A cast of thousands....

Knowing her love of this particular art form, Savannah's bff, M, gifted her with a sock-puppet making kit.....a much fancier one than her other one....complete with pre-cut embellishments and super-fuzzy socks.

I've forgotten the names of these two.....I shall have to consult the latest playbill.....

Winter Solstice, Charlie Brown's tree and magnetic poetry...*

*note: attempting to document our Countdown has been entirely abandoned.  Suffice it to say, we only missed a few things.....I'm voting for the shitey chocolate calendar next year.

The above picture is the peanut butter and birdseed English muffins that we made for our fur and feathered friends....placed reverently out at the base of the maple tree and around the yard.  I won't mention what became of our Solstice lanterns although there are two soup tins full of ice languishing in our freezer....

Anyway...'twas a lovely observance....gifts by candlelight and a lovely roast chicken feast....prezzies unwrapped beneath our fabulous tree...

As a matter of perspective....B is a former jockey (read: short man)...and those are cardboard spacers I improvised to hold the slender trunk in place as the screw thingies were at their maximum.  It may not have been a tall tree, but, as was repeatedly commented, it was a very full tree.

Savannah once again took charge of decorating it.....due to the elfin nature of the tree, there were lots of decorations left in their boxes this year.

One of the coolest gifts ever (if I do say so myself) was the box of Magnetic Poetry for Kids....we are having a grand old time spontaneously composing verse every time we walk through the kitchen. I'm pretty sure this is how Shel Silverstein got famous.  Keep your eye out for the Kitchen Whiteboard Collection....coming soon to a fine bookseller near you......;)

Holiday Countdown....Reader's Digest version

Yes, I've been utterly lax with the documentation of our countdown. I've given up apologizing for my lack of commitment here, suffice it to say, some days, amidst the sheer randomness of life-as-we-know-it around these parts, the prospect of uploading and posting photos is more than I can bear.....:)  And I'm continually wrestling with the thought that really, who gives a rat's ass what we're up to and why am I doing this again? Excuse the existentialist sidetracking, such is my head-space amongst the holiday frenzy.  Plus we're thoroughly embroiled in the new Mystery Case Files game - Dire Grove.

That said....here's a smattering of what we've been up to. We're a tad behind but finding it all quite scintillating and there are only a couple of things I might change up for next year...

Much baking of cookies has occurred...

Savannah has produced a startling amount of holiday craftiness...she's been like a little elf in the Art Cave/Santa's Workshop...and our invisible tree (invisible because we haven't got one yet) already has a pile of handmade goodness underneath for both two and four-legged family members alike.  I am shamelessly proud of her un-prompted generosity and thoughtfulness. She's powering through scads of paper and glue and paint so I only hope that The Elves got my message and are planning to replenish her stock...;)

Of course, there has been a lot of outdoorsy-ness as well....and sometimes, when the mood strikes, we simply put our snowsuits on over our pajamas*.
 

*NB. Once it darkness falls, no matter what the time (which is around 5:30pm-ish these days), Sebastian likes to don his nightwear...and so our various forays into the night to witness the twinkly, sparkly light displays mean he's most often in his jammies...

One of our annual treks to the Festival of Lights....thankfully they've got some new displays as it was starting to get a bit old.....this one is one of the originals and second only to the train as Sebastian's favourite.

Other highlights  so far have included an attempt at Solstice lanterns, making edible gifts for the wildlife around our 'hood, putting together a big bag of food for the Food Bank, choosing gifts from Plan Canada (we went with mango trees and bee-keeping kits, I bought a home-birthing kit on behalf of my work-chums)....

Today we're off to get our tree to complete the greenery within.....

Holiday Countdown - Days Two and Three - December 2, 3

Wednesdays and Thursdays are tricky days as they're my work days so we are limited to what we can accomplish......Wednesday's task was to dig out our holiday/winter book collection and start reading one each night at bedtime. We also have a  copy of Do You See What I See? Christmas so we're working our way through that one. The seek-and-find books are big favourite of Sebastian's but these ones are a bit more challenging so we do a few pages at at time.  Thursday was 'decorate windows with paper snowflakes' -- which we sort of did. Savannah wanted to save the actual crafting of the snowflakes until her bff M. came over in the afternoon {she and her mom look after the kids when I go to work on Thursday afternoons} so I missed out on any pics.....this is one she'd made earlier....

Holiday Countdown - Day One - December 1

Because you can never have enough pictures of your kids sleeping...

...especially when they're up way early and can't help but tip over on the sofa and immediately be fallen upon by heat-seeking snuggle-hounds {Oscar is curled up in the crook of her knees}

Today marked our first holiday countdown day....not a very original or new one, but we're starting off slowly so as not to ramp up into a frenzy too soon before the Big Days ahead....

So off we went to the library and indeed maxed out our cards....we actually had to put two things back because for some Grinchy reason, adult cards are only allowed to take out two things as opposed to the five allowed for kid cards. {insert raspberry here}. Alas, Sebastian was coughing and hacking and snortling all over the library computer - upon which we were getting some rather nervous glances from the other patrons - so we didn't stay long. I'm quite certain someone immediately swooped in and disinfected everything we'd touched......

We meandered to our usual apres-library coffee shop destination, drank hot chocolate and ate cookies to fortify ourselves {okay, fortify ME, who had to carry five tons of library books and movies in the backpack} for the walk home...

....upon which, after much deliberation, we reactivated Savannah's Club Penguin account.  Being a bit older and having basic reading skills now makes all the difference and she's quite charmed with the whole thing. If anyone else out there plays, her penguin's name is Wagonberry....

Hot chocolate and a jam doughnut wears off fast when you're working your way up the belts in Card Ju-jitsu, so milk and an Oreo was in order by mid-afternoon.