Santafication

Here's a tradition - before putting the nutcrackers up in place, they usually get put on this table, and of course there's Maddie there too, so I kind of set them all up as if they're staring her down while she eats!  The Christmas process takes a bit of time to engage fully, but we've got the nutcracker collection up there on the top shelves, and there's a bunch of them up there of course.  We have three storage tubs filled with nutcrackers, plus an extra large one passed on from my great grandmother.  I think it's pretty much the only thing that I have from my grandparents on my mother's side, possibly... I'll have to think of that.  Anyway, that one towers over the others, and there's a frog with a crown on it by his feet.  I think he's the frog prince.  The others look great up there, and it's getting a bit crowded up there on that top shelf, so I don't think we'll be able to fit any more nutcrackers into our collection.  And that's okay - we don't need any more nutcrackers.  Poor Camille is collecting far more than we have, and she keeps adding more and more each year.  Soon she'll have enough to start up a large and somewhat disturbing museum.  See, the nutcrackers she collects frequently have some defect in them - she picks up nutcrackers that have something wrong with them, perhaps a missing hand or foot.  Something like what you see in that story from Fantasia 2000.  Which I suddenly want to see again.  One year we even gave her a nutcracker without a head.  Imagine about ten years from now when she has 500 of these things in an extra room and charges people five dollars to come in to see the damaged nutcrackers.  She could even start an adoption center there for unwanted imperfect nutcrackers.  I might even adopt one.  

Anyway, the other thing we put up were the Santa Claus pictures with Maddie.  Each year we get one and put it in a frame.  The last two years have been so frantic that we hadn't had time to do so, and suddenly an opportunity arose from unexpected places.  Two years ago it was a Santa picture at Edgestravaganza.  Last year, we had a Santa at the Christmas Spectacular in a neat little area for a fun photograph.  So we printed both of those up and got a nice frame, adding them to the collection.  Each year we've had a picture with Santa, and where it used to be at a mall, sometimes it is at Edge Martial Arts, Free Chapel, or even the Northeast Georgia History Center.  All the framed pictures are on the shelves now, and it's nice looking back year after year as Maddie grows up and keeps coming back to visit with Santa.  I wonder where this year's picture will be?

I was continuing my journey towards Everest Base Camp today, which has been a fun little journey.  It's a lot of terrain walking, with hills going upwards at a pretty steep incline, which you'd expect in the Himalayas.  But it's been nice.  We'll keep walking, and some days that will be running too - I am breaking it up so that I run a couple days a week now.  It would be super cool to do an actual turkey trot somewhere.  I'm looking into it.

Maddie had a good day.  She's got a few tests this week, so there's some scholastic work to do at home in the evenings.  She's making a few ceramic objects - a couple containers with an "Alice in Wonderland" theme to them.  One says "EAT ME" and the other says "DRINK ME."  She's pretty happy with the way things are turning out right now.  Tonight she was at taekwondo of course.  There'll be a pot luck coming soon, a "Friendsgiving" with the Edge family, and that will be Saturday - we've got "The Gift" coming up too.  Lots going on this weekend, including "The Nutcracker" on Sunday.  Three practices this week too on the evenings.  

Tonight Mom and I sat to watch the old "Miracle on 34th Street," which is a classic.  We have the tree up, the nutcrackers up and the framed pictures with Maddie and Santa.  We still have the wreaths to go, some other Christmas decor in the living room, and then the other three in the piano room.  But we're nearly there with the Santafication.  It's a lot, but it goes by quicker with Christmas music and movies, which we've been watching and listening to a lot lately.

We closed out things with some more reading from "Wintersmith," and some more "wailee, wailee!"  The Nac Mac Feegle are always a highlight of these books, as is Horace the Cheese.  Great series.  Anyway, we read tonight, and then said our prayers.  It was a good day.