I’m not quite ready. Each year I envision that I’ll have all my Christmas busy work mostly done in November, so that all of December I can easily move through the month, baking and decorating and listening to good holiday music. Every single year for about 7 years I’ve had that grand plan in place from January to October. Then November rushes by as fast as any month can with hardly a moment to prepare. This year I did pretty good. I didn’t fuss much over what to get anyone, I bought quickly and with firm decision. But there are always so many loose ends to finish up! Oy!

The kids opened their advent calendar the other morning and declared (that day) that there were only 8 more days until Christmas Eve, which is when my entire back seized up and the countless loose ends went spinning through my head. Yesterday I woke up with excruciating pain bolting through my back thanks to the bolt of reality I was shocked with the day before. Nothing on my to-do list involved not moving, so I went about my day, but boy when those kids got in bed, I sat right down in that couch with a heating pad on my back and my knitting in hand. I’m still working on Relax, which is still a fitting name for a garment. The knitting work isn’t all that relaxing as you work back and forth working front and back separately. There’s a lot of purling involved, as much purling as knitting…and as I’ve said before, Elizabeth Zimmerman was right, no one wants to purl if they don’t have to. The Madeline Tosh yarn is incredible. Rain Water it’s called.


Yes, I’m reading Taproot, but I’m also reading Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison. Though it’s the base of the movie by the same name, this book is actually a collection of three short stories, all which I’ve sunk right into. He’s certainly become on of my favorite story tellers. It’s amazing to me how good writers can combine words so beautifully.

We had a long series of freezing weather last week, which took a hard toll on our citrus. We must have had a hard freeze three years ago, right before we moved here, because the three citrus trees that were here looked dead when we moved in. Two came right back to life. The lemon tree especially. We babied that thing and this year it finally seemed to be thriving with hundreds of lemons all over it. And then the freeze hit this year. The poor thing. We wrapped with with both christmas lights and sheets. It will make it, but it sure does look pathetic now. The second unknown citrus was about to reveal it’s character to us as it had finally set fruit, but it took the brunt of the freeze and looks as dead as can be. The lime tree looks bedraggled and the kafir looks kaput. A tough winter for our citrus.