What Break?

I only thought I was on break today, yeah.  Turns out it was pretty busy.  

It all started when I said to myself, "Self, you really need to get those Christmas gifts wrapped."  Several of the gifts I'd ordered for the kids had already arrived, plus some that my sibs had sent, and they were just piling up on the bed in the guest room.  So I put on some Christmas music, dragged out the old card table, and got to work.  

Two yes-I'm-still-listenings later, I got all but one of the gifts wrapped.  

I even took the time to grind up the last of the rosemary and peppermint and got them into their respective jars.  I'm going to give them to Cody, since he likes to cook, even though the jars aren't quite full.  I briefly thought about waiting and filling the jars up next year, but I didn't.  I don't want to give him old herbs.  Not that it really matters, because they're dried anyway.  

Next year, I'm going to start harvesting and drying earlier, so maybe I'll have full jars to give.  

In the midst of all that, I decided to run the cleaning cycle on my oven, which takes 4 hours.  I usually do it overnight because it heats the house up so much, but today, I did it ... um, during the day.  And yes, it got hot in the house -- up into the low 80s.  For a bit, it was so hot I had to open the window in the kitchen and the French doors just to try to cool it off a bit.    

As if that weren't enough, I go to change my sheets -- which is one of my usual Saturday chores -- and realized I probably needed to wash all the blankets as well, so I did that.  After the second load of blankets, the washer declared it was time to run a cleaning cycle-- which also takes 4 hours.  

"I guess today is the day for cleaning cycles," I said as I hit start, then settled down to watch some Christmas movies and knit a bit. 

I watched Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, Rudolph, Frosty, and caught up on my Great American Family movies.  While I was doing all that movie watching, I got this hat down to the crown decreases.  

Now I'm sitting here watching holiday baking shows, because I don't really need to pay that much attention to them -- and finishing up the laundry I'd had to put on hold to run the washer cleaning cycle. 

I think after all that, it's time for a break. 

And for your advent figure today, we have another angel. 

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace.  Luke 2:14

In other news, I'm still reading Once Upon A Wardrobe, but took a quick side-step today to re-read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, because I have it on good authority that it's being made into a movie that will be released in time for next Christmas.  I know they made a TV movie based on the book, and I still watch that one every year, but I'm excited to see what a full length feature film will be able to do with the story. 

And finally, the cat has claimed the wood pile as her throne.  

 Good thing I've got more wood stacked in other places, huh?