19 December 2004

When Mark and I went out to finish Christmas shopping for his side of the family, it was 2:30 in the afternoon, and the temperature was 0. Zero degrees Fahrenheit. This is not what we call "warm."

But we finished that portion of our Christmas shopping, leaving only five people on my list! Umm. That doesn't sound quite so cheerful. But only one of those five will be unwrapping packages on the 24th (or, indeed, before January, so far as I know, but probably before Twelfth Night, which makes it still Christmas), and I know exactly what I need to finish his Christmas present, so I think I should be fine.

I finished the meringues last night. I have postponed the kolackys and turned the lemon shortbread sandwiches into lemon shortbread bars, then postponed the bars. So I'm done with Christmas baking until at least the time when Mark's family gets here, and possibly after that, depending on how cookie supplies hold out. (C.J., Friday night, while filling a bag for himself and his immediate family: "If you keep giving these away, you won't have any left!" Well, yeah.)

My brain has provided a lovely Christmas soundtrack: "Pour, oh, pour the pirate sherry, fill, oh, fill, the pirate glass...." Thanks, brain. I appreciate it.

I'm almost done reading Peter O'Donnell's Sabre-Tooth, borrowed from DDB. I'm behind on periodicals, so I'll probably read a magazine next, F&SF or Analog for January. And I have John M. Ford's The Scholars of Night looking enticing on my book pile. I'm really in the mood to just curl up and read and read and read. I've done that almost every year at the Gritters' for Christmas, but I don't know if I'll have the chance to do it at my own house, where things like washing towels and cleaning the kitchen are up to me.

I'll have more pictures in my next entry, from last night's first-half-of-Christmas with Stella, Mike, and Roo (they still have stuff coming from us), but in the meantime I thought I'd catch up with Roo pictures from a few visits ago, when he was making a very serious investigation:

He is such a serious little Roo sometimes. And then sometimes he's all dimples and giggles. Both ways are good.