Oh December, You Are Lovely!

Today was spent cleaning up the place and enjoying the calm before the rush towards Christmas. I have Christmas music playing all day long on Pandora to get me in the mood, and to keep little Riki bird happy. He tends to go silent and looks a bit down if music isn't playing. So far he seems to like "Hipster Christmas" station, and especially loves Zooey Deschanel's voice hahah.
I went outside for a bit when it stopped raining to check out the progression of winter coming and changing the yard. I love taking photos of all the trees and yard, then seeing the change through photos. What was lush and dense in the summer, has now given way to a different color palate and stark branches. The grapevine is gnarly and void of any leaves, the persimmon tree is doing its thing that I love....natural Christmas ornaments out in the yard. Lots of birds chirping. Probably happy to finally see rain and singing for joy. In the morning I love seeing the humming birds drinking the nectar from the lemon tree blossoms near the window, and today I was lucky enough to see one perched high above on the naked branches. It came and went several times, and I was able to get him in flight, but just barely!
Monday we went to see my friend Christine in a Christmas music concert. Oh my goodness it was beautiful, and my friend is so talented with her violin! We loved the whole concert, and will certainly make a point of going next year as well.
Can't wait for the kids to be done with finals this week, because I'll have my little elf here to help with some last minute baking and merry making.
I had hoped today to look at some recipes for Christmas dinner, but I had to clean the oven after my pie mess :( Yuck! It took forever to clean, since I don't have a self cleaning oven. The oven cleaner didn't make too big of a dent, so I had to take out my trusty razor blade scraper. After an hour or so it was finally clean, but now I'm wiped out and just want to rest!
I need to wrap three more gifts and I'm done and ready for some fun. How about you?
I'll pop in again and maybe do a year retrospective. I haven't decided if I want to or not, but I know I'll do at least one more post before the new year.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas!