Christmas Pics

Santa decided the kitties were nice, not naughty, and rewarded them accordingly...

 Olivia didn't care about gifts, she enjoyed slapping down the paper...

Lucy says, "Check out my new red Christmas mouse!"

The stockings were hung by the chimmney with care...

And holiday cards collapsed on the floor as if they'd been flung in the air!

The tree was decorated and stood tall and bright...

And kittens on couches called out, "And to all a good night!"

Christmas Eve!

I was on the phone early this morning with my friend Trisha when her 8-year-old son woke up and stumbled into the room.  "Christmas Eve!" I heard him exclaim to her.

I remember being that excited as a child.  Every day until Christmas draaaaggged out until I was sure time was standing still.  And going to sleep knowing Santa might arrive any minute? It was probably the only night of the year I willingly raced off to bed, only to lie awake staring at the ceiling for hours.

The one thing about not having kids is that it is a little disappointing not to have that "Santa's coming!" energy in the house.  Still, every year Blair plays Santa for the cats and gets up  early to lay out presents and stuff stockings before waking me.  And oddly enough, our cats play along.  Usually we can't get them to do anything we want but they prowl around their gifts and sniff and inspect each one as we open it for them and really get into the spirit of things.

I did a book signing today at the Fat Cat and sold 7 books.  Blair got it into his head that we must have Chex Mix this holiday season, so that's cooking in the oven right now as he watches the start of the Panthers game.  Later tonight we'll head over to our neighbors for a Christmas Eve open house, then come home and open the gifts my aunt and uncle sent us and probably, knowing us, polish off the last of the Chex Mix. 

I'm not thinking of anything even remotely work-related for the next 48 hours.  Christmas is for friends and family and reflection, and also for eating mounds of Chex Mix.

Warm and happy wishes to everyone! 

(And don't forget to watch for Santa...)

Holiday Stress? Not In This Household.

At yoga class this morning, two of the women with children were bemoaning the fact that they were nowhere near done with their holiday shopping.  Today and tomorrow they planned to "race" to stores and "fight" the crowds and "drag" the kids to see Santa.

I am so happy I don't have to deal with any of that.  And it's not necessarily just because we don't have kids.  Plenty of people I know are stressing about family coming in, cleaning house, cooking meals, finding the right gift for the spouse, sister, mother-in-law, boyfriend, etc. 

Truthfully, I rarely if ever experience holiday stress.  Thanksgiving weekend we put up the tree, buy and wrap gifts, and send out the Christmas cards so after that weekend we're pretty much free to just sit back and relax.  We don't buy each other presents (I'm telling you, that is the way to go--SO much less stress) and we only buy gifts for our niece and nephews so our shopping is minimal. We 're doing our favorite thing  for the holiday which is to hang out with each other.  We'll probably see "Narnia" over the holiday weekend but other than that, we have no plans other than to read the paper, drink coffee, and nibble on holiday cookies.  My only disappointment is that it's supposed to be near 60 degrees on Saturday.  I prefer a blustery Christmas day.

The only possible stress might come from my plan to make this the year we finally manage to get the mini-reindeer antlers on the cats.  So yes, a trip to the Emergency Room for either or both of us might be stressful.

Here's hoping your final shopping weekend is calm, relaxed, and injury free.

I Am (Dare I Say It?) Caught Up

I entered the month of December in a state of panic.  Three huge projects loomed on the horizon along with the usual myriad of smaller writing jobs that make up my life.  There were a few days I felt physically sick as I approached my desk, there was so much on my plate. What if I couldn't get it done or (infinitely worse in my opinion) got it done but had to turn in substandard work?

The good part about this state of panic is that I was terrified of missing a deadline and dove headfirst into work, pumping it out.  Yesterday I sent off the last of the big projects and heaved a sigh of relief.  All I've got on my plate for this week that has to be done is an interview today at 10 with a woman who breeds Tibetan Spaniels, I'll need to transcribe that and 2 other interviews from earlier in the week, and write two 500-word articles.  If I get really adventurous (which I might), I can start writing my article on Tibetan Spaniels, which isn't due until the first of February.

To reward myself, I indulged in a morning of luxury.  I got up and eschewed exercising in favor of showering immediately, then plopped down on the couch for two hours with the book, Bait & Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich. 

I immensely enjoyed her earlier work, Nickel & Dimed where she went undercover as one of the working poor to see how they get by.  In this work, she positions herself as one of the white-collar unemployed and tries to land a job.  It's well-written and gets better as it goes along, but her naivety in the beginning is so absurd it's off-putting.  Bullet points on a resume are news to her?  Networking as a primary means of finding work is a surprise?  It made me wonder what la-la land she'd been living in.  But once she gets her resume in shape and starts attending (hilariously useless) networking functions, the book picks up speed.

Right now, I'm in the throes of an allergy attack, probably because we spent 3 hours cleaning last night, kicking up dust.  I'd take an allergy pill, but even the "non-drowsy" formulas wipe me out, so I need to hold out for at least five hours and get a bit of work done.

A bright bit of news: Our local papers did a feature story on Lessons In Stalking in yesterdays paper and the front picture is of Lucy and the books cover (see left).  The article was good, although I was disappointed it didn't mention my illustrator, Linda Santell, or the art shop in town where the book is available, The Fat Cat.  But I hope the piece brings a little attention and spurs some Christmas orders.

And now, off to transcribe some interviews.