{this post contains affiliate links}
I can't believe it's a week until Christmas. I always try to get as much as possible done before Advent begins, but even with all the Christmas cookies baked and presents bought I've still not accomplished everything I need to. I've got a set of Little Red Riding Hood peg dolls that I promised Margaret for her birthday (!!) that need to actually be painted if they're going to be done in time for Christmas. Secret crafting is so hard when you have a new baby and you're tired and you just want to go to bed by eight when the kids do.
I've gotten some of our decorations out but not everything because (1) Christopher is a complete rampage-er of all breakable things and this house doesn't have many high shelves/out of reach places so I haven't put out anything glass or delicate and (2) I just don't seem to have the energy to figure out decoration placement for this one year of Christmas. I'm not sure why I had the energy to hang a gallery wall going up our staircase knowing we'll be moving again next summer while I can't find the inner strength to figure out where to hang greenery, but there it is. Maybe it's the lack of a fireplace that's eating away at my subconscious and destroying my desire to decorate. Why would someone build a house in Vermont with no fireplace? Where will the stockings go? Is it appropriate to lock your two year old in a dog cage--just until the decorations come down? I don't have the mental energy to deal with these burning questions. We did hang popcorn on the tree this weekend and Christopher seems to think it's a special treat I've provided solely for his snacking pleasure and has been nibbling it whenever I'm not looking. I'm not sure how the ornaments will fare once they go up on Christmas Eve, but it's not looking promising.
I thought we might have actually turned a corner the other day when I went into the playroom and found him stacking blocks into towers on the back of his cars instead of throwing them. Maybe he's a creator of things now and not just a destroyer? Today he stole a raw egg from the fridge, snuck it upstairs into my bedroom, and then smashed it on the floor.
Perhaps he isn't quite past his urge for mayhem just yet.
We're on our last week of school before we break for Christmas and the kids are pretty much over it, but I'm powering through because we had to take off a couple weeks for the baby and I am incapable of homeschooling into June. We've been working on some Christmas-y songs and poetry so it's still festive. I also realized this year that I seriously need to sort through my Christmas book box. We have two baskets and an overflow pile and it's a little of out of hand. Sorry Christmastime for Thomas, but I think your time has come...and gone.
Also, looking at that picture of one of our book baskets I need to do some remedial dusting lessons with the kids.
When I haven't been avoiding crafting things I should be crafting, I've been attempting to finish off several books I've had sitting around partially read before the end of the year. I got a bit distracted when Ginny mentioned a Miss Read Christmas book that she's reading and I checked my library to see if they had it here. They didn't so I grabbed Village Christmas instead as the next best option and it was perfection. It's a short story about two spinster sisters dealing with new neighbors who have entirely too many children for the sisters' standards. Since it is a Christmas story it obviously ends well and everyone ends up loving all the children and even hope for more. Being *that* family in town I really appreciated the whole thing. The Miss Read books feel like British Mitford books so if you're into those and looking for some more light reading you'll probably enjoy them.
Update: Since I wrote this a certain two year old has pulled all the popcorn off the bottom of the tree, broken three nutcrackers, dumped out a tube of white acrylic paint, and I'm pretty sure I'm cancelling the rest of the weeks lessons. Getting caught up with my reading stack while drinking hot chocolate and protecting the gifts I already wrapped counts as creating an environment of learning and intellectual pursuits, right? Soak it up kids.
How is your Advent going so far? Hopefully it's involving less spilled paint than mine :)