after a reconnoiter with my sisters RE chirstmas at my parents’ house, we moved it up a week, which meant that my traditional christmas tree weekend was suddenly going to be spent…not in my house with my tree. so i ended up picking up the tree this past weekend, which, of course, meant i had to get it DONE and DONE so now i’m sitting in my living room looking at all my xmas decor in its glory. also i had to wrap all my presents because, well, gotta bring those next weekend too. and since presents will exit soon, i had to do the cats’ christmas portraits. oh, and baking cookies during my evenings this week (that’s a personal choice; don’t judge me).

most wonderful time of year, sure.

however, i’m reading a delightful little christmas book about legends and tales of yore and all the different (mostly european) yuletide creatures and etc. i actually got it last year after christmas and was a bit intimidated so set it aside. i pulled it out this year and flipped through it – not only are there stories and information, but there are crafts and recipes! what a nice surprise. so i’m ploughing through that and learning a lot of elves, witches, krampus, la bafana, and all sorts of fun olde tymey stuff that i wish were still around.

i took a moment to step outside last night before i went to bed and the moon was waxing – full moon is in 2 days – to the point that i could envision clement c moore glancing outside to see the lustre of midday. there wasn’t much snow to bounce the moon from, but there was enough, and the quiet of winter was complete.

tis the season.