Weekend Things ~ Holiday Making

Last week, in response to the sudden realization that Christmas was just two weeks away, I went into a flurry of activity--shopping, ordering, card-sending, gift-wrapping--moving on autopilot, staying up too late every night, drinking more caffein than usual (which isn't hard to do, since I don't drink much). Thursday I purchased the last gift and put a box in the mail, sure to arrive (touch wood) in time. In celebration, I bought some rum to go in the eggnog and looked forward to a weekend of enjoyable holiday preparations--sans credit card.

In the end, it still felt a bit like ticking things off the list--but they were enjoyable, low-pressure things to check off: wreath-making, cookie-baking, solstice-tree-decorating (including the requisite birdseed ornament fails), and last-year's-wreath-burning. These are the kinds of traditions that mean more to me than the endless buying and giving and getting of stuff and are, I hope, what my kids will remember about the holidays long into the future.