one kind of christmas list

About a month ago, I told myself to rein in the ambitions for a homemade holiday season. If I want to do more yoga, writing, and reading, I cannot also ramp up the crafting and baking. Choices must be made! Purchasing a few modest gifts and neglecting the neighbors will be just fine this year. 

Except here we are. Ten days til Christmas, the weather outside is blustery and cold, and I am yearning to hunker down and craft. I am so over kindergarten and the fall semester at St. John's. All I want is to be together in the warm kitchen, to drink endless cups of tea, to wrap awkward homemade gifts in recycled, decorated paper bags, and to fill the house with the scent of pumpkin muffins.

Even though I know most of it is absolutely futile, I have been dreaming up a list of things I'd like to make and do in the coming days. I'm going to share it here, in the hopes that one of you might take some inspiration and give me the satisfaction of living vicariously through your domestic holiday endeavors:

1. Making orange pomanders with the kids. There is a nice guide in this book, involving a hammer, so I know Gabriel would revel in the process. This ornament is also appealing in its simplicity. I love the inherent sensory pleasures of these orange and cinnamon crafts.

2. Curating some of the kid art that I've tucked away in drawers for our walls.

3. Baking unusual cookies for friends and neighbors. I have my eye on a couple of recipes from this list. Don't they look beautiful? I've promised Frances that we will somehow incorporate crushed candy canes this year. And spelt flour and coconut oil. (Just this once, I'm kidding. Some of you will be pleased to know I even bought real white sugar in preparation for the cookies that may or may not happen.)

4. Finishing the embroidery on our advent calendar.

5. Stringing popcorn and cranberry garlands for the tree together.

6. All kinds of making with the kids:

• a fresh batch of play dough 
•  crazy unattractive ornaments featuring items found in the recycling bin
• fresh art from bits of crumpled tissue paper waiting patiently in a shopping bag at the back of the hall closet
•  many loaves of bread 
• potato-stamped holiday cards for family, and
• something spectacular with all the acorns and pinecones hiding in our kitchen.

7. Sewing something special for my sister, who is growing a baby inside her even as I type. 

Maybe one of these things will happen in 2010. It is possible that I'll cross two off the list. At its heart, this tally is an indication of just how much I've been yearning for quiet creative time together as a family. It really doesn't matter what we make (though pretty things are nice). Today Gabriel, channeling the Onceler, used a pink plastic knife to chop down monkey ball trufula trees standing on their stems in a dish of play dough. I embroidered 13 and half of 14 on the advent calendar. We were listening to my very favorite Christmas music. Time together, inhabiting that still space of focused and sparkling creative energy. Heavenly.