Solstice

The solstice has become one of my favorite days to celebrate. I know that is a growing trend. In fact, I like to tell the story of the farmer who told me, "we don't celebrate Christmas. On Christmas, we just go to a friend's house and cross-country ski. We don't do gifts though." And I asked him, "Do you celebrate the solstice?" He replies, "Well yeah that's when I might buy my kids something that would improve their lives - like a new mandolin or a fuzzy pair of socks." OK. So you celebrate Christmas on the Solstice but act like you're some how above the materialism of Xmas. Got it.

Really though, I love the idea that from today forth is growth of light. And I like celebrating that. It's like a beginning.

Last year, I decided that we'd do our homemade gifts on the solstice - make that a special family night. Then this year rolled around and in fact I didn't have time to make any gifts. I snuck a few minutes late last night to make stencils to paint a racecar onto a sweat shirt for Makili and a bike for Remick. Today I spent the afternoon tiling the rest of the shower (I feel cool saying that for the record. Raph's Uncle Joe did all the hards parts, but who's counting?) Raph made a tasty chower and we had a really lovely family dinner. It was a nice night. This month has been so stressful, that it is nice to bring the holidays down a few notches. Christmas certainly will be mellow too since we have no grandparents in town on the day of and we have no money:)

We had a really nice solstice celebrate at the Mastersons' on Sunday night too. A bonfire in December? How cool is that?