Tuesday

Talk about ease of shopping: yesterday, I spent most of my free time (all the way up until midnight) buying holiday gifts. And I'm done! Now comes the awful part -- the daily arrival of boxes -- something that causes great anguish for my beloved acquisition hating Ed. I hide everything instantly and yet he notices it all. Still, I promise him -- most of it is for the kids and the minute the littlest one has cycled through all that's available here for their afternoons of play, the toys get donated and the play room returns to its prior emptiness. With maybe a comfy chair for reading. Okay, no comfy chair needed. Empty it shall be. I haven't yet given up my dedication (theoretical at the moment) to minimalism over clutter.

We wake up to a dusting of snow. Pretty, for sure, but so ephemeral and so very wet.

Breakfast -- I light my Montana Forest while Ed is out discussing a branch chipper with some Craigslist person. 

Then I snuff it out and switch to Rustic Pine. He claims this one is fine. As usual, I barely smell anything at all. I buy candles that are very low on fragrance. But my imagination tells me we have left Montana and are now near a forest and the scent of fir is all around us.

And speaking of growing things, I do some indoor plant maintenance today. We keep the huge orchid plants inside the sheep shed for the winter because they are just over the top and there isn't the space here on the window sill. After a summer outdoors, they burst into early winter bloom. I hope the sheep shed cats enjoy the display!

In the farmhouse, the Christmas cactus as usual has started to flower on Thanksgiving. It will grow dormant again by late December. Silly plant. For now, it surely adds color to the art room!

The two impatiens plants I bought in are doing well, the pelargonium - eh, they're getting old. I may rethink their fate come summer. 

The rosemary is robust, but I know its real test comes later when it strains for more light. Our windowsills just do not have that much sunshine (because of the surrounding trees... I blame Ed).

Inspection and maintenance done. I get in the car and drive toward the kids' school. Wait -- isn't their school close to Clasens European Bakery? And didn't I hear that Clasens is putting out "hearts moons and stars" already -- my very favorite chocolate covered gingerbread cookie, sold only at Christmas? We have had a long standing rule in our family, born of the days when my daughters were just little: the Christmas season does not start in any way -- not with the foods, the music, the stories, the movies -- until after Thanksgiving. In those days, we would have Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on in the background on Thursday and the kids convinced me that Santa, coming in at the end of the parade, officially launched the holiday season. Who can argue with that! But that means no Clasen's shopping until after Thanksgiving, right?

When you're 70 years old, you get to break the rules. You also get to keep your transgressions hidden from the world. So, telling no one, and especially not the grandkids, I drive over to Clasens and pick up a couple of packets of my very beloved cookies. I mean, what if there was a run on them? They might sell out! But shhhh! Tell no one! And no photos posted of my foray into that wonderland of holiday baked goods! 

Okay, time to get the kids. It's my last pre-Thanksgiving visit with them. A good one! The excitement of the approaching holidays is palpable! In fact, I had to ratchet it down a little. Too much bounciness doesn't always give us a productive afternoon.

(out the window, on our way home...)

And now the young families are in their own tailspin of Thanksgiving preparations and planning and I'm back at the farmhouse enjoying the images I have of them all, knowing that there will be stories from the holiday and there will be lots of smiles in the retelling. 

And tonight? Like I said, I'm taking control over the movie selection. Let me take a look at what's out there...