaking up on you?  I don't know how often I'll feel the urge to post over the next week so in case I don't see you, 

Merry Christmas.  And by that I mean, "have a lovely, wonderful holiday.  Whatever you celebrate, may you do it with joy and wonder".

It's that time of year again and today we went to get our tree.  It's a nice size around and not so tall 

That we'd have to cut a lot off the top.  For the first time, we had to have a tree delivered.  It was too fat to fit through their baler.

It is now standing in the living room and it you take a deep breath, you can smell pine.  It's wonderful.  I am having a hard time accepting that it will be Christmas in just over 2 weeks!  

I have decoratedusing lots of hand made things we have collected over the years.  My cousin made this handsome fellow and my uncle made this one

Before I was born.  It's a candle.  He used to put wax into rubber balls as molds and then whip some wax to make loose snow.  My mother gave him to me when I got married.  I look for him every year.

And of course the very 1970's styled tree that my Aunt Joan made and gave to me just before she died.  

I saw one that looked just liked it at the flea market.  It makes me miss her every year.

We well be curtailing our Christmas a little bit since Peter kevin lost his job last week.  He's got a few leads and we are feeling optimistic.  I'll be taking my usual week off from the 23rd (also known as Christmas Adam) and going back on the third of January.  I look forward to pajama days with some knitting I have been putting off and some spinning and perhaps a trip down to Winterthur.  

The girls will come for Christmas Eve and we'll decorate the tree and then exchange our pollyanna gifts.  After that, we have no plans just like normal.  

Are you ready?