Christmas Daybook

For today, December 31, 2008

Outside My Window… It’s dark out…evening. The weather here lately has been nothing but rain for weeks it seems and then this week gloriously the sun has returned. It is refreshing. Temps have dropped again as well.

I am thankful for… A beautiful season of preparation behind us and now the celebration of Christmas in full swing. I’m so glad we can embrace and live the season of Christmas for 12 days. And we are living it. That’s why I haven’t posted much at all lately – I’m so grateful to be living this season so richly with my family.

From the kitchen… The dishwasher is humming. I spent today emptying my pantry and re-organizing it…pics later!! 🙂 What a joyful relief to walk into a tidy pantry. My kitchen is woefully inadequate in some areas, but it boasts the loveliest, large walk-in pantry…and I confess I’m far too proud of it. Rows and rows of pastas and beans and flour and peanut butter. It’s all so pretty. There is enough room in my pantry to designate zones…I have a food pantry zone (this is the majority of my pantry), then a paper products/housecleaning zone, and a food storage container zone. My pantry is the shining jewel in my kitchen and goes a long way towards helping me with contentment in a room with 4 feet of counterspace…’cause I’ve always got my walk in pantry. Enough gushing. Suffice to say at midnight tonight, I’ll walk in the kitchen, open the door to my pantry, flip on the light and sigh contentedly. Isn’t that romantic?

I am wearing… jeans, a peachy-pink sweatshirt and socks…I know that sounds sloppy, but I *was* climbing around in my pantry all day!

I am creating… an organized, streamlined, simplified home. Really. We come home from a flurry of visits with family and all of the lovely Christmas goodies are spilling from one end of the house to the other. I started upstairs this week helping the children each envision a new, more organized version of their room. We put away some older toys, agreed to give a few others away, all in order to make room for some lovely new things in rooms. We open every drawer, look under the beds, open the closets….I have to do a lot of extra deep breathing exercises when I find that cookie cutter I was looking for 3 weeks ago tucked in the lego bin. I so enjoyed finally tidying my sewing area – it looks so welcoming and lovely now with all of my fabrics gently folded and waiting. And today, as you know was pantry and kitchen day. The learning room had a complete overhaul just before Christmas. So, the house is refreshing and purged of excess and all of our supplies are tidied and put away in their places. Lovely. We won’t mention what the garage looks like right now….I had to put the excess **stuff** somewhere! I’ll be working on the garage Friday.

I am reading… Radical Hospitality – Benedict’s Way of Love. I hope to make my way through a better part of the book tonight. I love what I’m reading so far….

“When we speak of the depth of hospitality, we are proposing something scary and radical. But it’s worth the risk. Unless we find a way to open ourselves to others, we will grow even more isolated and frightened. If we do not find and practice ways of hospitality we will grow increasingly hostile. Hospitality is the answer to hostility. Jesus said to love your neighbor; hospitality is how.”

I am hoping… LSU wins the ballgame tonight! Victory seems assured at this point in the game.

I am hearing… the aforementioned ballgame on tv. The children are preparing our Victor Borge (Netflix) DVD for viewing. They love inflationary language!

Looking to the rhythm of the liturgical year… tomorrow, the Feast of the Circumcision, or Mary, the Mother of God, presents us with a lovely invitation to pray the Litany of Loreto as a way of calling to mind Our Lady’s many names. We’ll read together Mary, The Mother of Jesus by Tomie de Paola. I have to admit, I’m looking forward to a slowing liturgically after the intensity of Advent and Christmas.

Around the house… I’ve been cleaning and tidying and organizing and purging and I’m almost ready to sit back and just enjoy the uncluttered, beautiful and functional look of it all. A house that works for me. A must.

I will claim a moment for myself… tonight…reading. And, I might spend some time looking through some of my other delicious books I got for Christmas….with a few chocolate covered Macadamia nuts (a gift!) and some milk.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Well, since tomorrow’s a Holy Day, I won’t be continuing with my massive home re-org. I confess to you that it will be a great sacrifice on my part NOT to finish up and get in the garage and work. But, the house does look lovely inside now, so I’m giving myself permission to rest in that and enjoy the day thinking of my sweet heavenly Mother.