so many good things

oh friends,

my heart is so full.

this season has been so busy but so good.

i don't even know where to begin, so i think i'll do a little list.

• this has probably been one of the busiest holidays i have ever had. there were a lot of extras this month... puppy sitting, a very special 60th birthday that i helped with a bit, our first season of basketball (for two players on different teams... with different practice schedules.... sigh), hunting season also came before christmas this year (we do all of our own cutting and packaging... so there was that), and i have been subbing for the montessori a bit here and there as well. not to mention all of the usual holiday gatherings and just general chaos.
• i have been enjoying it all so much though. i certainly do get overwhelmed, but i think i have been able to let go more this season than ever before, and that feels really good. i don't think i did ANY holiday crafting... which i do really miss of course, but this was just not the right season to add in another thing! also, i'm finding a lot of comfort in the fact that next year will not be so busy.
• our weather... has been very wet and a bit wild. it seems like every time i check the weather there is a new storm moving in. as of dec. 21st we supposedly had a third of the total rainfall for 2015 in one month, one partial month. our average is around an inch a day. there has also been a lot of wind, as in sustained winds at 35 to 40 mph and gusts to 60 or 70 mph. saturated soils and high winds are a pretty scary combination. i am so curious if we will see snow this season.
• our tree. when we went tree hunting in the previous post we didn't find anything. maiko went on his own while the girls and i were away and cut us down a beautiful tree. the tree was a spruce though, so we ran into some problems when we went to put it up. it was so prickly we could barely touch it and had to use work gloves to put it up, put on the lights, and even to put on the ornaments. it was quite an experience. then the poor tree collapsed under the weight of our decorations and we finally gave up on the poor thing (i was determined to make it work) and actually purchased a tree (the weather mentioned above has made tree hunting a little rough). 
• there has been a little crafting. one of my favorite parts of the kids' crafting this year is that it has been entirely their own creation. i usually provide ideas and materials, or something in the way of guidance, but this year they have done it all on their own. i did provide them with the printouts for the sweet little houses though... which can be downloaded for free on taproot's website here. i printed them on cardstock for a little extra stability and it has worked wonderfully. 

well, i'm certainly missing some details but that was the gist of our month. i am really looking forward to starting 2016 with some calm and quiet.

cheers friends!

hope you all have a wonderful holiday surrounded by those you love.