So, here we are. Christmas week. I don't know about anyone else, but, this is going to be a full week for our house. I still have a few gifts coming from "Santa's Brownies"........you know......The UPS guys!!, I am trying my hand for the first time making a yule log cake. I'll let you know how it all turns out. My wrapping is almost done, but I still have a bunch of fudge to make for my candy tins for the neighbors.

By now, I'm usually burned out, ready to have all the gift wrapped presents out of my site and counting the days for when I can take the Christmas tree down, and my house back to normal. For some reason I don't feel that way this year. For the first time in over fifteen years, I will leave the tree up until New Years. I have no desire to take it down and starting last night, the tree will be lit around the clock until Christmas day.

Because of everyones work schedules this year, I will have a feast ready late Christmas Eve as my hungry family will be coming in shifts. Sally will be bouncing off of walls even after she is put to bed. As tradition, Vern and Dee will spend the night here too. Santa knows to come to our house for Sally. The cookies and hot chocolate are already to be set out for him. She will open one gift before going to bed and then the adults will open our gifts before ending the day. Of course, we will all have our hot chocolate toast at 9pm to my Mother, Jamy and friends and family who passed over the past few years.

Despite the fact that it may rain on Christmas Eve, we will have a white Christmas this year. From Friday through Sunday, we picked up more that a foot and a half of snow. It is beautiful. Should we get the rain and hardly any more snow for the season after Christmas day, we would be more than grateful. An early spring would also be appreciated.

So, off I go......time to get back into my housework and baking. Just in case I don't get back here before the holidays.....

Merry Christmas!!

All that is left after the maples, birch and beech trees have lost their leaves to Autumn's masterpiece, is the beautiful oak leaves that have transformed their colors from a deep green of summer to deep reds and browns.

Today it is raining and the look of November is warm and comforting as each breeze sends more leaves floating to the ground.  It's indian summer with temps in the lower 60s.  Soon, the temps will tumble into the 50s and even 40s as with each passing day, winter will get closer and closer.

Thanksgiving is just three weeks away today.  I wish I could say I am looking forward to the holiday, but it's just not the same.  My children are all grown and living their own lives and it's just Steve and I.  This year we will spend the day back at the farm in Hampstead with Ken and Pat.  That is an emotional mixed bag.

I always loved the farm in Hampstead, and before moving here to our cottage, I had never lived as long anywhere longer than I had at the Patey farm.  I will enjoy spending the day again there, but the memories of past Thanksgivings with my Mom and Dad, Eric and his family, Beth and my kids right there will leave a bittersweet note on my heart.

So, back to today.  I have grocery shopping to do and housework that needs my attention.  But for just a short period, I will forget everything else around me as I stand outside and enjoy the autumn  rain and falling oak leaves.

Summer is ending on a cloudy, damp note and temps not quite reaching 70.  I'm not sure what is going on, but when I took Fred out this morning up on the hill, I was greeted with the cries of blue jays, chickadees, titmice and nut hatchers all around me.  One chickadee was brave enough to land on a branch not more than six feet in front of me.  They haven't been eating at feeders for the past couple of weeks and I'm hoping that changes soon.  I miss looking out my window and seeing them all on and around the feeders and the bird bath in my garden.

Preparations are being made for winter here.  Yesterday Steve, Dee, Verne and a couple of friends of theirs painted the new shed.  What we thought was a sage green turned out to be more of a pea green, but that's ok.  It's nice and bright and looks good.  One more coat and it will be finished.  We have to start going through the contents of the old shed and weeding out what we actually use and need and giving away or throwing away the rest that have just been stored there for the past five years and haven't been touched or used.  Steve is going to organize a tool and workbench area and I am going to organize my garden area just under the window on the opposite wall.

We had our last, big outing with Sally for the year.  We saw High School Musical at the Ugunquit playhouse in Maine on Saturday.  She had a great time and even had her playbill autographed by the cast.  We are going to have it framed for her to hang in her bedroom.  Only one more play for this season.  On Oct. 5th, Steve, myself, Dee and Verne are going to see La Misaralbe (I'm sure I spelled this wrong.  It's as hard to spell as it is to speak!).  We are looking forward to this.

After the play, Steve and I are going to take our yearly anniversary vacation time (We have been married 14 years) and then we are going to hibernate for the rest of the season.  I have some projects that I need to get into like making the Christmas presents I have planned for and writing down more of the genealogy that has been found and searching for more pieces to that huge puzzle.

So, now it's time for me to get into this day!

Just one day after sending flowers for a funeral, I am sending flowers for a new baby born.  And so goes the continuation of life's cycle.  Sister in Law Sandy, lost her Dad to cancer early this week and I am so glad she was there with my sister Beth to welcome sweet Maddie into the world yesterday.  Maddie's middle name says it all.......Hope.

To look at conditions here in New England, you would think that Autumn was already here.  Because of all the rain we had, the swamp maples are already turning and there are autumn leaves already on our front lawn.  I'm even starting to hear September's crickets from my open window at night.  I have turned off the air conditioners and with open windows, I am only using fans.  A few nights we have had to turn off the fans as the temps have dipped below 50 degrees.

And so.......life continues and seasons turn from one to the next.  A perfectly formed circle that only God can master.

It looks like the middle of summer here, yet, the official date is still four days away.  With all the rain we have had, it almost looks like a jungle in my back yard.  Everything is so green.  Sometime today I have to get into the gardens and do some weeding before they over take the plants.  My bleeding heart is HUGE!!!  It easily takes up a third of the garden now.  We have had that plant for five years and I'm not sure if it will continue spreading over the next several years.

I'm getting some work done.  Wouldn't you know it......my clothes dryer went on the fritz and I had to take my laundry to the laundromat this morning.  Thank goodness it hasn't gotten hot yet.  The hotter it gets, the worse my asthma symptoms become.  Anyway, that is done and the dryer will be fixed sometime between 1p-5p tomorrow.  So, now I need to put away the clean clothes, clean my floors with the new vacuume cleaner Ben and Rachel gave us as a gift during their vacation with us.  After that I'll putter around the house picking things up and putting them away as I go.

Sally will be staying with us for one more night before going back with her mom tomorrow after school.  Boy, it's been hard getting her up these past couple of mornings.  She really hasn't wanted to go, because it's boring the last week of school before summer vacation.  Her birthday is this coming Friday and I know she is going to want to skip school.  I'll talk to Dee and see what she thinks about it.

Well, I'm not getting any work done here.....so.....I'll stop typing for now.