It's the week before the crazy hits

Although the shops and city centres have already been hit by the crazy wave of decoration, we - or I - have not. Not yet, anyway. 

The closest thing to Christmas decoration that has hit our house so far, is me torturing the rest of the house by playing the 24/7 Christmas radio (they started broadcasting about a month ago - but why oh why is there no such thing as a Halloween radio?) - and this little lantern I test-painted before last weeks scouts meeting.

This used to be a jar of taco sauce (salsa), but is now transformed to a lantern with Christmas motifs (a braided heart on one side, and mistletoe on the other side). I tried using a regular candle inside, but the opening is rather small, so a battery operated light works almost better.

The boys (scouts, they're all boys this year) loved the idea - and I had the pleasure of having 5 boys paint their own lanterns last Wednesday. Next week the remaining 14 will have their turn. I hope there are no leaders missing (we're usually five adults) or sick, because 5-6 is about the most kids one can aid, assist and manage when it comes to this. 

Well, perhaps other leaders might handle more scouts, but I don't. Not yet, anyway.

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Two more weeks and we'll have the yearly Christmas meeting with the scouts, starting their "vacation", giving us leaders the rest of December off to do other things. "Charge our batteries" as one might say here in Norway, 

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The school's not out until December 22nd - with the kindergarten open until the 23rd, but A will start her Christmas vacation on the same day as P. 

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Now, with regards to the crazy coming in about a week... next Sunday is the 1st Sunday of Advent, which is when we usually decorate with Advent stars and lights outside. For quite a few years now we've gone all Christmas and decorated the whole house. I asked P what he wanted us to do this year, and he's all up for going nuts. Decorating the whole house, tree and everything. I'm actually looking forward to decorating for Christmas. November is such a dark month, so every little shining light in December brings a kind of fuzzy warm feeling. (I'm ignoring the fact that January will seem even darker, after all the decorations have been taken down.. but at least the sun will turn in December, so every day will be a little bit longer and brighter.)

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I've just ticked off a couple of items on my to do-list now, ordering calendars for 2021 and Christmas cards. They ought to arrive some time during the next 10 days.