A couple of people this weekend asked me what we were up to on Saturday and Sunday.  I replied, “It would be quicker to tell you what we didn’t do this weekend.”  Y’all, we were busy.  On Saturday morning we were up and out the door early for 8:00 a.m. haircut appointments for both kiddos.  Once they each had a fresh new ‘do, we headed home via the garden center, to pick out our tree.  As I lamented (just a little) on Instagram, this year has been all about doing the best we can.  We never made it to the pumpkin patch – blame a crazy work October for me and icky colds for the whole family.  So Nugget and I picked out pumpkins alone at a roadside stand – and then never actually carved them.  (Our big family pumpkin is still sitting uncarved on my kitchen table.  I am determined to have roasted pumpkin seeds even if we didn’t have a jack-o-lantern.)  And the Christmas tree farm was a no-go.  While we were in Albany this year, Steve received an email from the farm we visited last year, noting that they would be open the weekend after Thanksgiving, and that weekend only – due to a blight, they had almost no trees.  We made some half-hearted efforts to find another tree farm, but with some unrelated family stress, we just didn’t have the energy.  Garden center it was.

Anyway – still trying to make it magical.  As soon as we got the tree home, Peanut and I got dressed up in our holiday finest and headed to Montgomery College to see The Nutcracker.  (Well – I was in my holiday finest.  Peanut was in an April Cornell dress that looks like a nightgown, because: Nutcracker.)  Peanut was captivated and loved every second, and left the theatre clutching her very own (pink and purple sparkly) Nutcracker.  Headed home for an evening of trimming the Christmas tree and watching Home Alone (adapting my family’s tradition of watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on tree-trimming night).

Sunday brought more running around.  The kids and I whipped up a batch of raspberry-almond thumbprint cookies while Dad was out actually running, then we all walked out for brunch with my friend Vanessa and her husband David.  After brunch, I nipped down to Wegmans, then hurried home for FaceTime with Grandma and a good long scooter ride for Nugget on the neighborhood bike path.  We ended the weekend collapsed on the couch – literally.  Steve turned on a disneynature documentary about the ocean for the kids.  Nugget spent the first hour shouting LOOK, WHALES, MOMMY, YOUR FAVORITE and then passed out in my arms.

Reading.  It was a busy reading week, but it seems that reading was one of the few things I actually didn’t do over the weekend – or at least, not much.  On Monday I finished up A Fatal Grace, the second installment in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series.  I’d been saving it for December because the action takes place around Christmas; this was completely mysterious to my Aunt Maria, who recommended that I try the Three Pines books and couldn’t believe I was actually able to wait two months between reading the first and reading the second.  I liked it, and the solution was clever (although I guessed the identity of the killer) but I didn’t care for the casual cruelty with which Penny discussed her characters’ body types.  After wrapping up my visit to Three Pines, I took a break from Christmas reading to attend to a library deadline – Olive Kitteridge, which has been on my to-read list for ages.  Then back to the Christmas books – I read A Christmas Book, by Elizabeth Goudge, over the course of Thursday and Friday, then moved on to The Santa Klaus Murder, with a brief break to read The Twelve Days of Christmas by the light of the tree, as planned.  (It was hiliarious.)  Going forward, I have more bookish holiday fun planned for myself this week – when I have time.  Between work deadlines and Christmas crunch time, it’s going to be tight.

Watching.  A little of this, and a little of that.  A couple of episodes of The Great British Bake-Off over the course of the week.  And then most of disneynature: oceans on Sunday evening, including a good twenty minutes or so while Nugget snoozed in my arms.  #winning

Listening.  Podcasts, podcasts, podcasts.  Lots of holiday episodes – including Part II of The Book Riot Podcast‘s holiday recommendations show, more The Mom Hour holiday tips, and a Sorta Awesome episode about favorite holiday traditions.  (That one, I had to quickly turn off mid-episode, because Peanut was listening in as we drove to The Nutcracker, and the hosts began discussing Christmas magic, if you take my meaning.  To their credit, they gave a lengthy disclaimer before launching into Santa talk, which gave me plenty of time to toggle over to something else.)  Perhaps the best listening of the week was a new discovery – did you know that the Historic Royal Palaces social media account has a podcast?  It’s hosted by Lucy Worsley, because of course, and it is everything I didn’t know I was missing.  I listened to a lecture about Christmas traditions from the Victorians to the interwar period and it was GREAT.

Making.  Not enough progress on Christmas, or on work, but various and sundry other projects.  A few rows of my navy seed stitch scarf.  The aforementioned raspberry-almond thumbprint cookies.  Several bags of hand-me-down toys for a single mom in my neighborhood, for her littles on Christmas morning.  Brunch reservations.  A decorated Christmas tree.  Then a re-decorated Christmas tree after I moved around all the ornaments the kids hung up.  Then a re-re-re-decorated tree after I rearranged Nugget’s rearranging of my rearrangement.  Confused yet?  Lots of memories.

Blogging.  Bookish week coming atcha – my Christmas TBR on Wednesday (spoiler, some books have already been read ::dustsoffshoulders::) and Themed Reads for December on Friday – three books to make you laugh this holiday season.

Loving.  The holiday cards are starting to trickle in, and opening them up just makes my day.  I love seeing the smiling faces of people I love, and measuring my friends’ kiddos against their previous year’s cards.  (Yes, I save the picture cards every year.)  I sent mine off last week, so hopefully they will be dropping into mailboxes to bring their own smiles any day now.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?