tree party

this weekend giulia wanted to adorn her christmas tree...which my mum thinks is weird because in my own family the tradition is to do the tree on christmas eve, i.e. december 24. i realized i'd never thought about it before, just taken it for granted. on the other hand, in north america people start doing christmas things immediately post-thanksgiving, right?
anyway, here's the tree party that happened:

decorating started with the top piece.

all tree thingies are non-breakable, and most of them present some degree of fluffiness. also pictured: speculoos biscuits and my contribution of scones (from lora's recipe! hi lora!). all very christmassy

almost done! dana adding the final touches. i had forgotten how bad those needles sting! this is the first real tree i'm doing in 6 years now

the really final result plus the snow outside

and some of my favourite pieces:

the teapot - wait, why can't it be a coffeepot?

this girl fits in very well with the posters on giulia's wall/s

and the lovely lovely mushrooms, plus a sheep. of course.

sonia brought us starbucks from the mall. different flavours, hey. as good as it sounds on a snowy night in.

i'd dressed up as a christmas tree myself, in honor of the occasion. with a mushroom on top (and further proof that my hair really is growing!)

sushi, the ultimate traditional romanian christmas dinner!

then something truly strange happened: i stayed up all night talking to giulia. it's not that we don't know that we can talk for hours and hours....but the whole idea of balance and measure and trying to keep to a normal schedule that people keep because they have to...sort of went out the window now. because the year is ending. and there's snow. and maybe we're going to recalibrate stuff for a new attempt at balance, but we don't know that. and there's the snow, the way it covers everything and makes it unrecognizable, and the sturdy menacing continuous fall of it. in the morning my voice was broken and my body stiff...we were watching lights go on around us, then off again as people left for work. taxis were unexpectedly hard to find, what, everybody takes taxis at 8 on a monday morning? it wasn't gloomy on the awy back, there was a fragile chilly brightness.
these are the days hibernation makes sense.( i made a snow angel tonight though, but no photo, my camera balks at the cold.) now waiting for the solstice, when days start growing again.