I’ll be back tomorrow with a full report of movies and holidays and fun, but, in the meantime, thanks for spending 2008 with me. I’ve enjoyed the year and look forward to the adventures of 2009. May your evening be safe and sane, and may 2009 bring only positive things your way.

Just wanted to note that a night with the family watching Fred Claus, drinking homemade eggnog, and eating trifle and Christmas cookies in front of a crackling fire and a cheery Christmas tree as snowflakes drift past the window is pretty darn good.

I hope you all are having equally nice nights.

Sarah published this meme around Thanksgiving and I’ve been meaning to finish it and get it up for you. In the meantime, I’ve seen it a couple other places with two additional questions, so I added them in:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Personally, I like wrapping paper, but I appreciate the ease of gift bags, particularly 3 a.m. or so on Christmas Eve…
2. Real tree or artificial? Real, that we cut down from a tree farm. I do have a very nice fake desktop-sized tree that my Secret Santa freshman year of college gave me. It goes up on my desk at work.
3. When do you put up the tree? Second Sunday after Thanksgiving (i.e., this past Sunday)
4. When do you take the tree down? Generally, I try to take it down by the trash day after MLK Day.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes. As with all my beverages, though, I prefer it to be sans alcohol. And as I get older I find I prefer the light version to to the full-fat variety from the store, although the full-fat organic that Rudi and I had tonight as we were finishing up the tree-trimming was quite nice.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm… The doll house my grandfather built me was a lovely gift when I was in first grade or so… My bike… The Cabbage Patch doll my folks had my great-grandmother make for me the year they were really big… My baby doll… Oh, and I loved books! The Louisa May Alcott set my paternal grandparents gave me… Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden were series Mum began at Christmas for me… My class ring my senior year of high school… Goodness, I certainly had some really nice presents — both when I was a kid and more recently!
7. Hardest person to buy for? My MIL is a toughie as she neither needs nor wants things.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Dad, maybe, because he likes music so much…
9. Do you have a nativity scene? No. Well, I have a small plastic nativity scene ornament I’ve had as long as I can remember.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Tomorrow night’s holiday task is to start working on them.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Hmmm… I did once receive an ant farm as a Secret Santa gag gift. Does that count?
12. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas has to be near the top.
13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, although maybe it doesn’t count if it’s alcohol?
14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Stuffing. Trifle. Christmas cookies.
15. Lights on the tree? Who doesn’t put lights on their tree? I prefer multi-colored lights. I used to use C7 bulbs when we lived in Connecticut, but in D.C. we opt for the smaller lights. And, for the first time this year, we had to add strands in after the tree was half decorated. They aren’t as evenly dispersed as they might have been if I’d had the correct number of working strands during our party, but I’d say it’s all worked out just fine. And our tree is much prettier now with 500 lights on it.
16. Favorite Christmas song? It’s hard to beat “Silent Night” sung a cappella in candlelight.
17. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel to Connecticut.
18. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yes. I believe Clement Moore came up with the first eight. And I know that Johnny Marks’ song (sung by Gene Autry) made Rudolph famous, even if they didn’t come up with the idea.
19. Angel on the tree top or a star? We had an angel, but she was a little top-heavy, so our current tree-topper is a snowflake.
20. Open presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? My own grandiose expectations of what I ought to be accomplishing. Oh, and my inability to get packages to the post office. Several of the far away folks in my life will be receiving presents this year that I bought for last year…
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I prefer to avoid themes. And I like all colors. I have several favorite ornaments, though, including the personalized sled my first-grade teacher’s father made for each child in the class and the red-haired doll and the wooden angel riding a horse — neither of which can I recall a Christmas without.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Is it cheesy to say peace and good health and kindheartedness and lots of laughter?
24. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Well, other than those gifts I bought last year for people but neglected to mail, I’d guess earlier this fall…
25. Favorite Christmas dinner? Thanksgiving redux: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and lots of side dishes.

… if I cleaned more than once or twice a year.

Or if I didn’t feel the need to do a complete overhaul of the apartment the week day before guests were due to come over…

The blog I’m writing at work is keeping me very busy these days (it’s hard when you have to learn some scientific thing before you can write a post), so I’m stealing blog fodder from Carole.

Ten Things I Am Thankful for This Year:

1. Rudi. I’m lucky to have found someone (generally) whose strengths balance out my weaknesses. He loves his bikes and his skis, but he loves me and the cats more (on most days). He has good taste in music, a commanding touch at the stove, and a keen sense of humor. Oh, and he’s willing to deal with bugs in various states of liveliness.
2. Family. Rudi and I are lucky. We both have our parents in good health and general good spirits. Rudi’s mom is a dear — giving of both time and resources. My grandmother remains feisty, if a bit slower than she once was. She has given up driving recently, but because she lives with my folks, I don’t have to worry about her ability to get out and about. We’re up in Connecticut this weekend and I look forward to spending time with everyone.
3. Good friends. I have two great friends from my high school years, both of whom I treasure dearly. This has been a tremendous year for Karen and Danny, both of whom have added husbands this year, and I’m so happy for them. My college friends remain true, even as we spread out and add spouses and children to the mix. I love hearing from them — regardless of what they’ve been up to or how long it’s been. My friends from Wesleyan are doing interesting things — grad school and internships and the like. Shelley and I chat most days on IM, and I value the perspectives she brings to my life. And my D.C. friends… Life would be so hard without you. Whether it’s the folks I’ve met through work, with whom I share knitting or books, or the Dean friends who have become my family away from my family, I don’t know what Rudi and I would do if you weren’t part of our lives. And then I have the online friends I’ve met through blogs and through Ravelry. My fingers may never drip with jewels and my income will certainly never be large, but in friendships I am rich and that’s enough for me.
4. Three funny cats. Della, Jeremiah, and Posey make my life richer every day. A cat curled up in my lap or behind my head while I’m knitting or reading is about as good as it gets. They’re soft and healthy and are fine hunters. Plus, they know to wake Rudi up in the early hours of the morning, not me.
5. Good health. A little crazy. A little sad. A little overweight. But generally good. And I’ll work on the rest.
6. A good job with great coworkers. What I do for a living isn’t my dream occupation. But it has a mission I believe in, a remarkably competent manager, and colleagues who are dedicated to the success of the project. I’d say that’s a highly desirable, if rare, combination.
7. A nice neighborhood. I complain sometimes about the periodic flooding and the lack of space in the Burrow, but we’ve stayed here for five years because we adore the neighborhood. Bookstores, fancy restaurants, regular restaurants, coffee shops, museums, a tea house, fountains, parks, bike lanes, a hardware store, all-night drug stores, a library, trees, a community garden… Okay, so we no longer have a movie theater, but there isn’t much else I can complain about…
8. Fun vacations. France was a terrific place to visit and I really enjoyed my time there. A coworker asked if I thought she ought to go visit a family member living abroad even if the tickets were a bit pricier than she could afford. I told her that travel — particularly to another country — was always a good investment and to go for it. I also got to go camping at the folk festival with Shelley and her family again this year. It may have ended with a tornado, hail, and tremendous rain, but it also included good music, late night talks with Shelley, and time with the kiddos.
9. Enjoyable hobbies. I may have stockpiled enough yarn and books for a significant snowstorm… And reading and knitting make me very happy. I have a camera that takes great shots. I have a blog where I can share my thoughts. Rudi and I have more music than some low-frequency radio stations.
10. A positive outlook. Sometimes I forget that I have a pretty upbeat feeling about life and what to expect from it. And, yes, sometimes that means I end up getting hurt when it doesn’t live up to my hopes or expectations. But I like looking forward to things. I like believing people are generally good and want to be good to each other. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but I think it’s a good belief to tend toward. And I think that the 2008 election results suggest I’m not in the minority of people who are looking for a positive future.

What are you thankful for this year?

Beautiful things in a few hours…

So I’ve been up for 18 hours. Somehow I thought that time would be more productive…

I did:

• Talk to Karen
• Finish The Scarlet Pimpernel
• Start a Christmas present
• Do a load of laundry
• Vacuum
• Empty my suitcase
• Do dishes
• Pay bills
• Drink a lot of tea
• Print a cd label
• Upload some photos to Flickr

I did not:

• Mop the bathroom
• Mail a package
• Make Christmas cookie dough
• Bake
• Invite people to our tree-trimming party
• Rearrange the kitchen cabinets
• Tidy the bookshelves
• Put away the camping gear in the hallway
• Hang up my clothes

There were other things I meant to do. Those were just the most obvious ones…

Eighteen hours just don’t stretch far enough…