Thursday

How times have changed! With one final click, today I finished shopping for the holidays. It's not a small pile: being a grandmother, a mother, and a friend to a handful of deserving folk, the list for the seasons grew large. But out of that whole stack, only two gifts were purchased on foot. The rest? On line.

Yes, this has its virtues. As compared to slogging through shopping malls in a small Midwestern city, shopping online places no limits on what you can find. Still, I'd say the time spent isn't less. I'm exhausted with searching on my computer screen. With the barrage of email ads (and knowing that with every new merchant, I add more email clutter in my box). With the pile up of shipping boxes. With always thinking "I can do better than that item!"

And, there is the inevitable disappointment. I ordered two boxes of certain sweets. One went directly to the recipient, the other came here. When I opened it, I was shocked at how small it looked! All that money for that?? I don't care how good they may be, they look puny! That's what you get for not picking something off a shelf of a store.

No matter, I'm done. Now comes the time to start thinking about presentation (aka wrapping). I'll get to that on weekend days.

In the meantime, around me I have a spring board of falling and rising dominoes: my November illness is almost a thing of the past, Ed is almost well, a daughter is now sniffling, as is Sparrow, and of course, my mother is still in the hospital. Our ages and the season explain it all.

Still, we are not complaining. There is ice in the air (really!), but the house is warm, and the other day Ed found a long string of white lights that he had gotten as a freebie in some decade long ago, and so we are aglow with the twinkle of little lights, inside and out. Fa la la la la...



In the afternoon, I pick up the two kids at school. First Sparrow, then Snowdrop. (How the little guy loves a good routine!)






(In her class, her friends are his friends...)






At the farmhouse, they play side by side, but in a sort of intertwined way. He wants so much to be included and she manages to give away enough of her props and story line to keep him deeply satisfied.












Today is also the last day of dance class for the year. That means families are invited. (I can take a photo or two without the interference of a one-way looking glass!)






(the dress up part...)






And after, I return home, picking up our winter spinach, carrots and kale from our CSA farmer along the way. They say these cold snaps are good for winter hoop veggies. Makes them sweet. I open up a bag of spinach and grab a few fistfuls to munch on during the drive home.