Apparently what I’ve done with my extra hour of time tonight is to spend it knitting and listening to Christmas music. Quietly, of course, because Rudi shouldn’t have to have dreams of sugar plums dancing in his head quite this early.

Honestly, it’s not so much that I’ve been craving Christmas carols, but it’s an effort to get a handle on the holidays this year. The past couple years, holiday tasks I enjoy have started slipping through my fingers, leaving me feeling stressed. I thought if I got a bigger jump on some of them, I might be able to better appreciate the process and the month of December. Plus, my library lets you download three songs a week for free to keep and I get more options for my annual Christmas cd if I get twenty songs for free. So I started listening a couple weeks ago and have been spending a few hours each week auditioning music, as it were. The music ranges from good to bad, from traditional to modern, and from instrumental to pop. Plus, it includes a range of international singers I might not encounter otherwise. I mean, sure, I’m probably not likely to include a German lullaby version of “Rudolph,” but you never know. As my dad will tell you, I sometimes find some pretty weird songs.

Right now, it’s Jessie James Decker’s “Baby! It’s Christmas” that’s playing. It’s the last song on her album and the only one that will get a second listen. But I probably wouldn’t give it great odds unless it really grows on me with that next play later in the month.

Oh, and speaking of Christmas, I’ll open up signups for the Virtual Advent Tour on the 15th.

I admit to being a little at sea this weekend. But here’s what I have on tap:

• Do laundry. And I need to get to the bank to procure quarters in order to accomplish that.
• Watch a movie. I have a discount ticket to see Bohemian Rhapsody, which is playing at the big single-screen theater in town.
• Ride a bike.
• Stop by the library. (The new Galbraith novel should finally be in for me!)
• Shop at the farmers market.
• Take part in the final cleanup/part of the garden this season. Also, pick the rest of my peppers and dig up my potatoes and any peanuts I grew.
• Come up with a game plan for cleaning our apartment. (Our Christmas party is in a month.)
• Finish at least one knitting project and one book. (This week it’s totally doable — I’m on the second toe, and Harry is in the Chamber!)
• Do some text-banking for a national campaign. I don’t want to, but I should, since we’re down to the wire.
• Paint my nails. (I didn’t get them done for Halloween and I have some cleaning to do, so I suppose this isn’t urgent, but I think it would make me happy.)

I mean, I know that seems like a lot, but it doesn’t feel like the right lot. And I know it mostly seems like the same stuff I do every weekend, but I feel like it’s missing some element of fun, but the fun stuff going on isn’t my cup of tea. I’m sure it’ll all work out, though. It always does.

What are you hoping to do this weekend? Do you have a plan for that extra hour? Sleep? Campaigning? More time at the bars?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My fall volleyball team finished up its season with a loss, a trip to the bar, and the promise of playing together again in January when the season starts back up at that location. We aren’t a great team, or even good, really, but we enjoy ourselves and each other, and are a supportive team. (I have a new team that I’ll play with for the next six weeks and an offer from our team captain to play pick-up volleyball at her school after work on Tuesdays.)

2. Working in stockinette in the round and re-reading a favorite book (Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets, the illustrated edition) work well together. I don’t need to look at my work, and I know what happens in the story, so it is less urgent that I turn the page *right this minute*, rather than after I get to the end of the needle, but I make lots of progress because I don’t get bored.

3. Between a costume contest at my office and handing out candy on our stoop, I saw a number of great outfits this Halloween. My favorites were the gender bending Mary Poppins and chimney-sweep Bert (apparently the young woman ordered the Mary Poppins costume online only to find when it arrived that it was far too long for her petite frame and her male friend was game to switch things up); Sesame Street‘s The Count, who had spats, fancy glasses, and numbers on a string and who did the laugh on request (her officemates were Bert and Kermit); and a boy dressed as Edgar Allen Poe, complete with fake raven and quill pen.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Wishing you a Happy Halloween from the Burrow!

Today marks the 365th day in a row that I’ve posted here. It started out intentionally — the monthlong NaBloPoMo posting event that I’ve taken part in the past few years. And then it was followed by the Virtual Advent Tour — again something I’ve done before. But then, instead of taking time off to recuperate during Christmas break, I thought, well, let’s see how long we can keep this going…

And apparently that’s at least an additional 310 days.

There were two days where I slipped up, dozing off without publishing anything, but I rectified that as soon as I woke up, so I decided that it still counted for continuity.

In the previous year, I published only 168 posts, so that’s a solid 117% increase in output.

I’m not sure it’s an increase in quality in any way, but that’s something to work on in the year to come. Because while I won’t swear that I’m going to post every day from here on out, it’s mostly become habit, something I do before bed, just like washing the dishes and brushing my teeth.

Here’s to many more words together…

Today was another special day in our family. Happy birthday, Mum! I’m sorry I did not get to spend the day with you today, but am glad you and Dad got to get out for pizza together!

(This shot is from three weeks ago, when we were baking together. I have another action shot, but Mum wanted me to take this one so you all could see her hat, and since it’s her birthday, this is the one I shall share.)

And here’s one with the whole family from a couple summers ago, where you can actually see Mum’s face: