a happy Christmas

 That you may know today, more strongly than yesterday, that you are loved.
You are deeply, deeply loved
A merry and blessed Christmas to you and yours.

dpp 2011 | askew

I was making bias binding at 12am last night.

I may have descended to a new level of sickness. 🙂

tear it up

We rarely get Christmas cards. I think it’s a generational thing: with the exception of two letters, all of my correspondence in the past year has been online. Last night, though, we had a card in the mail from Jon’s aunt and uncle. And for some reason, Peanut really, really wanted to rip it to pieces. I have no idea why, since it was pretty out of character. Still, she really wanted to tear it up, but letting her do so seemed disrespectful and wrong and besides, we so rarely get Christmas cards it would be a shame to destroy the one we have.

But we also had about 6 multiple-page flyers and ads. And we were just going to recycle them anyway…

The mess was impressive, and it greeted me this morning, too. But why not, right? I could use the homeschool-y jargon and tell you we engaged in sensory play – which it was, of course – but mostly I just wanted the girls to have fun, and fun they certainly had.

They’re young once. And the mess took all of 3 minutes to clean up, even with Bubby creeping around in the middle of it and Peanut “helping”. As they grow and learn I find myself learning to let go and roll with things. The better I am able to do so, the happier we all are, and the most unexpected and blessed moments we have together.

dpp 2011 | by the chimney with care

A handcrafted stocking, completed and waiting to go home to a little boy, E. 100% cotton, manually machine quilted in spirals and waves, with a contrasting applique and trim. I hope E. likes it!

dpp 2011 | tension

Dec 20::

I live at my sewing machine now. If you need me, I’ll be winding bobbins with a mouthful of pins.

dpp 2011 | a girl and her dog

Dec 19::

I will protect the blanket.

dpp 2011 | conduction

I sing soprano in our church choir. Our annual Christmas concert is tomorrow afternoon, and this morning we had our rehearsal with the chamber orchestra. I so adore listening to and singing Bach, and I do so love seeing our Director of Music’s enthusiasm for Bach, as well. We are very blessed to work with such a passionate artist.

dpp 2011 | dough

We made salt dough ornaments today.

I recently read this post and knew that I wanted to do this with Peanut. So yesterday we trundled off, the three of us, through the rain and the wind and the rush hour crowds, to the dollar store. We did some Christmas shopping (yes, at the dollar store because Christmas shopping with a 3yo at a dollar store filled with entirely random stuff is, frankly, hilarious) and got some supplies for salt dough ornaments as well as my funky gift wrapping plan for this year (which you’ll probably see in a post in the next day or two). Today we played with dough.

A lovely little memory with my girls.

dpp 2011 | blue christmas

It was 10C today. 10! On the fifteenth of December. I’m not holding my breath for a white Christmas this year. Bare can be pretty, too…

dpp 2011 | sweet

Lunch with my sweeties. I’m very blessed to have cool people in my life, either locally or online. A friend of mine from university has an awesome foodie blog that I love and several months ago shared a recipe for baked sweet potato fries that really turn out beautifully. Since sweet potatoes are a nutrient-rich food, they make a great food for early eaters so I’ve been trying to get Bubby to enjoy them. My first attempt at simple sweet potato wedges didn’t go over too well, but these were a hit yesterday. I made some cashew cream for myself for dipping. Yum!