Christmas Eve

• Christmas Eve day was very busy, but also kind of relaxing compared to the days just prior. TH and I did a bit of running around to take care of some last minute gift giving for the kids and each other and made a quick trip to campus (for me). No frenzied buying sprees--all things we had previously identified and knew exactly where to find. Clam chowder at a favorite, family-owned seafood restaurant warmed us up mid-way through the day. MP1 was out shopping and tracked us down just in time to join us for lunch.
• Luckily, none of this involved going near a mall, because 1. I was not well-enough for that and 2. even if I had been well-enough to manage the mall, I would have refused. It's just a Christmas-spirit-ruining-trip in my opinion. We are very lucky to live where we do (of course--we *planned* for this [and bought a super-fixer upper that we could b*a*r*e*l*y afford; it was the "dog" (mutt?) of the neighborhood at the time, but with good "bones" and all that]--because we so enjoyed the sense of community/easy drive/tree-lined thoroughfares in Ph.D. city that carried us to and from our campus and museum jobs, so we looked for that when we moved here.) Of course school districts dictate just about everything for people with children (public school devotees, anyway), but we are lucky that the home we bought allows us to travel a similarly tree-lined avenue to and from work. It has a plenty of boutiquey shopping places and great restaurants that come in all price points. It makes daily life--even on Christmas Eve--so much less-stressful. Occasionally we do think about moving to pedestrian-land even nearer to school, but that would cost big $ (too BAD we don't have all have nest eggs sitting around waiting for housing to costs to plummet as they now have.)
• We/I missed having my mom in town, but at least she commited to NOT coming before the last minute, which is her usual MO (and she is a load of work to entertain and wait on hand and foot). And of course, it's just sad not having to buy presents for TH's dad, or think about calling him, etc. Anticipating a big Christmas Day meal at downtown hotel (booked because my mother insists on this and we just kept the reservations when she canceled her trip), I made a salad for dinner and we just snacked on all the yummy sweets from SIL and other relatives.
• The highlight of the evening was watching The Visitor, which I highly, highly recommend (a nice antidote to The Love Guru which was among the featured cable fare somewhat earlier in the day--and which the two women in the house found incredibly appropriate for individuals stuck in Eric Erickson's developmental stage 2--if I remember my psych 101--but the two guys in the house just looovveed in all its incredible stupidness). Speciation at work there, I'm sure.
• Christmas eve night was super stormy, with rain and wind whipping and howling through every crevice in the house. I woke up at 1:37 am and tried unsuccesfully to fall back asleep so I got up and read an article I've been wanting to finish, had some Kahlua, then mapped out the next few years of my professional LIFE and other weird sorts of stuff. I'd blog the chart I drew out, but it's not ready even for late, late, night airing. At 3:30 am I called it a day.