in_the_blue | My December Campout

Last night, Hannah and I had a campout in our living room by the solstice tree. Ah, the fun things you can do with a 9-year-old! We have a sectional sofa and we each took one of the sections, and I read to her by light of computer until she fell asleep. I didn't get a lot of sleep -- woke up a lot of times which I don't do in my own bed -- but we had a blast. Midnight (literally) snack and everything. She brought her fluffy warm sleeping bag and all her blankets and pillows, and I grabbed my down comforter and my own pillow and we settled in and yacked and blabbed and read and giggled.

I love being her mom.

Now if I can just get her to bed earlier than midnight or 1AM sometime in the next 2 days so gifts can be wrapped and stockings hung by the chimney with care. She still has some belief in the whole Santa Claus legend. I'm not sure how long that will last... probably until January 3 when she's back in school. But she's excited for that. They'll be studying space and whatever that entails, and she's got a mom whose secret desire is to teach Astronomy and read sci-fi all day, so she's in good hands. I'm the one who wakes her up in the middle of the night for what we call astronomical events: the brightest Mars ever; comets; meteor showers. She knows a good handful of constellations and always stops to ask where they are.

Random memory: a pub somewhere in England and a gnarl-toothed, slightly pissed young Englishman telling me I couldn't walk across the pub to the ladies' without giving him a kiss first. My response? Oh yeah? Watch this.

[sound of deflating balloon]

I am all but done shopping. Tonight Hannah and I get to make our gingerbread Death Eaters and decorate them. Wonder which one Santa will choose. And once again this year, Hannah's friend Sara will be here for New Year's Eve. Last year she got snowed in for 3 days. We'll see how it goes this time around.