Ah, I love Christmas. And food, mmm. Yesterday was the big Christmas production at Meadow Farm Museum, so I was there all day. It was great. I was playing the governess, which meant I had four or five girls to be looking after at any given time. (There was a boy, too, but he stayed in the other room and did push-ups. I guess he felt he had to assert his manliness being surrounded by so many pinnafores and hair ribbons.) I love little girls. Specifically, I love taking care of little girls. I got to tie their cloaks and cut their meat at dinner and hold their elbows when we went out on the snow.

Also, do all homeschooled boys talk the same way? I only know two, and they have so many of the same mannerisms. Oh no, three. Never mind. The third one doesn't talk like Mark or Peter.

This morning I went off to a potluck breakfast and carol sing at the DiPasquales' house. There were a lot of people from the Quaker meeting there, and it was the loveliest breakfast I can remember. We had our tea and gingerbread and pie and stewed apples and doughnuts, and when everybody had eaten enough we went into the piano room. Mary Beau played, as she always does, with her little blue eyes smiling at us all, and we sang Christmas carols until it was time to go to meeting. Quakers are so great.

I've been making lots of figures for my manger scene this week. Now I've got Mary, Joseph, Jesus, a donkey, a shepherd holding a lamb, a washerwoman, Christine, an old woman knitting, and a sheep. I love the donkey most, although I'm very fond of the knitting woman and the sheep. I have the clay bits of an old man holding a lantern done, and now I just need to make him some clothes and a lantern. I suppose I ought to make a cow, but it would take a lot of Sculpey, and Sculpey is $1.89 a pack. Also I'm not a big fan of cows.

December 3
December 18