Daybook - Monday, December 20th

outside my window . . .  watching our little Louie stalking something - a blowing leaf, probably.  The trees have mostly shed their leaves and now we look out to a forest of gray bark which is beautiful in its own way.  

in the kitchen . . .  today we are making St. Lucia breads and Peppermint Mocha syrup for our friends.  Tomorrow we make bread for our Christmas company.

around the house . . . cleaning and sorting and decorating.  All of our storage closets are now  sorted and organized: broom closet, coat/storage closet, linen closet, and I'm setting up one storage closet as a little prayer retreat.   The house is all decorated for Christmas, except for the tree - lights only.  We'll decorate it Thursday evening with our family.

listening to. . .  hubby wrestle the breadmaker off the top shelf of the pantry. 

thankful for. . .  a successful youth Christmas party last night.  There was a good devotional,  wonderful conversation, lots of laughter, and delicious food.  The highlight was the  hysterically funny human Christmas tree decorating contest.


one of my favorite things . . .  toasted St Lucia bread with orange marmalade on Christmas morning.  Can't wait!

milestones in the past week . . .  

:-: Little L's speech has taken a wonderful turn for the better.   She's begun putting lots of words together and trying new ones regularly.

a few plans for the upcoming week . . .  

:-:  Baking, Cleaning, and getting the house ready for guests that arrive on Wednesday.
:-:  Visit to a Gingerbread House exposition on Thursday, decorate the tree.
:-:  Visit to Biltmore House on Friday
:-:  And of course, Christmas Day on Saturday!

If you think of us, pray for my eldest son who has come down with the flu in the past 24 hours.  Pray for his quick recovery and that we'd keep it from passing to the rest of us (and our guests).