Cleaning

OK. So yesterday I was forced to do a job that I had been avoiding for quite a while. I had to clean out any and all junk that had accumulated under my bed in the last three to four months. How and why was I forced to do this? Well (this may sound a little weird to any city person) I had a goat sleeping in my room. Yes a goat. He was not feeling well and the cold weather was making it worse. So he got to sleep inside. And that goat sure did make a mess out of my room! He decided that he was going to show his appreciation for the warm room by making a mess on the floor. Guess who got to clean it? :-) So I pulled the bed away from the wall and began to clean. You never know what you might find under a bed. So what did I find?
Here's a list:

8 books (of which only two belonged in my room)

 2 laptop chargers

$1.51 (wow, look! Mom was right. It pays to clean your room.)

 a fabric marker
 
and 11 of Seth Logan's toy farm animals

I should clean out from under my bed more often. :) And now my floor is clean again.

Noise

Hmmm. Noise for me is a funny thing. When it is a normal day around here, noise is ok.
Except when I'm working on a difficult part in my sewing project. Then I must have complete silence in my room. COMPLETE silence. But when it is not a difficult part in my project, I have to have noise. I am so used to the noise of little voices talking and yelling, and not so little voices talking, and little feet running up and down the hallway, that when that noise is gone the house just seems........ well, quite. Too quite. Now you may be asking yourself "When is their house quite? With four kids under the age of 10, how could their house EVER be quite?" Well I'll answer that question. On Saturday when almost everyone is at market. Or when they go to a friends house and some people stay home to keep a eye on the goats. Or when it is 11:30 pm and they are all in bed and I'm up late sewing. Because I reasoned to myself earlier that day that it would be easier to sew at night when the noise level is down. Only to find that when they are in bed and the house is quite, that it is simply too hard to sew without background noise. :) So what do I do when I want background noise? I have several options. I can invite any one who is home or still awake to come and keep me company. Doesn't work. I always end up getting distracted by the conversation. And it is hard for me to work and talk at the same time. Or I can put some music on to play and turn the volume up. But the thing that I do most often is turn a movie on and listen to it while I work. That way I have music and a voice to listen to. But it can't be just any old movie. It has to be a movie that I know by memory. That way I won't get distracted by watching it. I'll know what's going to happen and I don't need to see the screen to enjoy the movie. And I get the noise. Have to have the noise. :-) So that is why I find myself listening to The Return of the King while working in my room on this cold December night.

Who's Black Peter??

"In the Netherlands,the Christmas season begins on December  5, St Nicholas eve. St. Nicholas, who was a bishop in the early Greek church, was always ready to help those in need. It is thought that the custom of giving gifts to children in his name began about six hundred years ago. Nuns would leave presents at the homes of the poor on the eve St. Nicholas Day. This custom spread across Europe, until the night became one of great celebration. It includes street parades led by someone dressed as St. Nicholas riding a white horse. Gradually this custom became connected with parents trying to get their children to behave better. Good St. Nicholas was said to visit every home to find out which children were good all year. The story goes that he and his helper, Black Peter, journeyed to Amsterdam from Spain, visiting every home. This part of the legend probably comes from the time when the Dutch people where ruled by Spain. St. Nicholas wears a white robe with a red cassock over it. A cassock is an ankle-length garment with close-fitting sleeves worn by priests. St. Nicholas also wears a tall headdress and carries a golden shepherd's crook. His beard is long and white. Black Peter slips down each chimney, since St. Nicholas must not get his white robe dirty. Peter puts presents in the wooden shoes which the children have placed by the chimney. But first, he removes the offerings the children have have left for St. Nicholas' white horse, gifts such as a lump of sugar or a carrot or some bits of hay. Black Peter leaves many fine treats for the children, including pink and white candy hearts or marzipan candy shaped like like apples, potatoes, or tiny fat pigs. But best of all, he leaves large gingerbread figures of St. Nicholas on his horse or Black Peter with his bag of treats."

Happy St. Nicholas Day! Yet another Carlson Christmas tradition. So what did Black Peter, aka Katie and Emma, leave in our shoes last night? A candy cane, 2 pennies, a gingerbread man, and a orange.
Usually we get chocolate that has been wrapped to look like gold coins. But Mom couldn't find them.
So this year we got pennies. We also usually put hay out for St. Nicholas' horse. We didn't do that this year though. Surely if St. Nicholas knew about the drought that we are going through right now and if he saw the hay prices around here he would understand, right? ;-) We did do some thing different this year though. At Central Market Mom found the cutest little marzapin pig! I think that this is the first time that we have had a marzipan pig on St. Nicholas day. Almonds and sugar shaped like a pig.  I bet the little boys are going to love eating that! :)