We’re hosting Christmas Eve with the Pivecs. Several families who rotate between his and her families will be at the in laws and half our own kids will not be back in town yet so it will be a quiet sedate little gathering of 25. At least there will be a handful of kids here so it won’t be too dull.
I finished up my shopping a week or so ago but that doesn’t mean I’m done. I’m making quite a few things that I should have (could have) done months ago but didn’t. Lots of needlepoint, etc. It’s okay; I’m on schedule. (Wait a minute...Am I? What day is it??) I still have several types of Christmas cookies to get baked and I have exactly two days to clean the heck out of this house. I fooled myself into thinking that I had longer; since Ty and Megan and the kids won’t actually be arriving here to stay until after Christmas, I put off dusting and vacuuming the basement but they’re flying into town in two days and spending a night before heading to South Dakota so I really have to whip their room into shape now. I don’t want them to be so grossed out they don’t come back.
I haven’t mopped the kitchen floor since Halloween. Jay’s had the Swiffer wet jet out several times (one of the best gifts from last Christmas!) but it’s not the same as a good, whole floor scrub.
But before I do that, I have a portrait to paint and a big ink drawing that I’m really looking forward to rendering. It’ll all get done.
Because of the kids’ schedules, we are celebrating the Holiday for about a week this year. We’ll start the party on Tuesday night and it will continue until the grandkids fly back to Texas after New Years!
The festivities this week included a Christmas concert at a neighborhood school where my niece Bananas was singing. A good friend of mine is also the principal so I went to the 9:00 a.m. Grandparents performance. I gave her a Christmas card before the curtain went up. My parents met me there and we watched the show. We had to sit in the bleachers set up in the back of the school auditiorium, which worked out well; we were raised up so we could see the stage really well.
Bananas was front and center, in her bright red, shiny costume through most of the show. She sang well and performed all the hand and arm motions with vigor and confidence. To our surprise, she even had a few lines of narration. Bananas doesn’t talk much and when she does, she’s very quiet so it was an eye opener to hear her proclaim the good news far and wide. The show was terrific; lots of bright costumes, scene changes, jokes and entire grades coming and going in total silence. Best of all, they didn’t just sing the same old boring carols that we’ve all heard a million times. When the second graders, dressed like Ancient Egyptians, sang “If I’d Known You Were Coming (I’d Have Baked A Cake)” I laughed so hard I cried.
We loved the concert but committed a faux pas; we didn’t search out Bananas class room to tell her how great it was afterwards. Apparently, we were the only members of the audience to actually leave school after the curtain came down. Bananas mistakenly thought that meant we hadn’t attended the performance, which quite understandably made her sad.
We were there, Nanners and YOU WERE GREAT!
We hadn’t stayed for the afterparty because we didn’t know about it and I had another party to get to. My Mom had two more parties to hit before the afternoon was over.
Because it’s Yuletide and that means eat, drink and be merry or I’ll know the reason why.
The next morning, my Mom and sisters and I went down town to a Christmas boutique set up in the courtyard in front of Orchestra Hall on the Nicolette Mall. I had no idea what to expect. There was a carousel, which was lovely but we didn’t ride. We were too busy gaping at the ‘Christmas Crafts’. It was really quite amazing. I’ve been to dozens of art and craft shows in my life but never anything like this. Every single booth was crammed to the gills with the most beautiful, high end, luxurious items I’ve ever seen. There were clothes; hats, mittens, scarves, sweaters, capes and ponchos of the softest, thickest warmest, downiest, furriest stuff ever. There were booths full of linens, everything from handkerchiefs and napkins to runner and table cloths covered in the most gorgeous, intricate hand stitched embroidery of the prettiest, most elegant designs. Most of all there were Christmas decorations. From bells, wreaths and door displays to tree ornaments to large, hand carved, multi-dimensional nativity scenes, woodland scenes, Santa’s toyshops, Victorian streets, Bavarian mountain sides, some equipped with music boxes some lit up…If I were rich, I’d have bought several of them. They were breath taking. It was absolutely worth driving down town to see and if it’s back next year, I’m bringing as much money as I can scrounge up.
I just dropped off a canvas at the shop for a customer who wanted a little something for a friend’s birthday. This customer doesn’t actually do needlepoint so she had no idea what she was asking. The piece she described had at least fifteen different elements to it, had to be on the largest gauge canvas that I work on and she wanted me to keep it within 12x12 inches. And it was ugly.
Oh, I did it but it’s expensive.
I’ve joked for years that someday someone was going to order the Declaration of Independence on a 5x5 on #13. (That would be like carrying a gallon of milk in a teacup.) This was close.
Now I’ve gotten my Christmas cards in the mail, one batch of cookies are cooling in the fridge while I mix up a second type and I’ve got to go paint a portrait and finish a footstool. Tomorrow, I have to render the ink drawing before Josie gets home on the megabus. Jay has a home game tomorrow night. The next morning, Babydoll and Babalouie arrive!!
Merry Christmas Week!