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First, let’s just say that we’ve been stricken by multiple colds and stomach bugs over the last couple of weeks — the latest round over the weekend — so it’s essentially our first Christmas miracle that we even continued the Advent celebrations during the weekend. In fact, I totally forgot yesterday, until Iver spotted the calendar and started pointing at it. Yes, I forgot! I was that down-in-the-dumps and exhausted and just wanted to lie on the couch without anyone touching me for five seconds. But we rallied and here I am! Checking things off my holiday To Do list like you wouldn’t believe. It helps that I’m partly fueled by Hershey Kisses, the dark chocolate one, that I grabbed during today’s emergency snow-and-ice run to the grocery store. They are essential, I tell you, until I’m reunited with my beloved coffee with cream!

Advent day 11: Get a Christmas tree and decorate

We headed to our annual Christmas Tree spot, the WNC Farmer’s Market, and found Mr. McCall’s stand. The trees are from Pensacola, a little community outside Burnsville, in Yancey County. We have gotten our tree from the same farm in Little Canada, in Jackson County, for the past several years, but we couldn’t find them anywhere. So we found a super tree — appropriately Charlie Brownish, with bare spots and a smooshed side, in need of a good home! — among the perfect ones. We loaded it in the truck, drove home and let The Inspector take over.

After tossing her socks in the tree stand a million times and pointing and fluffing the branches and digging through the ornaments, she approved. And now we have this!

I really don’t know anything better than sitting next to a lit tree, listening to Jonathan Winters read A Christmas Carol, which is what we did last night. It really made my heart leap.

Advent day 12: String lights outside

I had visions of turning into Clark Griswold and making the light display on our house rival the sun, but it is cold here and I was sick, so all I managed was a small, but crazy, amalgamation of traditional white lights with a touch of carnival Christmas thrown in around our front porch. So maybe it is a bit Clarkish, minus the neighborhood brownout! It’s still a work in progress. But at least some of them are up!

Advent day 13 (today!): Christmas shopping

Well, let’s just say the majority of my holiday shopping was done from the warmth of my office, surfing the net, combing Best Of lists for ideas, and plunking down a small amount of money (we’re on a tight budget this year, in anticipation of, oh, the new(er) car and crib and car seat we’ll have to buy soon! Woah!) for what I can find. I find online shopping efficient, but a bit sad. I miss the hub-bub! Not the Black Friday 3 a.m. nuttiness (in my opinion), but the regular seasonal rush — grabbing a cup of coffee while waiting in line at the book store (which is where I inevitably end up anyway) and talking with other shoppers about how many days there are left and all there is left to do. The normal holiday chit chat. I love that chit chat, since normally I’m at a loss as to what to say to perfect strangers. The holidays have a built-in script that I’m more than happy to use. Anyway, I still have stocking stuffers to find, because we’re just doing stockings for all the adult family that’s coming to visit, with gifts for the kids sent or wrapped and waiting under the tree, so I’ll still get a little bit of it. Maybe.

By the way, any good stocking stuffer ideas out there? I’m hunting for some good ones before I hit my Yankee Candle desperation shopping mode! Even that’s no fun!

The end of November, I curled up on the couch and brainstormed ideas for Advent. I ran through the obvious ones when I asked Pat what he thought we should do. He said, IMMEDIATELY!, “Go to Krispy Kreme!” I looked at him and kinda (well, really) rolled my eyes. And then I put it on the list though I had no intention of doing it. I was wrong.

He knows of my ridiculous love of Krispy Kreme. I have tons of childhood memories about Krispy Kreme, which, for fear that this blog is becoming just a walk down memory lane for me (and who else cares, really?), I’ll keep to myself for now. And just so you know, our love of doughnuts does not mean that we eat them regularly, sadly, though I do admit to learning of their Cheerwine-filled doughnuts and going out to find them. They were so terrible, I hate to say (and not of this world any longer). But I digress.

So today’s Advent celebration will become an annual one, I’m sure. We went to our local store and I was dazzled by the festiveness. It has to be one of the only places in town that is obviously in the holiday spirit. Twinkling icicle lights! Dangling styrofoam snowflakes dangling from the ceiling! Tinsel garlands around the display cases! A Christmas tree in the corner! Poinsettas on every table. I mean, COME ON, it was fun!

It’s hard not to be amazed by the doughnut conveyer belt. Or the awesome hot chocolate. Or the hats! Did you know they still have the paper hats? They do! And on my Christmas wish list is a replacement of the insulated coffee cup Pat lost somewhere. Are you listening, P Hunt? Huh? I’m serious!

And obviously sugar hyper. Amen.

PS: This weekend, I’ll be taking a break from the Advent reporting. But on the list: finding a Christmas tree, decorating that tree, watching some holiday movies I’ve been storing up on our DVR and going to the Christmas Children’s Reading at the Smith-McDowell House. Happy holidays! See you on Monday!

The holidays, for all the wonderful things they can bring, can also be a really hard time for me. I pull out the glass ornaments my mother had for years and remember her. I hear Perry Como singing The Christmas Song and remember my dad singing in church during the candlelight service. I make tins of cookies and remember the plates of cookies my mom would bake and we’d snack on and give to the neighbors. I smell a fire in the wind at night and remember bringing in loads of firewood to make a fire in the fireplace as the sun set. I see Santa and remember the time my dad dressed up as the tallest and skinniest Santa known to children anywhere and came to visit my second grade classroom. (I knew it was him because I recognized his shoes.)

My parents are both gone now, and I miss them. Often, that’s all I can say. I miss them. Everything else seems extraneous than the simple depth of feeling their loss. But I also miss the idea of family, the dreams I have of bundling up Iver and jumping in the car to go visit them is just a dream. They never met her. And they’ll never meet her sister.

So today is lighting a candle and saying a prayer. I’ve been praying a lot over the past couple of years, which is odd for me because I’d given up on prayer years ago. But getting pregnant and having a little girl and having huge wishes and thankfulness for her health and happiness has made me reconsider. And now, with this little fluttering baby growing and coming to join our family, I’m saying prayers for her, too.

Being thankful for the past, sending out wishes for the future. That’s today’s prayer.