I'm leaving...on a jet plane

I'm off today to San Diego with Greg for a Valentines/anniversary/+ reunion with old friends weekend. Greg had meetings today in Atlanta so we're meeting in California tonight. (I'll try not to look up where he is and get hit by a car..."you were there" a la An Affair to Remember.)

After awakening to a slushy ice & snow storm this morning {complete with shoveling}, I'm ready for a little sun and warmth. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I can get out of the airport. Otherwise Greg will have a lonely little weekend~

{Kudos and gratitude to my mom for coming in for a grandma weekend with the kids.}

Countdown to VDay

valentine airplane

With only one week to go until the big day, I thought I'd share what my kids ALWAYS make for their classes. Always. Trust me, don't even hint at the possibility that there might be other ideas to try, just for a change. They will look at you in horror as if you have suggested that their birthdays should be skipped. They love these & they're sticking with them. So it is written, so let it be done.

{Disclosure: yes, I did post about this last year. If you already read about it [and you know who you are, all three of you from back then] skip ahead to the list}.

These airplanes are so, so easy and always gets a lot of comments from their friends. All you need is two lifesavers, a stick of gum, a roll of smarties, and a longish thin elastic band per valentine. We also usually put a couple of heart stickers on the wings and attach a white tag on a string with a message.

You can pretty much deconstruct how to assemble these little numbers from the picture. We usually start by threading the elastic through the two lifesavers, then we put the smarties through the middle between them. Next we slip the gum through the elastic loops. After a while you get into a good rhythm and it's quick and easy. (I originally got this idea years ago in FamilyFun magazine. I just checked and they talk about them here.)

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Just for fun, I've been putting together a list of my favorite romanticish movies. Are yours on here?

An Affair to Remember (old version with Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr)
Dr Zhivago

Ice Castles (because I loved it so much when I was 9. Xanadu too.)

Pride and Prejudice (both versions)

Possession (and I loved the book)
Truly Madly Deeply

Chocolat

A Walk to Remember (because Lauren is obsessed with this one right now)

Amelie
Funny Face

Elizabethtown
Wimbledon

Gone with the Wind

Sabrina (old version)
Somewhere in Time (four words: Come back to me. Also a favorite from my early years.)

Casablanca
Roman Holiday
Once

I know I'm forgetting some...jump in with your own, too, please!

St. Lucia morning

^
Carl Larsson's Lucia, 1908

Today is St. Lucia Day, a Scandinavian Christmas/winter solsticey celebration of the light returning to Scandinavia (before the switch to the Gregorian calendar, apparently St. Lucia Day fell on Winter Solstice). My mother's family did it, I did it growing up, and now my own family does it every December 13th; I love preserving that chain. Traditionally the oldest daughter in the family (my two daughters take turns and I help them get everything ready) gets up before dawn and prepares breakfast in bed for the family. Wearing a crown of candles, she goes from bed to bed, singing "Santa Lucia" and giving pastries and hot chocolate. It's one of our favorite traditions, pretty much a non-negotiable part of our Christmas season.

We don't have the girls wear the candle crowns anymore; they carry a wreath of candles on a tray. (Although, growing up I would find candle wax in my hair and scalp all day after the candle crown dripped on me on St. Lucia morning.) Now there are new-fangled battery operated St. Lucia crowns. Not as authentic or exciting but a little safer, I suppose.

This year was Maddy's turn
A little Carl Larsson-ish herself
One of these years I'll make a white robe with a red sash
for more authenticity and better photos

Rosetti Christmas

She cowers on the bed
as a young girl would,
introduced (by an angel, no less)
to an overwhelming assignment/challenge/blessing.
I feel for this Mary,
the initial weight of the impossible
evident in her slouch and gaze.

Moments later
She straightens her posture
and says "be it unto me" and "behold"
but I love that Dante Rossetti
paints the humanness of her
"how shall it be"?

He used his sister Christina
as his model, a writer in her own right
famous for her
In the Bleak Midwinter:

What can I give him
Poor as I am
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb
If I were a wise man
I would do my part
Yet what I can I give him
Give my heart.

Happy December, friends

Thanksworthy this week...

^
Wellsville mountains in Cache Valley

1. listening to Sam try to play the Indian Song on the recorder and piano simultaneously
2. game nights with my people: my kids, husband, parents
3. sharing the exhilaration of hiking to Castle Rock (as well as the less exalted whiny moments leading up to reaching the summit)
4. mountains shrugging, surrounding this valley shoulder to shoulder
5. wooden ball and cup toys & the addictive hours of fun they provide
6. lazy days of hanging out, chatting, helping with the cooking, idly reading
7. incubating (or, sometimes, actually hatching) new ideas
8. catching up with old high school friends & picking up where we left off
9. brief, gorgeous bursts of show-off snowflakes
10. wide streets organized in grids
11. Stephen Paulus' Pilgrims' Hymn
    
12. caramel corn, chili, tortellini, and the anticipated Feast Day (oh, and Hires hamburgers when we landed in SLC...mmmmm)
    
13. laughing, really hard
14. playing flute-piano duets with Lauren
    
15. Enchanted, Dan in Real Life, Amazing Race, Bee Movie...(hopefully more to come)
16. Sam's casual, low key reporting that a crow flew down through the chimney and into the family room (good to know he's good under pressure)
    
17. Maddy picking out songs on the harp
18. reading aloud to each other
19. adding entries to the Count Your Blessings jar
20. thoughts of and long-distance thankfulness for my sibs: Matt, Nancy & Chris (we miss you!)
21. blocking out any obligations or to-do items for a few days

Have a peaceful, joyous, blessed Thanksgiving...