a wonderful, unremarkable day

Yesterday was so fun in a patchwork-Christmas kind of way. I was busy from the minute I woke up to the minute we crashed in bed (I fell asleep with my red kimono still on, I was so tired). Monday was filled with sewing projects, animal silliness, fresh high-vitamin food and also frosted sugar cookies, scarlet red poinsettias, and two of the people I love most in this world. It was an unremarkable day by the calendar, but it was absolutely thrumming with Love. And already I can see that today is, too.

It started early. While sitting at my sewing machine in its temporary dining-room spot, I heard a harsh tapping on glass. A cute little white chicken we named KFC was perched on a milk can in the front flower bed, staring into the picture window there, tapping her beak on the glass. I had already fed everyone. So much, in fact. I  swear, the more I feed the animals the more they expect to eat. It’s ridiculous.

Then a little while later I heard the same tapping and discovered that KFC had relinquished her window post to this hen we have named Red Dot. (So named because she is red and has a dot on her face.) Red Dot stared at me with the most disgruntled expression a chicken can possibly have.

The big mood lifter for everyone yesterday was the return of sunshine. For more than three weeks Oklahoma has been wrapped in fog, dark clouds, and just a flannelly cocoon of winter weather. We are not built for this much darkness! I really don’t know how people in the Pacific Northwest cope with it. So yesterday we all felt refreshed just seeing the sun. I went for a quick little 3 mile run wearing only a light jacket, and I had thoughts like better get the pool opened up soon!

Even the animals were in high spirits, as if the window-tapping chicken story wasn’t enough to convince you. Our oldest was home for most of the day and did some fun ground work with Dusty, her horse. And by ground work I mean they practiced climbing hills and played gone-gone peekaboo.

It was a cookie-making night, and I had so much fun. I even stopped counting how many carbs were sneaking into my grateful mouth, that’s how much fun it was! Martha Stewart’s Royal Icing recipe, by the way, is perfect. Perfect, easy, and stunningly uncomplicated for her. It gives a nice glossy shell and is thick. My only complaint about last night’s cookie extravaganza was the conspicuous absence of red food coloring. Why? Why is there never any red? In twenty years of having my own kitchen, I have owned red food coloring maybe three times. It’s mystifying. Who is taking it? The chickens?

How is your week of Christmas going? I hope your heart is peaceful. I hope your home is warm with joy. I hope your expectations are set more on Love and surprises than on purchases. I really hope you’re not counting calories… just pleasures and memories and moments.

Thanks for sharing a few minutes with me! Happy Christmas Tuesday, friends. I’m off for seven miles and some Christmas caroling with the parrot.

“He who has not Christmas in his heart
will never find it under a tree.”
~Roy L. Smith
XOXOXOXO