Happy Monday!  How was your weekend?  We had a low-key one, for the most part.  Saturday was the big festive day in our neighborhood – the annual Scottish Christmas parade was in the morning and the holiday boat parade of lights took place after sunset.  We attended… neither of them.  Whoops!  Next year, maybe.  On Saturday morning, I took Nugget to a friend’s house for a play date.  He and his buddy had the best time careening around the house playing Ghostbusters while his buddy’s mom and I drank coffee and traded childbirth and NICU war stories, like ya do.  On Sunday morning, we loaded up the ol’ four-wheel drive sleigh (with apologies to the Griswolds) and drove out to Middleburg to cut down our own Christmas tree.  I’ve had artificial trees practically since I can remember (and even wrote this post about them) so this was A Very Big Deal.  We hiked through misty fields, the kids asked to take every.single.tree home, and when Steve found the one we ended up with, obviously I said “She’s a beaut, Clark!”  I felt like a murderer while Steve was chopping it down and I can neither confirm nor deny the rumors of second-guessing and guilty tears, but eventually I got over it and we drove home very gingerly with our family’s first “real” tree tied on top of the car.  We had friends over in the afternoon – a law school friend of mine and a law school friend of Steve’s, who are now married to one another, long and lovely story – and then rolled up our sleeves and decorated the tree (which is substantially bigger than we realized at the farm, oops).  I spent Saturday evening curled up on the couch enjoying the soft white lights and all of our special, meaningful ornaments – not a bad way to wrap up the weekend.

Reading.  Bit of a slow reading week, although you wouldn’t know it from the three covers above.  I finished The Nature Fix early in the week and spent most of the rest of the week, up until yesterday morning, on Alif the Unseen.  It was good, and a quick read, but so much of my reading time is tied to getting a seat on the Metro and the commuting this past week has been miserable.  (There’s work being done on the yellow line, which is good and necessary, but it’s ruining the blue line.  I hope they finish soon.)  I’ve been generally able to read on the train in the mornings, but in the evenings I’m lucky if I get six inches of space to call my own, let alone a seat.  Anyway, I finally finished Alif on Sunday morning and am now reading my book club book for the month, The Lost City of Z.  The meeting’s Wednesday, so I’m cutting it fine – good thing it’s such a good, exciting book.

Watching.  Steve has standing plans with the guys on Tuesdays, so that’s become my night to watch whatever I want.  Since I don’t know how to get to saved shows on the digital guide (go ahead and laugh) I couldn’t watch The Great American Read this week.  So I took the opportunity to watch the new adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.  It was definitely different from the book, which I mostly didn’t mind (Aunt Beast gets to stay as I’ve imagined her) but I didn’t love the way Mrs. Whatsit was written.  Reese Witherspoon gave a fabulous performance, but the character was written with a mean streak that just wasn’t at all true to the book, and not a good change.  The book version of Mrs. Whatsit is such a loving, constant presence for Meg, cherishing her for who she is and gently guiding her to self-acceptance; the movie version just seemed irritated by Meg the whole time – it made me sad.  Other than that, I really liked it.

Listening.  A slow reading week makes for a full listening week.  I blew through podcast after podcast while I was scrunched up against the door of the Metro train on my way home every night.  The highlight was the Sorta Awesome ladies discussing A Wrinkle in Time, which was a back episode I’d been saving until I finally saw the movie.

Moving.  Not much – I had my first busy week at my new job and everything else took a backseat to juggling a few longer assignments.  I have some travel coming up this week, so I’ll try to find a way to be active on my trip.  Is it weird that I rather enjoy a hotel gym?

Making.  Lists, and checking them twice.  Everyone wants to know what to get Steve and the kids for Christmas.  Steve is no help – he straight-up refuses to make a wish list for himself, so it’s left to me to shop around and think of suggestions to offer people.  I’ve been spending most evenings after the kids go to bed, working on his wish list.  (I’m easy: here’s my Amazon wish list with 200 books on it, and also camping gear.)

Blogging.  November reading recap on Wednesday – another busy month of books! – and a fun ocean-friendly shopping guide I enjoyed putting together on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Sometimes it seems that every weekend I have a play date or a birthday party for one of the kids.  Their social calendars are so full it would take a four-star general to manage them competently, but I’m doing my best.  I’ve joked that Peanut has a knack for finding the kids with the coolest moms, and it seems Nugget has the same gift.  His friend D’s parents are so cool that I barely noticed three hours pass on Saturday morning.  D’s mom said that her mother-in-law made the point that kids probably gravitate to other kids who have been raised the same way or who come from families with similar philosophies, and that may be why they seem to choose friends with whose parents we get along so well.  I don’t know, but I hope to see a lot more of D’s family, and I sure am glad he and Nugget found each other.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?