I didn't document the tree cutting this year. Honestly, it was a lot colder than I expected and the kids and I were rather under-dressed, so we hung out in the store while the tree-cutting was taking place. We set the tree up and strung the lights but we're leaving it otherwise undecorated until Christmas Eve. Some families who celebrate Advent will wait until that night before even putting their tree in the house, to magnify the sense of waiting, much like leaving the manger in the creche empty until Christmas. Then the tree stays up for all of Christmas (which really lasts until Epiphany, on January 6th!) I wasn't sure I could face a completely treeless Advent though, so I decided leaving the decorating until Christmas eve was a good middle ground. We're also doing a Jesse tree for the first time this year, and reading through this book by Ann Voskamp with Indy (we all really like it). It was my intention to use our real tree as our Jesse tree this year and to add one ornament each evening, but since I set out to make the ornaments myself and so far have only made 5 of 25, it looks like that part will have to wait until next Advent.

We're finally settling into the cold season. The first several weeks after the garden is really done and the door to the screened porch remains firmly shut, narrowing my world to one less room, I feel that pacing feeling coming on, what do I do now? The rhythms of Advent seem to help with that, actually; the emphasis on introspection, quiet, the thought-life, it all reminds me of the possibilities of this part of the year. Oh yes, there's the books and tea (a ritual Indy has quite taken to this year) and yarn. There's plenty of chances for wonder - not the same as is in July, not the green unfurling and the ruby tomatoes heavy in hand - but a peaceful kind, the falling snow and steam from the kettle and the kids (occasionally) magically sharing toys and quietly laughing together in the other room. It's good.

Late Thursday night we got back from spending six days in the Palm Desert in California, visiting Alan's Nana and Papa and most of his extended family. The four hours we spent in traffic trying to get from the Desert to LA for our flight confirmed one of the main reasons I could never live in California, the other main one being the lack of real seasons. Sure, it was a little brisk stepping off the plane into 40 degree weather when we boarded in 80 degrees in LA, but man did that chill feel good. I need the forced adaptation that the changing weather and light insists upon; it's an opportunity for growth. The only downside, I suppose, is the feeling of scrambling that often ensues as I try to adjust my routine and recultivate cold-weather hobbies and remember how you keep kids occupied inside all day long. So it goes with this space as well, as I try to figure out what a blogging routine looks like in the colder seasons. Anyways, forgive me that some of these photos are all the way from back in September (!) I have another quilt project and photos from a birth I shot before leaving for California to share here, so I will be back with those over the next several days, but for now I'll leave you with the above snapshots.

1. First try at homemade ricotta

2. Truly epic bed-head

3. Soy and maple glazed salmon over beet thinnings from the fall garden

4. Proof that kids will eat said beet greens

5. So many salad greens!

6, 7. Our new wood-stove and a sick sleeping babe

8, 9. The last of the zinnias