Nesting and pruning

Today I realized that I'm having kind of a rebellious, who says holiday:

Who says you have to decorate your tree before December 23rd? 
Who says you have to have Christmas cards all made and sent by now*?
Who says you have to stress over every little detail?
Who says you have to say yes to every invitation or event that comes along?

Certainly not me, not this year anyway.

It feels good to have all my chicks under my wing. Some Decembers I love darting around, bringing home little bits and treats to the nest, thriving on the bustle and the go, go, go. This year I just want to nest right here, thankyouverymuch (with a special thanks to Amazon, my gal Friday). We've jettisoned the parts that were stressful and tried to keep the meaningful bits for this precious stretch of days when we're all together. Someday we'll have a more high energy holiday again but this year, we needed hygge.

Tonight we put a few ornaments on the tree (we wanted to wait for Lauren to be home) and pulled out a gingerbread house kit we still had in the basement left over from last year:

It was great. Epiphany: The holiday season can be whatever you need it to be.

And who says your gingerbread walls have to meet exactly at the corners? 

. . .

*We'll still plan on doing cards eventually; we just had to wait for the college girl to get home to do photos [Note to self: take photos in the summer from now on].

I have never

This* found a tender spot in me today and I wanted to pass it along in case you found it as lovely as I did, whether you think of it as a love letter from your mama or a lullaby for your babies:

I have never loved someone the way I love you 
I have never seen a smile like yours 
And if you grow up to be king or clown or pauper 
I will say you are my favorite one in town 

I have never held a hand so soft and sacred 
When I hear your laugh I know heaven’s key 
And when I grow to be a poppy in the graveyard 
I will send you all my love upon the breeze 

And if the breeze won’t blow your way, I will be the sun 
And if the sun won’t shine your way, I will be the rain 
And if the rain won’t wash away all your aches and pains 
I will find some other way to tell you you’re okay

*My mom sent me the link to this beautiful song today, written and sung by My Brightest Diamond (Shara Worden) for her son. According to the notes by the filmmaker, "After the concert I finally dared to ask her what I wanted to ask her that morning, to sing us this lullaby that struck me down. It’s Sunday morning, a morning of hangovers. The whole hotel seems suspended in the air. We ask her to get to the bar, to make it sing for her, to sing for her son (for whom she had written this song). We erase ourselves. She, she doesn’t. After we're done filming, I cry. She cries too."

She found it on Krista Tippets' On Being blog, which I LOVE.

Paint it black

Look what I did yesterday:

Yup, that's our fridge. When we moved in, we inherited this old white fridge that had rusted in places; it proceeded to drive me stark raving crazy for the next four years. It was a sad eyesore, especially since so much of our life and entertaining happens in the kitchen. I finally reached the tipping point yesterday and got out the chalkboard paint (consulting this and this for tips). I quite like the result, except I'm not sure what to do with those bright white handles. Paint them? Replace them? Remove them entirely?

One thing for sure: it really beats the old curmudgeon of a stained + chipped fridge we've been living with. It was also very therapeutic. Now I have half of a container of paint left and nothing is safe. I'm talking to you, fireplace mantle/drawers/blank wall!

. . .

How to paint your fridge with chalkboard paint:

1. Wipe it down with cleaner and take off all of those photos and fliers, obviously

2. Lightly sand it to rough up the surface.

3. Tape around spots you don't want to paint (I skipped this and just went for it).

3. Apply chalkboard paint (that first swipe is the hardest. Be brave!); let dry. Repeat until you like the results (this took 2-3 coats). Honestly, this took about an hour, start to finish.

Arthur-itis

What's that you say?

You weren't able to catch Sam in his role as King Arthur in the school play Knights of the Round Table?

Well, let me make you feel like you really were there by deluging you with photos, from opening curtain to final curtain call:

You're welcome.

Sincerely,

Stage mother in training

. . .

p.s. Go get your Danish pastries, folks. Tomorrow is St. Lucia Day--hooray! Other Lucia memories here and here.

24 hours

What to do when your husband's overseas on business for a couple of weeks, you need a little boost, and you have a relatively empty weekend calendar, a brother & sister to visit, hotel points to use, and a gorgeous weather forecast in the northeast? 

Take a spur-of-the-moment road trip. A 24-hour energizer. 

John's Pizzeria.
Last-minute, cheap Phantom of the Opera tickets.
Listening to RadioLab, helping Sam learn his lines, laughing together in the car.
Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, Macy's, and the rest of the city decked out for Christmas.
City walking, walking, walking. 
NY Public Library.
Exploring Wired magazine's awesome pop-up store (with an amazingly high quality photo booth!). 
Meeting Chris for brunch.
Watching Harry Potter on tv in the hotel. 
Good talks and (after the kids fell asleep) nice quiet thinking in the car on the way home. 

It was just the thing.

Those 24 hours will fuel my next 24 days.

p.s. Miss you, G. Miss you, Lauren. Come home soon!