advent

Tomorrow I'm picking up a tree - Anne will collect me at about 10am and we're heading off to get real trees for our homes...

Today I bought decorations from a fair trade shop: palm leaf stars, recycled paper baubles, and the like. I also bought a Christmas CD to enjoy while I decorate the house tomorrow, and a couple of things for Megan and Matiu to add to the tree once they get here so we'll all have a decoration to remember our snowy Christmas (ssshh don't tell them! ;) hehe)...

A small pile of prezzies is on the hearth in the lounge: a box that has arrived from home, and a bag of things I'm taking to the post office on Monday to send along the same route. Cards are on the table and I'll write some tomorrow and send them too.

I've got a shopping list on the microwave, and a list of things to do over the next week. I've sent emails to sort out a few deadlines and have a couple more to send tomorrow. I've got nutmeg and cinnamon and other baking supplies for biscuits (cookies, for the non-NZers) and will pick up more butter and seasonal cookie cutters on Monday.

I've located the most recent copy of my manuscript of poetry and will give myself a whoel day this coming week to work on it, so I can fulfil the promise I made to my dear friend Moira that I'd have a manuscript to her by Christmas this year - a loving deadline she set me to make sure it didn't keep slipping down the 'to do' list :)

Once Megan and Matiu arrive we will spend time in NYC with Gemma and Alyssa, in Ithaca with Lauren and her whanau, and then Toronto with many people... we're having a Christmas Eve celebration here and I've started reading magazines to get ideas for the desserts and mulled wine. Dominique will visit from LA, we'll go visit Matiu's kuia in Ottawa, we're going to Alberta and Penetanguashene and Ohio and other places too. People and rental cars and days and departures and arrivals are being lined up... things which were written in pencil are steadily being erased, shifted, rewritten, corrected, ammended, and - finally - overwritten in pen.

Advent is a time of preparation.

Getting ready.

It's easy to get stressed with the rush of it all... but the thrill is in the chase, the journey is in the destination, preparation is itself - sometimes - the thing you find you've been preparing for.