How very perfect was today? Camera still in my coat pocket, hanging on the back of a chair downstairs and I'm too cold to get it. But went sledding and snowboarding (with the fake snowboard) numerous times, with all the required clothing donning and shedding. Got to see Rutledge love the first snowfall that he has really enjoyed. Realized how clueless some of my kids are about appropriate cold-weather gear, since two of them went out with no gloves and with ski bibs, but no coat and realized the hard way that this is kind of dumb.

Played four games of my new very favorite board game, Ticket to Ride. What's funny is that they got this for Christmas last year and we haven't played it even once until today. It's a super strategy game that plays fairly quickly, allows for a lot of player interaction, a lot of decisions, and can have a surprise ending, all elements of a great board game. We split the winnings--two Walters, two mes, and no Ollies, which is a historic first. Cleaned most of my house--four loads of laundry washed and folded, kitchen cleaned, family room cleaned, bedroom sort of cleaned, two bathrooms cleaned, linen closet reorganized, walk-in closet in bedroom cleared up, and floors vacuumed throughout downstairs. I'm loving it. When my house is clean, I feel a huge amount of energy and craft projects abound, reading gets done, instrument practice isn't a chore--everyone can find everything and life is easy. If only it could stay that way!

Most of our Christmas presents are wrapped and under the tree, which is another first for us. I normally wrap presents a day or two before Christmas, and we've never had any under our tree before Christmas Eve, since someone has always been young enough to "accidentally" unwrap everything. This year, no one is doing that (yet), but they are finally getting to enjoy the pleasure that is shaking and feeling the contours of every single thing with their names on them. The most mysterious gift, according to all the children, is the one tagged for "Everyone," and they can't begin to wrap their minds around this. Shh...it's not that exciting, but it is family tree making software, since they are so fascinated with exactly what their relation is to their "cousin" Colin or their "cousins" Jack and Ashley, who are so far removed that I doubt that there even is a name for their relation. But we'll see. It's something all of them are interested in.

And I finally got all those pesky ornaments on the tree--the ones that somehow didn't get on the branches when we first decorated on the day before Thanksgiving. Some of them needed a hot date with a glue gun. Some needed to be tossed because they aren't repairable. All of them needed hooks and a bit of rearrangement so there would be a spot for them. Now there are no gaping boxes with tree-decoration stuff hanging out of them in the middle of the floor. Bliss.

Tonight, Ollie asked if we could make every night be like tonight. Games, watching the new Star Trek movie, making smores in the fireplace and microwave, mindless web-surfing time, and still enough time left to read at the end of the day (okay, I'll admit, they were up until 11:15...). I'm with him. I wish we could always have this kind of free time, and I feel a little guilty that we don't prioritize this and have time to relax and have fun almost every night, when we're typically going and coming from activities, trying to get work done for classes, and tying up the loose ends of the day. I see a New Year's resolution in the making here.