Of Advent Beginnings and Sniffles...

Yesterday being the first Sunday in Advent, we had the fun of rooting through the shed after church to find all the boxes of ornaments and garlands so that we could begin to decorate the house for the holidays.

I love getting out my Christmas CD collection and having that on in the background as I get the tree ready. The girls each have their own little 3 foot high tree for their rooms where they can put all their homemade ornaments and the tiniest ones that friends or family have begun to get for them... but when it comes to the family tree, I get to be the boss! I like having a “base” underneath to help tie all the various ornaments together, so the white lights and white bead garland go on first. Luckily this year all the lights worked (except for one minor panic when the middle strands of the 200 light set suddenly blinked off when I bumped one bulb!) and I even remembered which way to “chain” the lights thanks to Nick! Then the silver balls go on, nestled deep in the gaps that are bound to happen with an artificial tree, even when you fluff it out carefully. These reflect the light and colours of the other ornaments back outwards, but still sway and shimmer nicely. Finally, I add on a selection of bows in the colours of choice. I am staying with the deep burgundy and sparkly plaid from last year because it goes so well with our decor.

I’d planned to start putting up the special ornaments tonight. Those take a bit longer because the girls like to help and hear the story behind each one. Some have been with me since MY childhood trees and others are gifts to them from their first few Christmases, so they like to hear all the details.

But instead, I am driving Erin up to the nearby clinic to get her throat checked. She called home about 40 minutes before school finished, in tears, because her head hurt so much... but Mondays Nick has the car, so I had to ask her to hang in there just a little longer. (Boy... do you ever feel rotten when you have to do that. Blood or something broken, I’d take a cab for... but this was one of those “be brave” things) I walked up to the bus stop and kept her company in the rainy drizzle as we walked home. Warm homemade turkey and rice soup for supper hasn’t really helped much, but at least she could swallow it. Her tonsils look pretty red and swollen, and she’s running a fever, so off we go.

Sigh! I had SO hoped to enjoy a few weeks of healthy kids!!