1. Got my shopping accomplished Monday. Saw a 2-car crash in the process.

2. Wife is sick as a dog, with something resembling a head/chest cold, but with a whole lot more ugliness. She won't like it, but we may have to cancel Christmas Eve plans.

3. Thunderstorms and highs in the 60's? In December? In Indiana?

1. Looks like my Christmas dining plans may have to be cancelled, due to a death in the hostess's family. Quite understandable, but I don't really have anything in my house suitable for a festive Christmas dinner, unless beans & rice counts.

2. Luckily, my houseguest does not arrive until Christmas afternoon, and I have tomorrow off, so I can get to the store before the big crowds (I hope) and fix this.

3. Weather still warmish, wet, and gloomy, but supposed to be sunny on Christmas Day.

1. Last big push of work (which will probably continue on into late tonight)

2. All the gifts are wrapped, except for the ones from Santa, which by tradition will be wrapped drunkenly by myself at 1am Christmas morning.

3. Apparently we are eating scallops and risotto as Christmas dinner. (I don't care, husband decides most years). Okay, then

1. I'm on vacation this week and next week. It's lovely even though I'm spending almost all my time trying to get things done (present wrapping, errands, upgrade my computer, etc).

2. Kidlet and I are staying home for Christmas morning to open presents and have breakfast. Then we'll drive down to my mom & family before lunchtime (they're 2 hours away) and we'll see my dad & his wife Boxing Day. Christmas dinner should be interesting as my mom's oven is broken.

3. For once I'm not horribly behind on pop culture stuff -- I actually saw Star Wars yesterday. I'm planning on seeing it again with my mom & family on Saturday while kidlet spends some time with her Pop-pop & Gigi.

1. Home today as my back is acting up a bit. I am confident the heating pad will fix all that. It is quiet, rainy and peaceful here.

2. Still reveling in the fact that ALL my shopping and wrapping (but for sneaky trip to stuff the stockings for Bear in wee hours of Xmas) is done. And cooking is in the Bear's ultra capable hands. My last gift for him, a moss terrarium kit, arrived yesterday and I just handed it over rather than risk its death by waiting. He's already set it up and it is beautiful.

3. Besides Xmas, looking forward to seeing Star Wars at Cinerama, sort of an ultimate local theatre, in early January, and then heading for Pureto Vallarta for a week away shortly after that. As usual, I feel I somehow undeservedly lucked out in the lottery of life.

Scallops and risotto sounds like a lovely Christmas lunch, gaspode.

For the third year in a row I'm making puerco pibil for Christmas lunch, with rice, black beans, salsa and tortillas. Tomorrow's lunch will be smoked haddock with poached eggs - it's protein rich so my hope is that it'll keep me full and away from naughty snacks when I go to a party later on Christmas Eve.

1. Rosemary is powering through her Christmas baking for her former staff at two hospitals.

2. Cat is spending the whole day sleeping on our bed. He doesn't like all the baking activity.

3. Not much else to do until it's time to bake a Christmas ham.

1. The rushing around is nearly finished. I have to go to the local farm to pay for the winter CSA, but once I do that, shit is near DONE.
2. Tonight we go to a friend's house to imbibe adult beverages while her little one sings us carols and plays the piano.
3. Tomorrow morning we get up bright and early and drive back to Va Beach where we'll spend the next ten days. Midnight (nine o'clock really) mass with the MIL, then presents and food and booze for the duration of the trip. It's going to be so damn warm, we might just spend the whole time outside, which should be awesome.

Happy Festivus to the rest of us!

Turns out I do not have to cook a Christmas dinner. This means I can spend tomorrow reading books and playing the radio and staring off into space.

1. Just finished reading The Martian. Riveting! Highly recommend. My husband read it right before I did, so we're going to rent the movie this weekend.

2. The only downside to working from home is that when my kids' daycare is closed (as it is between Christmas and New Years), it's near impossible to get any work done. So I'm taking vacation days while they're home, but I still have deadlines and will have to do some work when I can sneak it in. What I wouldn't give for a home office above the garage or somewhere just slightly apart from the main living area.

3. I have to bake some desserts tomorrow for a family Christmas get-together, and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just making some box mix stuff, nothing ambitious, but I still find it fun.

And it turns out that we totally changed our minds and are now having venison for Christmas dinner. Absolutely no reindeer jokes allowed in the presence of the 7 year old.

1. Jon and I have been working our tushies off and are exhausted and just looking forward to a quiet Christmas day. Nice thing about not having family nearby is we can spend the day in our PJs and undies and no one will care. Got lots of goodies to eat. Baked salmon in a spicy mango sauce with sweet potatoes and roasted asparagus for Christmas eve, and shrimp cocktail, gorgonzola carmelized onion tarts (frozen, but so yummy), filet mignon and restuffed potatoes Christmas day. We will not go hungry.

2. I'm off until January 4th and have so much I'd like to do I don't know where to start. I will be disappointed in myself if the week fails to include a trip to the zoo and the art museum. I'd also love to catch a movie or two (I don't know if I can get Star Wars tickets; gotta see it, though I'm more of a Star Trek fan). Then, of course, there's cleaning the house and grading papers. And maybe I'll dust off my clarinet (it's been awhile). Go visit my mom, for sure (she's feeling abandoned).

3. I DVRed all the holiday cartoon specials, from Frosty to Rudolph to the Grinch and Charlie Brown, and Jon's promised to watch them with me. :) Curl up with some hot chocolate and chambourd and enjoy. Happy Holidays everyone!