"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

It's kind of sad when the time comes to take down the Xmas lights. :-(

And, goodness, it's fun having a lot of them, but it's also a bit of a chore putting them away!

It was cold this morning, and it is even colder tonight. Now, after Midwinter's Feast has come and gone, it is finally seeming a little like winter here. It was 31*F this morning when I got out of my car at work, and it is 26*F now, as I come in from a chilly walk to see the stars and the cold, and the nearby weather stations are reporting lower, just above 20.

So let me leave you with this: not for its religious content, but because it's EXACTLY what I think of when it's this cold and this dark and this wintry. A church, lit by candles, with young toffs and old codgers and mums with babies--with families, in other words--and music and a message of love.

I had dinner last night at my friends' the Johnsons, along with a number of their other friends and neighbours, complete with several youngling (starting at age three months!) A very merry time was had, complete with dessert at another neighbours'. I received the nickname "Google" after coming up with information on several different rather widely separated dinnertable conversation topics.

I came home, crashed, woke up around 8 to feed cats (mine and my downstairs neighbours'), went back to sleep for a couple of hours.Opened my presents from friends and family, fielded phone calls from my sibs (including two very excited nephews who were very pleased to get the snowshoes their mums had suggested would make good presents), had some breakfast, and proceeded to relax. :-)

Since then I've nibbled a small midday repast (cheese and smoked meat--a gift from my aforementioned downstairs neighbours), took a hot bath, showered the cats with presents (which they seem to gratifyingly be enjoying), watched some Buffy, and put a pumpkin pie in the oven to bake. Shortly I'll get the chicken ready to roast, then put in a bit more relaxing time before dinner.

Quiet, but very enjoyable. I hope you are all likewise enjoying the holiday!

The cats made out like bandits! I got them a new tilted scratchy board, two rubbery mice infused with catnip and which you can put treat into (made of nontoxic material, as I know Nick will chew the tails off), a new sleeping pad, and two scrunchy ring-toss toys (annoyingly, cat toys always seem to come in two, which makes it difficult if you have three cats). But the present de resistance came from my downstairs friends (whose cats I'm looking after, and who look after the boyz for me when I go on trips), who sent them a turbo trackball! It has been played with continuously since I put it together--one of the best cat presents evah! ( I got great prezzies too! )

I realised the other day that not having my parents around makes Christmas very...disconnected for me. It was one holiday we almost always spent together, and if we didn't, we still exchanged gifts. I love giving people presents, and without them or a wife to shop for, I kind of get lost somewhere in November. And I miss the rituals of Xmas at their house, the things that made it really magical for me, including the tree (even if, yes, Chris, I didn't always help decorate it :-), the midnight service at Bruton Parish, sitting on their brick hearth as the fire died down and you knew it was time to be going to bed (only to sneak out later and put out presents for everyone.)

So I was hunting around for a movie to watch tonight that would be about family, and I picked Gurinder Chadha's What's Cooking? It doesn't look so far as if it's going to be a great movie, but it's fun and has a number of actors I know and like: Alfre Woodward as a harrassed daughter in law who is on the hook for things out of her control, Julianna Margulies (yum!!!) as the lesbian partner of a Jewish-American woman whose parents (Lainie Kazan and Maury Chaykin) are definitely not comfortable with her relationship with their daughter, Joan Chen as a Vietnamese woman caught between her parents' love of tradition and discomfort with America and her kids' desire to assimilate in America. I love GC's films, and somehow I've never seen this one before.

It's not It's A Wonderful Life (which I'm very fond of--my sap tolerance is high) or Comfort and Joy (my favourite depressing Xmas movie) or Love, Actually (my favourite romantic Xmas movie). But there's plenty more holiday, and tonight I'm not feeling totally in the mood for sap, and I couldn't take either of the other two, not tonight. There's Scrooge, too, in the Spoor Xmas Movie Collection, but that will save for another night.

The ancient Roman ragout I tried making was a but odd, but not bad--spices, ham, leeks, and apples, with "dumplings" (meatballs, essentially) of pork. I wilted some spinach and added garlic as a side dish and had some more of the Holiday Shiner. After dinner has had time to settle, I think I'm having the spotted dick for dessert, with some cream. It's tinned spotted dick, but that's way better than nothing, Sadly, no Xmas pud this year, but that's probably just as well where the ever-expanding waistline is concerned.

Now, back to the movie! Sleep well, y'all!

Lovely evening introducing the Huzzah Harries to a new game (TFL's Algy Pulls It Off), handing out a few pressies, and home to do my good deed for the day (putting out all the house's recycling bins, plus my trash bin, the bin for the housemates who are away, and the bin for the flat whose occupants just moved out--leaving their bin full to overflowing, of course!) Scored nice pressies (some festive beers from the neighbours whose cats I'm sitting, some sweet nibbles and a little bottle of apple brandy, I think from the neighbours across the hall).

Some relaxing and checking email now, a bit of telly perhaps, and then bed. Tomorrow some final food and drink shopping, then a good deal of relaxing (possibly a bit of dish washing). If they're open, call the vet and the car place to make appointments for next week (or after). Oooh, and I should put some baubles on the tree (I'd not so far, as I've been moving it around--cute pictures of cats with tree coming tomorrow!)

shy_kat reminded me the other day of one of my favourite Christmas songs (which I know is one of hers also!)

Click here for the heartwarming seasonal joy, complete with video.

It being Twelfth Night, I took down my Xmas decorations (mini fake tree with baubles, fairy lights, Xmas stocking). The living room looks very sad without their cheery glow. Bare. Joyless. :-( Ah, well, it's January...

Plus, I think I need to have my friends downstairs up for cake and lambs wool. They invited me down for King Cake last year, and I got the "king" in my slice (I'd be hard pressed to say it brought me luck in 2009, though...)

...but I usually figured they were after the communion silver!

A unique Polish Christmas carol from 17th century, which was stolen by Swedish troops during their invasion of Poland in 1655, had a premiere at a concert in Stockholm.

The lyrics were discovered in the Skokloster Castle, near the Swedish capital, where they lay forgotten for almost 350 years. Written in old Polish language, the carol had to be modernized to be understood by contemporary Poles. Music was also composed to suit the old octosyllabic verse.

So, I got an unexpected envelope in the mail today. Clearly posted in the UK, but with mysteriously no return address. Nothing that I could think that I had ordered. Lovely handwritten address.

Opened it up, and it was a card, a present, and a Xmas card from ban_leodhasach! The card was really funny, the Xmas card was really sweet, and the present was a copy of this calendar. Beautiful photos and a really good cause.

Wonderful pictures of the wild places of Scotland--yeah, someone's figured out the way to my heart. :-)