Saturday

Tomorrow morning, Sandpiper gains a godmother and a godfather. The ceremony of a baptism will take place before noon and a celebration of this and all the love family and friends provide for each other, will follow. It is terribly unfortunate that my younger girl and her family cannot come up for the weekend. Primrose caught the school bug and so this joins the legions of unfortunate holidays and/or celebrations where one of the kids is sick and the anticipated fun stuff has to take place without parent or child. Up there with the Christmas where Snowdrop threw up and spiked a high fever, and up there with the Thanksgiving night I spent in the ER room being rehydrated after a nasty stomach bug came crawling out of nowhere.  We all have such stories to tell, don't we...

The weekend is, weather-wise, stunning. There's no other word for it.

I'm up pretty early.

I know tomorrow we'll all get an extra hour of sleep, but today I have to zip along, to the bakery to pick up some pains au chocolat (the bakery with the beautiful breads!)...

... and to the farmers market to get a whole bunch of munching carrots for the week. There are two veggies that no grocery store does well here: winter spinach and whole carrots. If you can get those straight from the farm, go for it. It's an entirely different eating experience.

I take the chocolate croissants to my daughter's house, where I see that Snowdrop is still working on her yogurt parfait idea.

Finally, it's done.

(I'm thinking Sandpiper is going to be a croissant kind of guy...)

 

 

One by one, the out of town guests (all fully vaccinated) arrive. 

The kids coopt one to read to them, the baby gets passed around...

Life is good, so I return to the farmhouse for some outdoor work. After a breakfast with Ed. (Is it still breakfast if it's after noon?)

It takes a bit of motivational prodding to get me to actually go outside, despite the sunshine and warm temps. I recognize the "winter lazies" that have set in, where nothing is quite up there with an hour or two or three on the couch with good reading material. But, finally, I'm out there and Ed and I work on those tasks that aren't essential, but will help create a visually pleasing landscape come wintertime. 

And toward evening, we head back to my daughter's house for a pizza party for the out-of-towners. Minus, unfortunately, my younger girl.

 

 

 

The scene is lovely: lanterns, pillows, comfy spaces. And yes, there are heat lamps. Arguably we did not need them, what with temps rising to nearly 60F (nearly 16C) today, but once the sun sets, it does chill off quickly and no one objected to the extra warmth.

A November night, giving us an extra hour of sleep. A generous gift from a month that's rather stingy with those hours of daylight! 

Tomorrow, a celebration of this guy!

 

 

 With love...