All in a days play

Todays excuse for not blogging lately:  I can't type very well while wearing knit gloves on my frozen mitts.  

 Ok, no, that's not really it, though my mitts are definitely frozen.  I guess I'd just rather not be the prime talker, as my self edit button is usually on the fritz, and I say far too much without it. Boring boring snoozerville of a girl you don't have to write EVERY single thought! (oops)

Soooo....today to break the ice a bit both here and between my fingers.  I think I'll show you a couple of things from last Saturday.  Saturday was a wonderfully Christmassy day indeed.  Let me set the stage a little bit for you.  

I awoke after having slept in just long enough that the piercing morning light coming through my East facing window didn't get the chance to actually burn a laser sized hole right into my brain via one of two vulnerable eye sockets.  So far, so so good.  

Then we chatted a bit over coffee (and breakfast by hubby--always nice) with our in house guest, Travis, who will soon be mentioned at length in a whole 'notha entry. 

The morning flew by both peacefully and in an instant as Saturday mornings, heck most mornings, tend to do.  The boys played video games while I tidied up a bit and listened to this on my headphones.  Not the most interesting book I've ever "read", but the author was really able to describe life as a stay-at-home mom to a tee from several different perspectives.  So much so in fact, that I found myself agreeing audibly with some of the lines in the book like they were coming right from my own bank of thoughts.  But anyway....

Next, the kids and I made our second annual gingerbread house together. And here she is in all her candeliciousness.  

I probably should have made more of an effort to cover the plastic base now that I'm looking at it with fresh eyes with you.  But, oh well, it's still quite cheerful.

Then, with fire in fireplace and The Santa Clause II cued up (it chokes me up EVERYTIME- Darn you Tim Allen!), we began putting up the synthetic tree together.  Sigh.

I realize I might need to improve on my 'Jesus is the reason for the season' pre-Christmas teachable moments.  But I figure we can make time for plastic Santa movies and trees this early in December without much harm done. 

My afternoon soon migrated back to the kitchen where I had shortbread and sausage balls to prepare for our traditional post-parade party at Casa de Beck Bleu.

Oh but the parade!!!!  I mustn't pass by it so quickly.  My hair was not quite as ready as I needed it to be (read: soaking wet fresh from the shower) so I sent the boys down the street ahead of me so that they wouldn't miss anything.  Our house is two blocks up the hill from downtown so we are just naturally included in any event that clogs up our main street and we never need to hunt for parking.  We just step out and enjoy!  

As I knew from past experience that finding my three guys in a mass of people wouldn't be easy, I decided just to take in the small town crowd as a whole experience and walk the downtown area as if I were in a movie.  Here's what it was like only much less dizzying in person:

   

I love this town!!  We may leave it someday, so I try to find these drinkable moments and just hang on to them the way I do with my kids sweetness at every age. Delicious! 

This was a perfect day in almost every way!  Family fun, festivities, fires, fattening foods, farades (ahem). What more could one ask for on a Saturday in early December? I can't think of a thing. Thanks for reliving it with me.