Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had lovely, restful holidays. Rudi and I came north for Christmas. I’m hanging with the family and sleeping a lot. (Apparently two hours of sleep a night before Christmas leaves you with a deficit to make up for.) Rudi headed even further north to ski for a few days.

We head back south this weekend so we can celebrate New Year’s Eve with our annual movie-theater-athon. Any recommendations for things currently out in the theaters you think we’d enjoy? (I don’t like bloody, scary, or warlike, which lets out an awful lot. Juno is on the current list, as is The Golden Compass. Maybe Charlie Wilson’s War or National Treasure or P.S. I Love You.)

Here are three beautiful things from my Christmas week:

1. Growing up, Josh and I always used to go down to my grandparents’ basement after holiday meals and watch the men play pool (as the company started to trickle in after their own holiday meals). Naturally, we rooted for Dad to win. When the grownups had tired of playing, Dad would play a game or two with us. As everyone got older, fewer people would come to Gramma’s Christmas night, and Josh and I were welcome to play with Dad, Uncle David and Grampa. In recent years, though, the pool table was covered over and used as storage. Then Grampa died and we started celebrating holidays at Mum and Dad’s when they bought this house. Last March, we emptied Gramma’s house and the pool table moved in pieces up here. In the last month, Dad got the pool table put together, refelted, and ready to go. Christmas after dinner, my cousins, Rudi, and I got to play down in the basement. And tonight Dad and I spent a couple of hours playing (badly). This was a tradition that deserved to be resurrected.

2. To say I was a little behind in Christmas knitting this year was an understatement. I planned to knit all day on Saturday while Rudi drove to Connecticut. (It was easier for him to drive than to learn to knit at the last minute…) Ultimately, we got a later start than we’d intended and I only had an hour or two of daylight before the sun set. Luckily, I’ve now knit long enough that I’m able to feel my way along on patterns that aren’t too complicated. I moved slower on Dad’s scarf than I’d hoped to, but got about 15 inches knit in the car. (And, no, before you ask, I didn’t finish any of the Christmas knitting this year. The scarf is nearing completion and Gramma’s hat is next on my list. Mum’s second sock will probably have to be mailed…)

3. I headed to Massachusetts on Sunday to see what Northampton could offer me for my money. It was a remarkably productive trip, allowing me to shop independently at an organic food store, a music shop, two different bookstores, a gift shop, a chocolatier, a kitchen goods store, and a dry good department store. I like knowing where my money goes and Northampton has been remarkably diligent about keeping its downtown filled with small businesses as opposed to selling out to big franchises and national chains.

What was beautiful in your life this week?

Ack! Thursday is practically gone already! The single-digit days leading up to Christmas are generally fraught, but there is still beauty tucked amidst the panic. Here are three from the past week:

1. Sweetpea, Rudi, and I meet up for dinner Tuesday night at a local diner that serves particularly good grilled cheese and tomato soup. At the bottom of my cherry coke sit two festive cherries just waiting to surprise me. (Luna also merits mention because they dangle Christmas ornaments from the dining room ceiling to really give the restaurant a festive spirit.)

2. In addition to Tuesday’s soiree, Rudi and I have had a lot of dinners out in the last week. Saturday night, a large group of us followed up a party with a midnight trip to a bar. Sunday, we partook of Sweetpea and Megan’s generosity and combined food, merrimaking, and holiday cartoons for a terrifically fun evening. And last night, Amani and I met up for dinner at Teaism so I could learn how her first week at the new job is going and so she could get instructions for caring for our cats next week.

3. Every Christmas Dad makes a mix cd or two. This week his latest compilation arrived in the mail and it really merits mention. One of my favorite tunes may be “Jingle Bell Rock” as performed by Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker. It sounded good on the computer speakers, but it particularly stands out when listening on headphones where you can hear the exchange between the two singers. They’re clearly having fun singing it together and it’s just impossible to listen without smiling. The rest of the music runs the genre gamut — from ’80s bands Heart and Survivor to the casts of the musicals Little Shop of Horrors and Hairspray and from Rebs’ favorite Grey Eye Glances to Sam’s fave KT Tunstall — and I’ve already listened to it through a number of times. Great job, Dad!

Sorry for the tardiness; I dozed off there. But better late than never, right? Here are my three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I meet Rudi’s cycling friends for the first time en masse Sunday evening at a party. They all seem like really nice people who genuinely like Rudi. They share his crazy “let’s cheerily ride 100 miles in a day” mentality, which I fail to understand. But I’m glad that he has people who do.

2. A few weeks ago, one of the classic radio podcasts I subscribe to on iTunes posted Miracle of the Bells, a mostly-forgotten movie starring Fred McMurray, Valli, and Frank Sinatra in a non-singing role. The radio show, presented by Lux Radio Theater, is a personal classic, though, because every year Dad used to take the taped copy out of the library for us to listen to. I listen to it late at night as I knit curled up on the couch. (As a side note, I realize that this show may have defined Western Pennsylvania for me growing up and probably is responsible for my misgiving that Pittsburgh would be a dirty coal mining city.)

3. Anxiolytic: anxiety-relieving. It means the exact opposite of what I guessed it would and, as such, is so much more useful. It’s my favorite word of the week.

Sorry this is so late, but Rudi and I were having blog problems earlier in the day. The problem has been rectified, allowing me to post again. Yay!

That fix has allowed me to post Three Beautiful Things from the past week. Admit it; you’ve been waiting all day for them…

1. At our holiday party on Sunday, several guests brought delicious food. Amani arrived with a vegetarian quiche and brownies, relieving me of the need of cooking the lasagna I hadn’t even started. Sarah brought delicious pretzel treats — pretzels with Hershey Kisses melted into the middle, with an M&M pressed into it. And Sweetpea brought her famous cranberry salsa, brie, and crackers.

2. Sweetpea, John, Rudi, and I went to the National Theatre tonight to see Avenue Q, which is a musical parody of (and tribute to) Sesame Street for adults. I admit that I was a little leery about such an irreverent show but, while some of it was over the top, much of it was not and I had a really good time. Everyone else seemed to have a blast, too. My favorite song? “I Wish I Could Go Back to College.”

3. A package arrived for me last night. I couldn’t remember ordering any yarn on ebay, but sometimes I get a little carried away. Rudi told me the only way to find out what it contained was to open the box. When I pried it open and saw a glittery hoof, I immediately knew where the box had come from — Grey Kitten! The box contained a sparkly unicorn just the same color as yesterday’s first snow, whom I have named Snowflake to commemorate her arrival.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. In addition to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and a second turkey dinner on Friday, Mum packed a container filled with leftovers for us to have for supper on Monday. Thanksgiving is one of the only times of the year when the leftovers are just as good as the original meal.

2. Karen and I still exploring meeting spots between her new home and my folks’ place. Last Saturday we chose Sturbridge, where we did much of what we would have done if we were still meeting up in Middletown — eat lunch, buy apples, and drink hot beverages.

3. Friday, Mum and I baked a batch of spritz cookies. She made the dough and shot the dough onto the trays and I decorated them. There was some confusion because she seems to be missing a few of the shape discs, but we eventually settled on poinsettas, ornaments, a few hearts, and a tray of humanoids that could have been angels, elves, or snowmen, depending on your interpretation.

Three Beautiful Thanksgiving Things from today:

1. Mum tried new squash and turnip recipes this year. They were delicious! (In fact, we might need to get the recipes…)

2. Dad lit a fire this morning just before the Macy’s Day Parade and it stayed alit pretty much all day long. It really made things seem quite cozy.

3. After Dad and I got the doughnuts this morning, I changed back into my pjs. I didn’t get dressed again until just before dinnertime.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!