Run up to Christmas

Actually, in my case it's more like a crawl! Although I have been busy, especially as school's out. That means I have two energetic grandsons to take care of between 8.15 and 5.15. They keep me on the run, and after that, yes, I feel like crawling!

Also, I suppose that's kind of mandatory if you're going to 'trim the hearth' as in the carol 'People Look East'. 'Setting the table' is fine. I enjoy going down to the basement to dig out some of my mother-in-law's beautiful old linen. Apart from being the best cook I've ever come across, she excelled at presenting a beautiful table. As for me, design and decoration are not my strong points. I can't set a particularly attractive table, or even a tray, for that matter. So what is the sense I'm missing, I wonder? Is it a sense for arrangement or something to do with spatial awareness? Who knows. Maybe I'll figure it out sometime. I met a woman once who gave courses in L'art de la Table at the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Cape Town... an unusual and lovely career to have, wouldn't you say?

But it's really true that having children around at Christmas time brings an extra and special dimension. This year we have our tree up already, which is unusual. Dear daughter who's visiting was the one who decorated it, helped by the elder grandson. She did a beautiful job and if I can figure out how to add a photo to my blog I might even post one. (Don't hold your breath).
I was happy to have to her do this because (see above)...

On another topic, I was hoping to see the Solstice eclipse. Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy when I got out of bed and looked out the window. I wonder though if the sight would have eclipsed (!) the time years ago in South Africa when we had a total eclipse of the moon one New Year's Eve. We were at our holiday home in Knysna on the Garden Route. We all (parents and children) took deck chairs out onto the front lawn and sat watching the sky during the complete process. Yes, it was warm enough to do that, which is hard for me to imagine right now.