Broken for you

Is anyone else spinning like a top right now, or is it just me? December always seems to creep up on me, and suddenly I am so overwhelmed with the gift buying, the parties, the teacher's gifts that I become quite, apathetic about all of it. I thought I had made it easier on myself this year by suggesting a "Goodwill" Christmas, where we buy each other silly sweaters from Goodwill. But already my dad has called and asked what the kids want. And the Goodwill sweaters don't seem as funny as I thought they would be.Arron's birthday is on the 22nd, and once again I am confronted with the annual question -- how to celebrate? How to mark the day in a simple, elegant, meaningful way? I still haven't found it even after 7 years. I used to get a Carvel Ice Cream cake, but they don't even have Carvel in WA. It just used to get thrown away anyways. The birdbath is in dire need of repair. Tiles are falling off and need to be re-glued. On top of everything else. It will be a big job, but its starting to make me sad, so I should probably address it. Maybe in an odd way, it will make me feel better, allow me to reconnect to Arron again.I recently read a great book called Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos about a woman who learns to mosaic tile using the fragments of porcelain that has been stolen from Nazi Jews. There is so much more to this book than that, and I really couldn't put it down, but the idea that you could make something new and beautiful from something broken really struck me. Oddly, I never explored that idea in my own article about mosaics. It made so much sense. I am looking forward to attending Stephanie's reading this week for her new book Sing them Home. Can't wait!Despite all my moaning, I am never too busy for a book reading. Christmas shopping will have to wait...