carving out a better day.

Christmas is definitely a nice thing. Being human is mysterious, but Christmas has come every year in my lifetime,; I know I can rely on it coming and have decided to try to make it as good as possible, especially for my kids. First thing: carve. I decided to try to make Christmas cards on behalf of the family. Besides, carving gave me something to do and it is an amazingly therapeutic activity.





I actually have a damp pack sitting in wait for the first printing session I've had in over a year. I admit that, as usual, I'm having some jitters about printing. Maybe I wouldn't be so nervous if I wasn't supposed to drive to Portland tomorrow for a work-related holiday party, cards made and cookies too, which are supposed to accompany said cards.

I've been knitting a lot for Christmas gifts, and this year we have a significant cold snap that has kept the schools closed an extra week. We live in the hills, and here in the West we are not set up with a system to accommodate even a little bit of ice, so we are disabled with a few days of a bit of snow; very unlike the midwest or the east, but they are set up to deal with these things because there, snow and ice are givens. Here our society has not budgeted for such things - cheaper to just shut down several activities for a few days than to finance something on a larger, more systemic scale. Meanwhile, the boys have enjoyed the snow:



And as boys will be boys, they decided to create a Calvin-inspired, morbid snowman:



Life is strange, infinite, chaotic, perhaps purposeless, but at least the boys find humor worthy and why not. Why not?