I’ve been working working working … hence the unfortunate but necessary negelct of the blog. But now, now it’s Chrismas! Christmastime in Montana this year is delightful, snowy, and very very cold … supposed to be well below zero tonight.

I’ve been so busy and fried that I hadn’t really thought much about Christmas — a couple of weeks ago I got sucked in at the grocery store and bought some of those icicle lights — they twinkle! So tacky but I love them — hung them on the front porch and they’re sort of like having a fire — lovely and flickery and festive. Since I don’t have kids everything is sort of optional every year, but today I got the spirit — and after something of a search, found a small Christmas tree stand, and luckily the Boy Scouts were still selling trees down at the Fairgrounds. While what I bought can hardly qualify as a tree, it’s more like a sapling — the trunk was so wee that the screws for the tree stand nearly didn’t reach all the way to hold it up. At any rate, I’ve got a spindly 4 foot tabletop tree set up with many many shiny balls, strings of beads and garlands draped around it. Then I went and found my lovely Mexican nativity set that Patrick bought me one year, and we have a sweet little Christmas corner set up ….

Tomorrow it begins — the kids are dancing in the Nutcracker — all my tiny girlfriends — and a friend is turning 50 (which, because she doesn’t want a party, I’ve spent all week telling people No! She doesn’t WANT a party! NO PARTY.) So we’re having a little dinner — I’m making cake, everyone else is bringing everything else, and we’re gathering for some dinner. And then Monday, which I sort of have off, I’m making chocolates for my grandmother — all she wants is chocolate in her 90s — and so I’m making a box of chocolate for her, including a jar of Nutella, which I don’t think she knows about. How does one get to 95 without knowing about Nutella? Monday is mailing day, and then work for the rest of the week, and then next week I’m taking a Christmas holiday — I have some freelance work to do, but not that much — so I”m hoping for some sweet holiday rest — perhaps getting back to the memoir — a wee bit of skiing (although Ray is lame, poor bunny).

So Happy Christmas to all!