what HAVE you been up to, you ask?

Having essentially finished my Christmas shopping, I have been laying low the last week or so. Nothing particularly exciting or interesting going on here. Fiddling in my craft area. Running to the library with Gillian

I did get a whole tin of old buttons off ebay! I won the auction and my oldest son paid for them as my Christmas gift. There are some pretty ones and a lot of plain old ones, but they are fun and I am sure I will think of a hundred things to do with them. Silly things really, but they make me smile.

I finished my swaps and turned my Thanksgiving tree into a Winter tree (Basically, I removed the "leaves" and glued red birds to my sparkly white tree! I can leave that up through January and then maybe we'll have to make some Valentines to adorn

it.

The fireplace has been working overtime. It is chilly outside and the warming effect of the fire is both physical and emotional. The kids actually request it in the mornings if I haven't started it by the time they get up. It just makes their hearts happy!

So you see, we haven't done much . But that's o.k. That's what the cold days of winter are for, I guess: To rest and repair and just be. These respites never seem to last long around our busy house. So I am just enjoying while I can.