truly, the season is upon us...

no, not christmas. that would be too obvious. 'tis the season during which my husband insists on wearing a santa hat every blessed waking moment... yeah, that season. so he waltzes into my office today, wearing work uniform and santa hat and i say "oh, it's that time of year, huh?"

and he, who knows me too well, dons his best impish grin and responds: "yep. sorry."

i suppose it's a good thing he lost his seahawks cap, because he threatened to wear that under the santa hat. wouldn't that have been a sight!

i had a great weekend - we had dinner & games with friends friday night that ended with a spontaneous trip to the local candy cane lane, and then another spontaneous trip out in the middle of nowhere, to an even better candy cane lane. had a little me-time on saturday, did some crazy christmas shopping with my mom that afternoon, and baked the most doomed batch of christmas cookies i've ever baked in my entire life (i'll tell that story this week when i have nothing else to talk about - it's just too bad i didn't get a picture). i'm thrilled to say that i made great progress on my christmas journal, but i'm nowhere near caught up. (i've done 6 entries total, i think - and let's see, i should be on entry 18 today... oh well!) i cleaned the house, wrapped more presents, and othewise whittled away at my to-do list. church on sunday was an adventure: saturday afternoon, we got a call that a tree had fallen on the power line next to the gym we rent for sunday services. we were moving our service to another building on the same campus - the room where we hold the kids' church, which meant no kids' church and since the gym had no power, no preschool or nursey classes either. the whole church, in one significantly smaller-than-usual room. but it worked. an extra measure of patience and understanding, and it's amazing how people can come together in frustrating circumstances.

today's christmas photo:

one year, my mom discovered an unfinished ceramic nativity set at our favorite painting studio and painted it for herself in the simplest, most elegant fashion. i knew i had to have one for myself, so the next year i did the same.

but i only got halfway through it before i needed to stop for the day. i left the painted half to be fired, and took the unpainted half home. the painted half wouldn't be ready in time for christmas anyway. over the course of the next two years, i would lose the painted half and find the unpainted half - and then find the painted half only to lose the unpainted half. finally, i saved myself from - well, myself - and put the painted half away with the other christmas decorations. when i came across the unpainted half the next time - having thought for sure it was gone forever - i wasted no time in painting it, and then putting it with its other half.

so now i have my nativity set, and it's truly my favorite part of my christmas decorations. if it came right down to it, i could "lose" everything else, and be just fine with this on display. and if i had my way (and trusted my cats), i'd have it out year round anyway.

and finally, i have big news to share that i think i've been hinting at for the last week (or two), but there's one more person who must hear it from my lips, and i can't risk her reading this before i talk to her! so i'll post about it as soon as i can...