1 day: Christmas Eve at Kerrytown

It's a tradition, something I've done with my family since I was a young girl, a tradition that we have continued together year after year after year. A brunch of seafood chowder from Monahan's, and bee-bim bop from Kosmo. Shopping and browsing and giggling and taking pictures.

No matter how cold it is, this is the warmest time of year.

2 days: dreaming of a white Christmas

But not going to get it. Just a dusting this morning, and it will be too warm for it to stick around.

4 days: A Charlie Brown Christmas

We had quite the day today. In spite of my best plans for keeping this week low key, calm, and relaxing, today ended up being a real doosy, none of it having anything to do with Christmas or getting ready for Christmas. Suffice to say, at the end of the day we were lucky to have made it to swimming, practiced a little piano, and gotten dinner on the table. So we unwound with a family video night.

I am a slave to nostalgia and over the years we have collected nearly all of the Christmas classics, for young and old. Last year the only one we watched with Calvin was Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas with Calvin. It's a good one—probably my favorite. This year we decided it was time to bring out a few of the others as well. We've already watched Calymation a couple of times this month, so tonight we watched two of my other favorites: A Charlie Brown Christmas, and 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (oh the music! Although watching it now with Calvin I found myself cringing as they sang "let up a little on the wonder why" eek! Don't do that!).

Jon and I have a Christmas Eve tradition of filling stockings, setting out santa gifts, putting on the final touches, then lighting a fire and sitting down to watch Meet Me in St. Louis with a night-cap of scotch. It's a good tradition.

5 days: and counting

I remember Christmas as kid. Those last few days seemed to shimmer and vibrate with excitement. Presents piled up around the tree, the stockings were hung, school was out, joy, joy, joy. I'm sure excitement around the already riveting holiday is exacerbated by increased amounts of sugar. We've baked (and cooked) for one party or another at least once weekly since Thanksgiving.

So now that the presents are mostly bought and wrapped, the cards are out, the crafts are made, I'm trying to keep the rest of this week as normal as possible. Swimming lessons, library trips, some errands, laundry.

Calvin finished the last section of his Alpha math book today and filled out the accomplishment certificate in the back for himself. Then he asked for more. Good thing I ordered the next book.

He's still on a major Magic Tree House kick right now, his focus being on Christmas in Camelot and A Ghost Tale For Christmas, of course. He's still playing away at the piano.

And today he tackled learning how to draw reindeer, using this tutorial. I love their antlers.

6 days: ribbons and bows

I actually got most of our wrapping done really early this year. So early that I left he packages in the basement a couple of extra weeks to keep the pet hair attraction to a minimum (pet hair loves ribbon). Of course the number of packages needing to be wrapped seems to increase over time. Exponentially. It's like laundry, up to a certain point. Calvin is a good helper when it comes to taping and tying, and he has positioned Jon's fluffy penguin so as to protect the presents under the tree from unwanted intrusion. Or perhaps he is trying to hatch them? You be the judge.