How KonMari Got Charlotte a New Room

Okay so I'm basically outing myself as being in a weird internet cult by admitting this, but I read that Japanese tidying book and... I kind of buy into it.

Disclaimers up front:
-- I know the writing is not good (there is something lost in translation, sure, but also she just isn't a great writer).
-- I know that there is some feng shui hippie crap in there that is full-on nonsense. (I do like drawers that aren't stuffed to the brim. I do not, however, think my socks need to rest at night.)
-- I know that the mentality of "throw it away, you can always buy one later if you need it" only goes so far, and that my urban residential many-bedroom home/lifestyle has space for (and requires) storing more things than this lady in a studio apartment in urban Tokyo would ever dream of.

But.

Those things aside, I sort of really love this KonMari method. Basically it boils down to: keep only items that spark joy. That's it. That's the whole criteria.

Instead of approaching house cleaning and sorting with an eye for what you can get rid of, or what you can live without, she wants you to approach it by being intentional about what you live with, what you keep.

It's better, I promise.

You know how when you first set up a dorm room or a new office or enter a beautiful hotel room, and it all feels so calm and orderly and only your favorite things are there, arranged exactly how you intentionally set them up? That awesome ready feeling? That can be your whole life!

(Well, so she argues. I'm not there yet. But the tiny corners of my life that have achieved this are spectacular so far.)

So anyway she has certain guidelines about how to ask the "sparks joy" question in different categories: clothes, household items, gifts, memorabilia, etc. Some of the guidelines work for me, some of them don't; like with any food recipe, I have sort of adapted her method to make sense in my life and house.

I like that she doesn't make me feel like I have to get rid of things that are perfectly useless yet make me happy (my mom's "I survived the Texas heat wave of 1980" shirt that she wore when she was pregnant with me), or that I'm obligated to keep stuff that could be useful, or once made me happy but doesn't anymore.

So anyway, with her methods and my adaptations, and week upon week of purging, we have gotten rid of so much stuff that we didn't want or need. She argues that the energy it takes to be surrounded by stuff you don't love or like is bigger than the energy it takes to part with it. Even things that are hard to part with.

Case in point: I had been having trouble getting rid of the glider in Charlotte's room, even though it's completely broken and too unstable to sit in, and I haven't needed to rock or nurse a baby there in years. But I got over it, dreamed of a better space, thanked it for its service (OH YES I DID), and we removed it.

And it felt so fantastic we did the same thing with the toddler bed (has served five children well, is now broken to the point of unsafe, also the mattress was cracked in half -- the mattress *I* slept on as a baby) and whoa suddenly Charlotte had space for a whole new room.

So we moved her bookshelf under the window, moved her dresser across the room, kon-mari'd the crap out of miscellaneous stuff from my Grandpa Schnack's house (he died in 2009, his small chest of drawers has been sitting in her room, full of his stuff that we never sorted through, we even moved with it from the old house, whyyyyyyyy), rearranged the art on her walls, hung up a ribbon frame I made months ago, in the hopes of containing her ever-growing bow collection, and...

...got her a BIG GIRL BED.

I have been wanting to get a double bed for one of the kids' rooms for ages nowso we could have an extra space for a guest if we needed to (or a guest that might not want to be in the guest house, or a guest who might come when Mark is on night shift and sleeps out there). I just thought it would be nice to have one more "bigger" bed in the house, somewhere.

I assumed it would be in Anneliese's room, since hers is biggest, but she currently has a rolling trundle that we didn't want to move to Charlotte's room for fear of scratching the floors (Charlotte is the only one with hardwood). So we decided the full would work better for Charlotte than in Nathan (who has slanty ceilings on two sides, not just one, which makes his room feel smaller) and ANYWAY, Charlotte now has the big bed and she picked out owl sheets and I bought a clearance Target quilt and she loves her new room. I love it too.

So. I have KM'd a lot of categories now (the system recommends doing it by category, not location, so that you can actually see everything you have of that category and then decide what to keep): linens, bathroom/toiletry/personal care stuff, our clothes, books, papers/desks stuff, and kid stuff including their clothes and the toys (we have hardly any toys now! it's great! big kids don't need them! We kept trains and cars and blocks and legos and doll/figurine sets, put outside stuff outside, and tossed or donated almost everything else. They actually play with what we have now. I could do a whole separate post about this but I won't).

I have donated and thrown away so much stuff, y'all. I got read of well over half of what we owned in each of those categories. I had been feeling so crowded for so long, and I feel so much better now. My whole life feels less chaotic. I know, I know, I am drunk on the kool-aid.

I am not done, though. I still need to do kitchen stuff and outerwear and memorabilia, including a whole mess of Clemson stuff in the guest house, but for now I am done until school starts and I can have the time and space to work on it again.

One of the dreams (since last fall, a bit before I read this book but right in the throes of feeling crowded out of my own space and life and that nothing in my house or time was actually for me) is to make the guest house a sort of grownup/alone retreat when Mark or I need to be away from the chaos of the house, without having to actually flee our home. I'm picturing a big chair and a half, and a pretty lamp, and some pretty shelves of books, and a bed to nap on. Marky is picturing that same comfy chair with a nice tv that can actually hook up to the roku for watching stuff, and a bed for napping. All of this will involve moving the pool table out (no small endeavor, will happen this weekend) and it'll get done bit by bit, but it will happen this year because the Japanese tidying method firmly convinced me that to experience the change in energy and motivation that comes with setting up your home in exactly the order you want, it has to happen all at once.

Anyway, so that's the story of how I fell off the deep end, and how good it feels, and basically go read A'Dell's post on her tidying, she talks about it in better and more hilarious ways than I can. Also read this because it's funny. Mostly I just wanted to post pics of Charlotte's new bed, and it turned into a blog post tangent. You're shocked, I can tell.

So This Is "Spring Break"

We have had a spell of trecherous* weather that has resulted in like nine days of missed school, and they haven't officially announced how/when we will make it up, but I'm assuming we just enjoyed our "spring break" of sorts (fine by me, we have no spring break plans over actual spring break, we are taking ours later anyway to go to the beach with my dad like we do every year).

(*The NC version of trecherous = some legit snow, some legit ice, and a lot of days - A LOT of days - waiting for all the icy patches to melt on even the smallest of shady no-light back roads, so the buses can safely drive, because we ain't got no snowplows, etc etc etc.)

The first day it snowed, the kids wanted nothing to do with it. They stood inside and watched it and were glad for a day off school, but I couldn't even beg them into the yard to play. I think they were traumatized. Their last snow experience was something else. (It was a sheet of ice and no fun for playing that day anyway, not that it stopped everyone else in the county, according to my instagram feed.)

Once we had some real snow, I went out and walked around in it (enchanted like a proper southerner) and eventually the kids joined me.

Some pictures of the snow, because it's still novel enough (or so we claim? even though it has happened several years in a row now?) that it warrants photographing.

Our backyard:

Across our front yard, at the last snow which was really heavy and wet:

By the time Mark and the kids were building a snowman in the front yard, it was super warm out and Mark was in a t-shirt. Yes, it took baring the grass to get enough snow for even that tiny snowman. This is... so North Carolina:

Snow selfie:

Also, find me something more delightful than a five-year-old who is delighted by swinging in the snow. Go ahead. Find it. (It doesn't exist. This is the most delightful.)


Oh! And! I bought new snow boots back in the fall (for no good reason, they were just there at TJ Maxx and impossibly cute) and I was not ashamed about feeling glad for an excuse to wear them.

In related news, I had a whole rant ready about how annoyed I am at moms (parents) (but mostly I see moms) who complain about having their kids home for days on end. I mean, yes, I get it. We all get stir crazy. Especially when the roads really aren't safe. (I'm not taking chances with that again.) But! There are people who have to miss work when their kids miss school, and therefore miss pay when their kids miss school, and some of those are the same people who need their kids at school for free and reduced lunches, and backpack buddies for weekend groceries, and the like. Having extra mouths to feed for extra meals a day when you're suddenly with a lower paycheck? Sucks. But those are not the people who I see complaining online, it's the white rich ladies and I just want them to shut up, or do it with nuance, or something, Everyone has feelings and I get that, but. Don't be gross. Don't be a dick. That's all.

(This is the short version of my rant because it's snowing and I am still enchanted.)

(Also I've been getting to sleep later, because no school! And Ali hasn't been coming since her parents are off work. And sleeping til 8 makes me a better mom, TRUE STORY. Thanks, snow.)

Seven Quick Takes: Mostly About ME

1.) Remember that doll we got Charlotte for Christmas, which she named Claire (her middle name) (so cute) (swoon etc)? Well, this is the part where I confess that the best part of having this doll around is that sometimes Charlotte needs help putting its PJs on and then I get to have to do it. You know. For Charlotte. *ahem*

(Hi I'm 34 and I still secretly like playing with dolls and I'm not even that sorry.)

2.) Mark and I got each other new back doors for Christmas, and no that's not a euphemism, they are actual back doors. (When you're a Bumgarner and you tell your family this is what you got for Christmas, it is a joke that never ends.) Anyway. They are installed now. And wonderful.

There is no longer an inches-wide gap of daylight and cold air coming through, and we no longer have to keep them locked just to keep them closed, and it's possible to enter and exit without rattling that whole side of the house. It's a huge win, is what I'm saying.

3.) We have been taking lots of walks on the greenway since it has been nice out, and Anneliese and Charlotte have new toys they want to ride a lot. They ride and chatter, and I listen to podcasts and holler occasionally so they don't get out of my sight, and it is very pleasant.

Living somewhere where you can take easy sunshine walks outside in January: RECOMMEND.

4.) Our church hosted an exhibit of some large prints from the St. John's Bible, which is a really gorgeous fascinating project -- an illuminated bible with gold-gilded illustrations and amazing calligraphy that took many years and a small forture and the queen's own calligrapher to make. The art is incredible. I volunteered to be a docent of sorts, and did some trainings with people, and some reading and guided meditations from it, and the whole event was very cool and lovely.

Next time I'm in Minnesota I'm driving up to St. John's Abbey and laying eyes on the real thing. Every time I look at these illuminations, I see something new. Really really fascinating to me. If you have access to a library that has these, even if you're not a Bible-y person, GO CHECK THEM OUT. They are amazing.

5.) Speaking of books and libraries, I think I have a new favorite book. That is... not a thing I say lightly. I think I have named two? maybe? three? two? books, ever, as my favorite. And this one is just astounding.

It's a beautiful story of an abandoned girl with a mess of a childhood, and what she is like as she enters adulthood and marriage and motherhood. It's about loss and hope and being known, and it is lovely and raw and oh, this book is just so beautiful.(It's the third in a trilogy; I liked but didn't love the others, but this one can stand alone as its own story.)

6.) Another Nathan came through town! ...Exactly five days after we said by to him in Minnesota after the New Year. Ha. Timing.

Anyway he was just here for a minute, passing through our town/airport on his way to an event at another of his former churches, but it was long enough to open Christmas presents with the kids and have a pre-birthday beer with Mark and me, and run some errands and pick out new glasses and have a coffee date. And now we have said bye to him for real, for many more months, which would be sad except that the saturation over the last month has been too great to be sad.

7.) I spent the night in a hotel room, alone, for no good reason, other than alone time is a precious ever-fleeting commodity for me, and we always joke that I should do it, and so I finally did. And it was glorious.

I took a winter walk to a dinner place, and I had a long fancy shower with fancy hair potions, I read for hours and hours, both books and some internetting, I drank wine and slept in a giant bed and did not set an alarm, and I went for a fancy coffee with a fancy view the next morning. I didn't worry about what time anything needed to happen, or what order I wanted to do things. It was freeing and fantastic. Some People were worried I would be bored or lonely or sad, but nope, it was uncomplicatedly fantastic. Intentionally indulgent and relaxing, and with the kind support and blessing, encouragement even, of my wonderful Marky who is legitimately glad for me to do something for myself, which totally makes me feel loved. Night in a hotel alone: ALSO RECOMMEND. (Next time I shall also book a spa treatment.)

Spring Sucktastic (or, Effing Mono)

{Note 5/21: Still playing bloggity catch-up. In re-reading this, I am super glad most of this is over. And May has been... well, exhausting, but in a different way, and much MUCH better than this.}

So! Hi! Hello! It has been a crappy month.

There were some light and easy days (mostly: I got to go on a cruise! with! no! kids!) but basically this spring has exhausted me and kicked my ass and I am all out of feelings about it (that's not true, I am never out of feelings, and sometimes I hate that about myself because again: exhausted) but now that it is (mostly) over, it seems more bloggable, although it is all just going in this one post because although any one of these things would have been hard on its own and deserve its own ranty post, I am out of rants and words about my feelings, if not the feelings themselves (omg was that all one sentence? You know what, I don't even care).

***

Okay so I got mono. Can we just take a moment to note the fact that 33-year-olds do not get mono? That is some bullsh!t for teenagers, right there. Not exhausted moms of three kids.

The diagnosis came two days before Mark started his new job. Meaning he could not miss work. Meaning I had to manage life, and all the kids, and blah blah blah the logistics are boring, but suffice it to say "rest" was not really an option there for a while. And can I just say, my life is super hard with mono. I admit it.

*** 

In the throes of the mono, Charlotte fell down the stairs and sliced her forehead open. She was going up to bed by herself (guilt) for Nathan to tuck her in (guilt) because I was alternating between flat on the couch in fever misery, and crying on the bathroom floor in vommy misery. So she fell. And it was an injury-causing fall. She needed three stitches, she was in pain, I had to manage all three kids at the ER for many hours, by myself, after bedtime, with a mono fever. Also I could not find my glasses anywhere. Not being able to find things makes me crazy. Not wearing my glasses makes me feel super disoriented and out of it, obviously, and a fever makes it worse, obviously. (Nathan suggested I use my old ones. Besides being the six-year-old-hero who tucks his baby sister in bed because mommy is sick, he is apparently also the only voice of reason in my house when I am overwhelmed and throwing up and sick and my child is bleeding from the head OH MAH GAH THAT NIGHT SUCKED SO MUCH.)

A nearby church does a "blanket ministry" for kids whose parents rush
off to the hospital without lovies and such. To that church I say THANK YOU.

So anyway it is over now and the stitches are gone and she is left with a perfect little Frankenstein scar line of stitches and I secretly call her Frankenbooler in my head every time I see it.

***

Okay this is the one that I wasn't sure I would ever tell the internet about, but it turns out I want to: Charlotte let go of my hand and ran into a street in front of a car, and she is fine (fine!) but it was still every bit as traumatic as you would assume. I ran after her and grabbed her, and the person was driving really appropriately slow and was paying attention (insert here times infinity: THANK GOODNESS), and there were slamming breaks and squealing tires but she missed us both.

You always assume you would throw yourself in front of a moving vehicle for your child, but when the day comes that you actually do it, it turns out it is super traumatizing, and you spend many many hours afterwards in tears.

Also, and this seems laughably irrelevant juxtaposed against the bigger picture (she is fine!) but it adds to my horrible Feelings about the whole thing so I am saying it anyway: my pants are all too big (mumble mumble mono something) and they totally fell down to my knees when I ran and lunged into the street. So I was sobbing and scared for my baby girl's life, with my unders showing. It was emotional and embarrassing and yeah, THAT DAY SUCKED A LOT TOO.

I feel very sure this is an event that will haunt my dreams for years. Ooof, is that too heavy? Back to something else.

***

So as if all those (kinda big) things weren't enough, there was also:
- a long-awaited pair of rx sunglasses that the optic assistant broke and had to re-order before I ever got out of the office,
- a broken dryer,
- a g/i bug that hit everyone but Charlotte and me, who fled the scene in immuno-compromised mono panic,
- pool ladders with missing parts,
- a broken heater/ac in the guest house,
- a never-ending saga with diagnosing and fixing a weird smell in the car (we fixed one problem before we realized it was tires, which was a huge pain and involved several trips for purchase/alignment/messed up appointments/etc),
- an extra trip to the ER, right when I thought my mono was better (nope),
- in which the whole (!) hospital was full (FULL) and they treated people in the waiting room,
- a dormer window upstairs leaking rain into our foyer through a light fixture in the ceiling
- our (semi-celebrity) neighbor's kids drinking in our yard on weekends, loudly and while littering

WAIT WAIT I'M NOT DONE.

***

We went on our cruise which was just lovely, but when we got back, the parenting was super hard, like miserable hard, like existential crisis hard, for several weeks (*side eye Nathan*).

AND it turns out while we were on the ship, a cement truck doing work next door had their line explode, and cement blasted all over our car and house (and even one house past ours). And then in cleaning it up, they pressure washed off our house paint. Mark is still working on getting all of this fixed with the contractor.

And, finally and sadly, my engagement and wedding rings never made it off the cruise ship. I am super sad about this. I know it is "just" a Thing, and doesn't change my love or my marriage, but to me it is a Thing that matters. I guess it is also a Thing that you can only lose once and get lucky enough to find it again. *sob*

May will be better.

Our House! In the Snow!

We have had more snow adventures in the last 24 hours than I am currently able to articulate and recount, so for now -- just look at my pretty house in the pretty snow! (I only find it pretty because I am writing this safe and warm at home. Even at that, lovely thoughts about snow are... difficult.)

This is day two of falling snow, on the second snowy week this year. That's unusual for us; we still aren't used to seeing our (new? ish) house like this:

That's after we shoveled ("we" hahahahaha) the first round off the sidewalk, then it rained some and froze ice on it, so that we had a perfect storm of winter mess waiting for the new snow to fall on. Sarcastic yay!

Also, it is hard to get a picture of snow while it is falling. It's a skill I am lacking as a southerner, I think. Or maybe not as a southerner, but as a person who mostly just takes pictures on my phone. Anyway I put my camera on "snow" setting (yes really, feel free to laugh at me) and this is what I got. So, okay.

Tomorrow will be the SEVENTH day of missed school for snow this year. What? WHAT. Where are we anyway? Is this North Carolina? (Not just this year, but seven missed days out of the last three weeks. Eight for Nathan, since he had a pukey morning on Monday and got sent home.)

But the good news is that since school canceled for tomorrow, the preschool valentine party isn't happening tomorrow, which means there were preschool valentine cupcakes for lunch today.

So at least there's that.

Snowme Day!

It snowed in Raleigh!

Like, for real snowed.

It is our first real snow in about four years, which means Nathan and Anneliese (last time, two and an infant) didn't really remember it, and this was Charlotte's very first. She spent the whole day saying snowme day! wook! I found it! in a very classic-Charlotte way. I found it! might be her trademark phrase. (Snowme day is her pronunciation of "snowflake day," which is an episode of Daniel Tiger, and is apparently not only her word for snowflake, but also snowman and snow day and well, just snow in general.) (Is adorable.)

Normally snow isn't my favorite, but with school canceled and Mark just happening to be off work, we didn't need to go anywhere. So it ended up being really fun and sweet.

I will stop teasing my mom for buying us snowpants now.

They didn't know what to make of it. so they ran in circles. all four of them.

Three snowy babies in a sled!

And then they took turns doing this while Mark and I melted.

This is also basically all he does... at the beach. 

Also, we built our kids' first snowman! (Alltogethernow: "do you want to build a snowmaaaaan?") (If you're not singing, you're doing it wrong.) Like everyone else in America, we named our snowman Olaf. He is tiny. 

Presenting... Olaf Goettsch. He is a tiny snowman. 

For perspective, here is Olaf with the kids. See? Tiny.

Snow makes things too bright to smile pretty.

Unless you're Anneliese. In which case there are no objects to pretty smiles.

Look! We are southerners with pictures of our kids in the snow! Is it too soon to order next year's Christmas cards?

Happy snowme day!

Merry Fireside Christmas

Merry Christmas! I have a fireplace! A working fireplace!

Y'all don't even know how lovely this is, or how long I have wanted it, and it was a total surprise on Christmas morning. I don't think I have had a real Christmas morning surprise moment since I was a little kid!

Apparently, several weeks before, Mark had it repaired and renovated and all ready to go for Christmas morning. Oh, I maybe swooned a little. It is SO PERFECT, maybe damn near the best Christmas present I've ever gotten. I love it so much.

Okay so besides just the fireplace we really had a lovely Christmas time together, our little family. We have tried to make it a priority (read: been somewhat insistent) that Christmas Eve and Christmas morning will always be us, always at home, and so far it has always worked.

We go to a kid-oriented bell service on Christmas Eve afternoon, then come home for a quick dinner and change. We always let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve and it's always PJs (they are always surprised), and they always wear the PJs when we head back to church for the candlelight service. Those worship times are later and the kids need to go directly to bed when we get home, and they have always been in the nursery anyway, so PJs work great. But this year Nathan was totally old enough to come to the whole worship and even sit with me in the choir (Mark was on night shift this year, so he only got to do the bell service) so I gave Nathan the option to either keep his dress clothes on, or if he reeeally wanted to wear his new PJs per tradition, he could wear them and put his kiddie choir robe back on too. And that's what he chose. PJs and a choir robe. Grinning all the way.

Oh and he loved the service. He had never seen hundreds and hundreds of candles like that, and he couldn't believe he got to hold a real one. And ring one of my bells (a real handbell, not a jingle bell but a real bell Mommy!) on joy to the world, and yeah it was ridiculously sweet and happy to have him worship with me.

ANYWAY that's how we do Christmas Eve.

And the next morning when Mark got home from work, we saw what Santa put in our stockings, then after Mark slept most of the day, we opened our presents to each other. (For me the best part of the afternoon was seeing the kids open what they picked out for each other. They get so excited trying not to tell what it is before it's unwrapped. I think they like doing their very own little shopping. So fun!)

Oh just a Daniel Tiger, in the pocket of a bigger Daniel Tiger
wearing Christmas tree glasses, gripped lovingly by owl mittens.

Santa brought a Cinderella dress and a few hugging animals
AND a scarf for Hattie!

A remote control car, and a (real!) spinosaurus tooth!
(What, Santa doesn't put actual fossils in your stocking?)

At some point late afternoon my mom came and brought Liam (new baby at his house, remember?!) and we ate breakfast for dinner, then Mark went back to work and then we played with new toys and drank coffee and had fun yes yes AND THEN I SAT SOME MORE BY MY FIREPLACE.

Did I mention the fireplace? Here, wait did you see it? Look at it again. This is what it looks like with a kid in front of it:

MAH FIREPLACE.

#fireplace

Merry fireside Christmas!

Advent, Super Fast

So. This is going to be an exercise in proving that I know how to not be wordy, while I tell all about Advent in one post. YES I CAN. (Right?)

It has been a lovely few weeks of preparing for Christmas, in both quiet and chaotic ways, thinking through fun gifts to buy for people we love, and dreaming of cooler weather because hey schnikeys it was like eighty today, which, during December? No, North Carolina, just no. So while y'all were hanging on the edge of your seats wondering if I would ever blog again (just go with it, it's what I need to believe) here are the lovely things we have been up to:

1.) Gift shopping. This is at Crabtree, my favorite of the malls in Raleigh. I mean, I like them all! I do! I alllmost feel disloyal naming a favorite... but it's this one. Look how pretty! Dang I love a good December mall bustle.

2.) Tree shopping. The kids were helper elves at the farmer's market getting a tree with Another Nathan.

If you think they aren't actually helpful for tree choosing, you would be wrong. You see, Nathan "knows" how tall they all are and can add up their heights for you, if you're into random math talk on Christmas outings. And Anneliese can tell you which one smells the most like Christmas. ("Oh it smells like Christmas! No this one actually. No actually this one. #actually) And Charlotte is never not delighted by a good tree: "Christmas tree! Christmas tree! I found it!") (Repeat x1000 every time she sees a tree anywhere in town during the entire month of December, including every time she walks into our living room. "I found it!" I will hear it in my sleep.)

3.) Decorating outside. Mark loves me enough to hang lights on the house and wreaths on the dormers, in the drizzling rain, with a broke-ass shoulder (YES STILL, WITH THE SHOULDER, WITH THE REHAB), in gym shorts and an undershirt because that's the weather we are having.

We never did get the garland and lights on the porch bannister which makes me a little sad and fail-y but I am trying to be okay with it. It was a fast and crazy busy December this year. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

4.) Decorating inside. #nailedit

Kidding. We fixed it. And then decorated it.

Toddlers on stools hanging ornaments on trees = doing it right.

5.) Drinking Starbucks holiday beverages. Look, my kids drink coffee now, when its flavored like gingerbread!

No I'm kidding again. They drink hot chocolate. Occasionally flavored like a candy cane. *I* drink coffee, flavored like egg nog and chocolate, because mocha egg nog is the most genius thing I have ever come up with that somehow never ends up on the Starbucks menu board in December, probably because they couldn't afford to pay me the royalties on every one they'd sell. (That's how it works, right?) (Another Nathan calls it meggnog, which makes it sound gross and he better chill with that or Starbucks will never see the brilliance in my idea and pay me my due.)

6.) Seeing the Raleigh Ringers. They are kind of a big deal around here. In certain circles. Like musicy people and churchy people and handbell people and FINE you don't have to believe me, but they really are one of the best handbell groups in the country and yes that is a real thing.

ANYWAY their Christmas concert is always about half serious, half tacky fun, and this years tacky part had... (HAND TO HEART, THIS HAPPENED)... the local weatherman, on stage playing tuba, with handbells, on White Christmas. Just. Okay. Close your eyes and imagine it. (He was exactly as good as any decent high school tuba player.) Oh mah werd. Y'all. The crowd was honest to God enthralled. Like, smartphones out in the air taking videos. I promise you, I PROMISE, nothing has ever been less paparazzi-worthy than our weatherman playing White Christmas on the tuba accompanied by handbell choir, in a tuxedo in a fancy concert hall.

But anyway it was a lovely night and we laughed a lot and heard good music, so.

7.) Making these hymnal ornaments. I saw the idea to repurpose the old blue hymnals (Presbyterians got a new hymnal this year, remember?) into crafts and such, including ornament ideas, and I loved it. I asked our music director for a few of the broken-binded ones too dilapidated to donate, and he gladly handed them over, and then what started as an idea for me and my kids sort of morphed into Nathan's whole children's choir, and it was so fun. I let them choose their favorite Advent and Christmas songs, and then circle stamped the pages, and the kids pained wooden shapes and glued their songs on. We decoupaged them and added glitter and a ribbon, and they came out legit pretty! Not just kid crafty, but pretty!

And now the old hymnal gets to live on in people's Christmas trees, which is both supremely cheesy and also lovely.

8.) Having our annual Old Fashioned Wrapping Party™ on the floor of the living room under the watchful eye of Captain von Trapp (they let me pick the movie) (obviously).

Then I tried to cram everything under the tree and gave up with several gifts for later gatherings because they just wouldn't fit, and I made wide eyes about my very large family and whoa y'all we have GOT to rein in Christmas, but for now isn't it all joyful and splendid and lovely, all the fun things we get to give people?

9.) Going to worship a lot. Some quiet peaceful services, some really musical magestic ones, some full of joyful chaos, and I kinda love them all.

Look at Nathan's sweet choir in our pretty church! (He is in the second row, in the middle.) (And no, naysayers, we don't have a tree in the sanctuary all through Advent, just for this one hour in one evening, and then it gets donated -- and it looks giant and pretty so just go with it.)

10.) Santa's Cookie Worskhop™ -- five kinds of cookies, every year, planned and scheduled around doughs chilling and racks cooling.

Maybe one of my best moments of this Advent was sitting around my kitchen table watching all my kids frost and sprinkle cookies. I had a Moment.

Advent in one post. So much for not being wordy. Eh.