Second week of December

Here is a photo of me and the grandkids at the Civic Orchestra concert on Sunday, December 5th...

And now, orchestra is on hiatus until January 4th, blessing me with the gift of time on Tuesday nights...much needed during this hectic time of year.

Interestingly, it is the weekends that cause so much craziness.  During the week, not so much.  Such was the case for last week.  Steve and I were able to do all the usual tasks of shopping and cleaning, cello lessons, etc.  I drove out to Ballwin on Tuesday for piano lessons with Noah, Lucy, and Quinn.  I assigned each one a Christmas song to work on.   Wednesday evening was a Holly Hills neighborhood meeting.  Steve and I have never lived in a place where there was so much neighborhood involvement.  We like it....

Beckie took me to lunch on Thursday to thank me for making her Halloween costume.  Steve came, too.  We ate at 1111 Mississippi which has a robust gluten-free menu.  Loved it!  I had received an email earlier in the week from the South Broadway Art Project where I do my pottery that informed me that there had been a kiln disaster and two of the four pieces that I had glazed were damaged with shards of someone else's pottery that had exploded.  Because one was a Christmas gift,  I went in after lunch with Beckie to throw a new plate and bowl.  I brought in the two damaged pieces with me and happily, Tim, one of the owners, was able to remove almost all of the pieces of pottery from my bowl and plate by plyers or a grinder.  So, with a second glazing, they actually might be salvageable!  I returned on Saturday to trim the bottoms of what I threw to prepare them for the bisque firing.  Since then, though, I have decided, that trying to get back to the studio to glaze these new pieces in time to mail for Christmas is not realistic.  Result:  my stress levels have been lowered...

Larkin came again Friday morning and she and I rolled out sugar cookies.  I had a small batch of gluten-free dough that we did first and that took up enough time that I saved the larger batch of gluten-full cookie dough for Saturday morning.  Frosting these many cookies will happen later this week...

Elizabeth Crippen drove in from Columbia around mid-day and we attended the temple that afternoon - rendezvousing with Emily at the temple parking lot to hand off Larkin.  Elizabeth returned home with us afterwards for dinner, two games of Scrabble, and to stay the night.  Weather-wise, it was a wild night with tornado warnings all evening.  Thankfully, our area was not in the direct path but sadly Weldon Spring and Edwardsville, Illinois was with disastrous results.  And to have such weather in December is truly bizarre.  In fact, today, temperatures will be in the 70's!  

Saturday, Steve and I left Elizabeth to leave for home on her own as we had a ward Christmas party/service activity.  We all met at the meetinghouse for a light breakfast (including gluten-free cinnamon rolls!!!) and then two groups left to perform service in other locations.  Steve, Sam Carpintero, Mary Bell, and I drove up to Florissant to a Salvation Army gift staging area and helped inventory gifts donated through their angel tree project.  It was in a vacant store in a strip mall and there were just bins and bins full of bags of gifts to be distributed.  

 As a thankyou, I got a cute little Salvation Army bell that is now a Christmas tree ornament

After the service activity, and trimming at the pottery studio, Steve and I packed up the dogs and their kennel and drove to Columbia.  The main objective was to attend the holiday concert of the Columbia Civic Orchestra but we also stopped in at the Hawk's Nest used furniture store to look for and buy a twin bed frame for the guest room.  Then, we left the kennel and the dogs at Melanie's so we could grab a bite to eat at Culvers. Back to pick up Melanie and head to the concert at First Baptist Church.  Steven and Elise also joined us.   It was SO wonderful to re-connect with so many of my musician friends from the orchestra.  Siri Geenen, principal violinist for the group and a very good friend (she was 1st violinist in Prairie Strings for many years) performed Winter from Vivaldi's Four Seasons.  Her daughter was one of the ballet group who danced to selections from the Nutcracker.  The evening was just a delight and even with the long drive back home and arriving just before midnight, it was worth it.

Sunday was another packed day.  I must admit that of all the holiday activities this year, the one I really regret getting involved in is conducting the Frontenac Ward strings.  It means leaving the house at 7:45, dropping Steve off at our meetinghouse (where he is over thirty minutes early for his first meeting), driving up to the Frontenac building (15 minute drive), rehearsing the group who ALWAYS arrive late, finishing up around 9:15 and driving back to our building to either pick up Steve if it is a non-ward council Sunday or back home to eat a late breakfast and then to pick up Steve at 10:30.  We get home with about 45 minutes before it is time to leave again for our church meetings at 12:00.  The whole morning is just shot (meaning blogging doesn't happen).  This particular Sunday morning, it was even more packed as I had a short rehearsal with Bailey Salinero (a violin playing neighbor) and Caroline Hixson (one of the pianists in our ward).  We played a lovely arrangement of O Holy Night in church.  Church meetings ended at 2:00 and after I dropped off Sam and her service dog Blue, I went home and crashed.  Poor Steve typically has to stay after until the Bishop is finished with interviews.  Usually, I am the one to drive to the church to pick him up but happily, this past week, Bishop Morgan took him home.  We started phone calls with assorted family at 4:30, dinner at 6:00,  and this Sunday, we filled our evening with two new couples in the ward who came over for cookies and milk.  Calls with Kirsti and Sarah closed out the day and Steve and I fell into bed.  I have just one more Sunday with the Frontenac Strings - they perform in their Sacrament meeting on the 19th.  And then I am DONE!  Well, not really.  I am accompanying Steve and the rest of the bishopric in a musical number at our meetings at noon.  

Monday, the 13th, was also a full day but it was a FUN full day.  Beckie came over and we made goodies all day:  savory almonds, turtles, peanut butter balls, almond joys, nut clusters, cream cheese mints, candied walnuts, toffee, and divinity!  Here is everything all packaged up ready for assembling goodie plates for friends and neighbors.  Steve made fudge yesterday to add to the lot.  And, like I mentioned earlier, I will frost cookies tomorrow (Thursday).  Steve is mailing stuff at the post office today, we'll deliver goodies this weekend,  and I still need to do Christmas cards.  But, it is all good. Things are going at a fairly relaxed pace up to the BIG DAY.