Heigh, Ho, Holiday

The Spouse, who knows me well, not only got me the new Cleopatra bio, but he replaced my Janet Arnold Patterns of Fashion #1. Maybe this is the year I'll build myself that gorgeous riding habit. I have no interest in riding, but the cut of this garment has always delighted me.

Santa put a bottle of Laphroig in my stocking (metaphorically, at least...it would have broken the stocking and the bottle).

Plus more pelfy goodness, and, even more than that, everyone liked their Christmas gifts. And dinner was good, the relatives survived the trip down and back (in ugly rain), and there is left over beef for hash! Altogether a good Christmas.

Boxing Day

Slept in.
Read as much of the Sunday Times as I wanted.
Went to see True Grit (recommended. Now I have three versions of the story in my head, and want to look at the Portis novel--which I haven't read for three decades at least--again)
Am about to make roast beef hash.
May have a bit of Laphroig.

It's a good life.

America Lessons

One of Avocado's dear friends is a lovely girl who was born in China; her family immigrated when she was four. There are certain things--Thanksgiving, Christmas, old movies--which are not part of her cultural repertoire. With the result that A has been introducing her to various films, songs, and customs. She had dinner with us on Thanksgiving; she was here Christmas Eve (and we showed her "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," and It's a Wonderful Life--which also meant showing her Avocado gloating as I wept all over everything, because I have no resistance to certain things.

Today the girls went downtown and Bought Stuff on Sale (I have a daughter who believes so very heartily in Retail Therapy that it scares me) and then they came home and watched one of A's very earliest favorite movies: The Sound of Music. Except for "Climb Every Mountain," which A says "goes on forever."

As a side note I must retell this story: when Avocado was tiny, she had wonderful sitter named Lisa who took care of her while I was at work. When A started in school and I was laid off from my comics job, Lisa found a new gig and I became the afterschool babysitter. When we discussed the change with A, she was a little confused. "Is Lisa going back to the Abbey?"