Kingdom of Sweets

Despite the perversely warm weather, Christmas is starting to make itself at home with us.
The tree is up! Both kids overwhelmed my vote for white lights.

The colored lights kind of go with the liquor boxes behind it that still contain our books. Kind of a tacky, real sort of Christmas vibe. 

There has not been snow. There will not be snow. Ever, apparently. But we did have some attractive chilly mist for a few days there. I must learn to see beauty in a variety of December phenomena.

Last weekend, Saturday was eaten by the Nutcracker.
In a good way.

Thursday night was the dress rehearsal, so we had a chance to practice the man bun.

I loved it. He says, "it hurts my head." 

The dress rehearsal was a bit rough. But the production on Saturday exceeded my expectations.

Miles was a little page. 

The little girl playing Clara is a middle schooler! She was excellent. 

After dress rehearsal, Miles approached the dancer playing the Nutcracker Prince and tapped on his shoulder:
"Excuse me. I really liked watching you dance." He's fairly committed to ballet. So you all know.

Adele, if you're curious, is divided between her ballet and her gymnastics aspirations.
Here is some of his number in the dress rehearsal.

There were two shows Saturday, one at 1, and one at 6. For each, performers had to be there an hour early. The show is about 2 hours. So as you can see, there goes Saturday. But he enjoyed it enormously. I asked him if he was afraid, stepping onto the stage of the huge auditorium, with all the lights and eyes on him. He said, "No, I loved it! I was happy. I felt like the most famous person." Behold, my son.

During the matinee, Adele and I wandered around campus for a while in the 70 degree weather.

I officially hate it, but I tried to pretend it was April. That helped, a bit.

Her antics helped more.

She spent kind of a while in this tree. 

During the show in the evening, to which we all had tickets, Adele was enchanted. One couple behind us said they were watching her as much as the show, because she was just being so chin on hands, enraptured expression, whispered adulation adorable.

The video above is horrible. Most of it doesn't even contain his image. We were technically not supposed to film, but instead we were to give our money to the professional company who was filming. Perhaps I should have done this. But I thought I'd try to subtly catch his 1 minute and 30 seconds on stage. I totally failed. Anyway, enjoy the closest I could get to a video of his 2 minutes of fame!

And enjoy this picture of Miles receiving the love of his #1 fan. 

Sunday, he was performing again, this time in choristers, and afterwards we lingered at church for a Children's Chapel meeting and then, pageant rehearsal. December is tiring for us all.

Especially for the Christmas pig!

In the evenings we light our candles. Just a few days before we begin the Great O Antiphons! I can't believe we're this close. Just one more press to get our gifts purchased and sent, and we'll be safe in Christmas' arms.

For now, I'm so very grateful as always for the quiet of Advent. It gets our hopes up, in a way Christmas Day can rarely fulfill. But it's important to be a little bit disappointed by anything we can buy or plan. The real Good News, the Someday Eschatos, the Already-and-Not-Yet is worth getting our hopes up for, I feel.

This year: dollar store candles, modgepodged with tissue paper. Go ahead and pin it. :-P

I'm getting warm sunshine in December. I'm trying not to complain!

Let's lean into hope, no matter how apparently unfounded. It seems the best way to live life. Come, Dayspring!