Hark the Herald Angels Sing

I was totally going to write this Christmas Eve post about "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost and how it's one of my very favorite poems and I think it's about Santa taking a rest for a thermos full of Irish coffee halfway through his rounds and it was going to be all pensive and thoughtful and tender and existential and English major blahblahblah but I changed my mind because I GOT SOME PRESENTS!

And even better -- they're the HOMEMADE CRAFT PROJECT KIND.

Yes, we got the usual assortment of handprint poems and construction paper stockings decorated with glitter and cotton balls and tempera paint, and those are of course awesome, but two of the gifts in particular are SPECTACULAR and right now I have to say that I am TOTALLY IN LOVE with Shae's pre-school teachers because these craft projects are pretty kick-ass.

First up:

A frickin' water globe. This is way impressive. It's so simple -- your basic water and glitter inside a Ball jar -- but it's the simplicity of it that makes it so wonderful. I mean, who doesn't love water globes? I know Shae loves playing with water globes (we've already broken two this year) so I can just imagine how much fun it was to actually make one. But it is the cute little details that make it so extra special, like the picture of Shae sealed inside the lid and the compass in the stock and this thing which tells time and the little ornament that floats inside:

I am so enamored of this thing, in fact, that I might try to make some as gifts next year, if I don't forget all about it by then. But the very best present of all is my new favorite ornament that we have put in a place of honor on the tree, up near the star:

How precious is that? A little angel made of toilet paper rolls and tinsel, with her little face on it? I mean, it's not quite the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window but CAN YOU IMAGINE THE ADORABILITY OF THIS THING? Sweet cracker sandwich. Now I know why, for years and years, my mother had boxes of ornaments that we made in school, carefully wrapped in tissue and newspaper, packed away in a box, kept away from everything else where it would be safe.

And that is the true Christmas miracle, right there: that I am turning into my mother a little more every day AND I DON'T EVEN CARE. Not one bit. Because you totally know I'm going to get some kind of plexiglas action-figure box to keep this ornament in, I love it so.

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In all seriousness, whatever you're doing this Christmas Eve: be careful, be safe, and most of all, be loved. Remember that we've all got miles to go before we sleep. Merry Christmas, and may God bless us, every one. xoxo.