Another Example Of My Genius

My kid is just as materialistic as the next one but one thing I've noticed about him is that if I indulge him in things like holiday decorating, drives through town to look at all the tacky lights, and spend time on the little things then he never really notices that he gets fewer presents than most of his friends.

OK, well, he notices that some of them end up with an entire toy store in their bedroom, but Christmas for him is about the anticipation. What better way to anticipate Christmas than with an Advent calendar? Max is pleased with simple things like a little piece of candy and I am happy to indulge him (up to a point) because once he's eaten the candy it doesn't live in my garage in mildewy boxes with hungry wolf spiders.

Now that I am finally getting some time to do things like sweep my floors regularly and the brain-space to think about creative projects just for us (as opposed to creative projects for commerce) my head has been spinning with ideas. While I'm dying to get on with my living room re-do, as stated before- the sewing room must be tamed first. That's a slow project. I have a month to get it in order.

That doesn't mean I can't do some little projects in the mean time. So I used Monica as my inspiration and was going to make an advent calendar out of fabric (so it could be used again and again) but fabric projects have to wait so I used her general idea and made them out of paper. By the way, she made those Pennie Pockets into a free PDF pattern if you'd like to download it. They're so cute I think you should go over there right now and do it!

I wanted there to be something else suspenseful than just getting to watch the days go by and get little surprise candies so I concealed a message inside the pockets which get revealed as the fronts get folded down. Max loves it! These are the things that give him lasting impressions of his mom as something other than the ogre who screams at him that she is not a wrestling donkey!!!

You all may be surprised to know this, but I love Christmas. I used to hate it. Perhaps I'll tell you all about it another time but today is so wonderful I don't feel like telling those tales. I will make sure you all realize that I love presents though and my newfound appreciation for this holiday has little to do with hot cocoa and sitting before an open fire with mealy chestnuts. I love how excited kids get. I love how Max said this morning "Mama, I love your Advent calendar!" I love christmas trees and opening my stocking. Especially on Christmases when it isn't filled with Lychee soda and Chinese salty plum candies. I love opening presents and I love giving them.

But I should say here that I am fortunate to have a very small family. We don't have a lot of money but we have always been able to buy Max whatever he's wanted for Christmas and the rest of my family and us mostly exchange cards or little tokens of love. So for us the shopping part of Christmas is minimal at best. I give my family things I've canned during the year or things I've sewn. This year my dad is sending me a bottle of his own olive oil!!

I don't (and never will) enjoy suffocating my house in holiday decorations but I derive a great deal of pleasure from slowly making and collecting pretty things to put on my mantel and on my tree. The next project I am going to show you is my weird branch thing about which Max also commented this morning "...and I also like your branch thing."

In the meantime I am going to make a short list of what's making me really happy right now:

• I got my first paycheck from my new job which means I can now pay last month's mortgage!!

• It was 30 degrees out this morning. LOVE COLD MORNINGS!! I only wish it will get lots colder this year.

• I already folded two loads of laundry and it's only 12:18 pm.

• I have today off from all my jobs.

• I swept four of my downstairs rooms out and am going to vacuum right after I call the bank to make a payment.

• I talked to my close friend Chelsea this morning about how our dogs (who are sisters) are the best dogs in the entire world and how we feel sorry for everyone who didn't get one of Sandy's* "oops" litter.

• Pearl is still alive and not moaning. I'm concerned about her feathers still being ruffled but I'm keeping an eye on it. Not that that will do any good. Chickens often just fall over dead. But they love their clean run and hen house.

• I'm playing Ziggy Stardust really loud. I hope the neighbors are enjoying it too.

*Sandy is Chick's mom, a pure bred black lab who was supposed to be bred with another pure bred black lab stud. Instead she had love puppies with her pit bull/bull mastiff boyfriend Lucky.