Advent Day 16, 17 and 18

Day 16: "Buy tickets to a hockey game or make plans to ice skate"

I was hoping for a hockey game, though the Hurricanes have been doing terribly. But looking over the schedule, the only remaining games were post-7 pm. And really, all I wanted to do was inject a little Canadian-ness in Simone's life so doing it without her wasn't an option. Which leaves us with ice skate - in North Carolina. Hmm. I grew up skating outside, on backyard ponds, community rinks with a little wooden shack to change into your skates, the floorboards criss-crossed with blade marks, and best of all, rivers - there is really nothing like skating on a frozen river, going for miles amongst the trees. Skating in circles indoor on artificial ice pales a little in comparison. So I was very happy to find out that downtown Raleigh has put in an outdoor rink until the end of January, right in the middle of the tall buildings. We'll see how it goes...

Day 17: "Make a garland from materials we find outside"

It happened to be snowing tonight - Snowing! So we set out with some shears and a basket and within 30 feet, I had clipped some beautiful holly, juniper and magnolia leaves.



It's hard to see in this second picture (I'm always taking my pictures at night, trying to fight off a crazy toddler so I apologize, they aren't Design Blog worthy...) but we strung up some green Velvette ribbon (I bought a reel of it from the Scrap Exchange simply because I loved the word "Velvette" - do you ever buy things because of their old school brand name? Guilty!) along the bannister and hung it with the holly and greens. Free! Beautiful! (Note the toddler running to sack me at my knees in the background...)



And then because I had some greenery left over, I piled some lights in the same basket we used to collect them and lit it up.


I think it came out rather nice, especially after lighting the Frasier Fir candle you see in the foreground. Jeannette sent it to me last year, which is the kind of thing I could never buy myself - but am so happy to have.

Day 18: "Watch 'Shop Around the Corner'"

My love for this movie never wanes - so smart and funny. It's as near perfect as a movie can be, or at the very least, movie dialogue. I do love "It's A Wonderful Life" but this is my Must-See every Christmas, one of the few I actually own. Love.