jaeleslie

Yah, here I am again, rested up from my labors. Actually we got back Saturday, but then I had to recover (and Mr S has been laid low with an unusually severe cold.) We drove down to Naperville Wednesday, then stayed up late to watch the enormous teevee as usual. Then Thursday, I cooked the mere 14-pound bird, with dressing and gravy and cranberry sauce and green bean casserole -- the usual difficulties fitting everything in the oven and getting it all out again at approximately the same time -- and then K wanted to make roasted potatoes, and Rosie brought mashed potatoes and persian rice (every grain beautifully separate, with saffron) and salad. And then there was a pumpkin pie (Rosie's) and an apple pie (mine). And I had to firmly say, no brussels sprouts, no sweet potatoes, as it was too late and we were only seven adults and four kids. Number One Son counts as an adult since he ate three platefuls of everything. He was quite tolerant and polite the whole weekend of what was for him complete tedium, as he is not at all the same age as anyone else there and really would have rather been home where he could hang with his friends.

Nonetheless, Friday we went shopping, V and I, which gave us a chance to talk and not just cook and clean and chase kids around. (Thursday afternoon, before we had to clear off the table I also spent a surprising amount of time showing the little girls how to use their paints for stencilling, and then how to make monoprints when you have gobbed rather too much paint on the paper.) I bought my organizer calendar for next year, and a big road atlas of Illinois in preparation for next year's road trip to the calligraphy conference, and nearly talked V into buying a crockpot at the mall, and had lunch (I was not feeling very well at all by that time). Then we picked up the little girls and went downtown and browsed all the nice clothing stores in Naperville and it started snowing. But no clothes! V bought a suit for her next court date, and I looked at everything, but had already been satisfied Thursday morning with a very productive raid on her closet for all the clothes she (my fashion consultant) has shrunk out of... so now I have some really nice new clothes, both party clothes and workouts.

Movies: Wednesday we saw Amelie, which I would like to see again! brilliant! absurd! not to mention French. Lots of Bond, James Bond, which was on in marathon, on cable. Somewhere in there, I saw most of Terminator 2, possibly on cable. Then Friday we had to watch Clerks (after a pause for the first outbreak of Jay-language to chase the littlest kids to bed) and then The Italian Job which was great fun, and we stayed up far too late afterwards watching the DVD outtakes and features and clips from the original movie it was based on.



Today I have sorted out the napkins to find the ones with the holly on them, and found the candles, and worked quite a bit on my calendar.


You are 'Deck the Halls'! Lets be honest, it isnt
Christmas you are celebrating, is it? In fact,
you know full well that there were no shepherds
in the fields in December, and that the date of
Christmas was put at midwinter specifically to
coincide with the older celebrations of Yule
and the birth of Mithras. An unashamed Pagan,
you take great glee in the number of carols
referring to holly, evergreens and winters end,
and will sing them with gusto. You know where
they really came from. And you do enjoy the
seasonal celebrations, regardless of their
name... A merry Yule to you!


What Christmas Carol are you?
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