On Tuesday morning, unless something crazy happens, the D.C. Council will vote to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. Tomorrow afternoon, the mayor plans to sign the bill into law. Provided Congress doesn’t act in the following 30 days to countermand it, come late-January, D.C. will join Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Iowa in being the most forward-thinking places in the nation when it comes to marriage equality.

It is a long time coming, but the victory is now close enough to savor. My fears of Congressional intervention are not unfounded, but conversations with Council staff members over the weekend suggest that I might be worrying for naught. I hope they’re right.

On the day the D.C. Council introduced the legislation, The New York Times made a compelling case about why this issue is so important, not just here, but across the country and at a federal level. “The High Price of Being a Gay Couple” points out that the extra costs a same-sex couple in a committed couple accrue runs into the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars over the course of a lifelong relationship. This includes everything from health insurance costs to pensions to the legal costs associated with safeguarding children, power of attorney, and inheritance in the event of a health scare or death.

The law won’t even the playing field for all couples. The national DOMA law still forbids same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits, such as Social Security, that opposite-sex spouses take for granted. But it is a step in the right direction. Just as interracial marriage opponents today are considered ridiculous, I expect those people in Maine and California who voted to put hatred into their law books will be pitied for their intolerance 20 years from now.

Change is coming. It is slow, but it is coming. And I’m pleased that the District is on the right side of that movement, helping to turn the tide.

I’d like to thank all the activists who worked tirelessly on this issue in the District; the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, who twice ruled that citizens did not have a right to put hatred into a ballot initiative; Council Member David Catania, who introduced the bill and had research and answers for every argument that some bigoted person or group brought forward; Council Member Phil Mendelson, who chairs the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary that moved the bill forward to a full Council vote; and the other eight Council Members who are expected to vote for the bill. This law means so much to Rudi and me, and we are going to be tremendously proud to be District residents tomorrow.

I arrived home Friday night to a package at the foot of the stairs. Sometimes this can be anti-climactic, because our upstairs neighbor is an online ordering fiend and gets boxes delivered several times a month. But this time it was for me — from Santa!

It turns out that in mid-December Santa needs some extra help delivering presents and, in this case, asked Steph to pitch in to send me a gift as part of the Book Blogger Holiday Swap.

And what did Steph send me, you ask?

Books! Wintry Socks! A Bookmark!

How did she know?!

Isn’t that an awesome package? The books are two I haven’t read, although Sophie Kinsella has been on my ever-growing to-be-read list for quite some time. Remember Me? deals with a girl who wakes up in the hospital, having lost three years of her life — the three years in which she’s gotten married to a millionaire! Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern is one of Steph’s favorite books. And the blurb on the back made me want to ditch all my weekend plans in order to stay in and read. It’s a tale of two kids who are friends, stay in touch through cross-Atlantic moves, and later might come to find out how important they really are to one another. Doesn’t that sound perfect for this time of year?

As does my cheerful, yellow flower of a bookmark. I read in spurts on the metro and about town, so am always starting and stopping. Usually I just stick random receipts into my books to mark my page, so an actual bookmark, particularly such a pretty one, will be so helpful!

And Steph clearly did her homework to find out about my love of socks, particularly fun, sparkly, holiday-themed socks. My new socks have red accents, blue-clad polar bears, and sparkly snowflakes on them. They were a key component in the cute outfit I wore to Saturday night’s Christmas party.

Steph, who also included a beautiful card in the box, did a fantastic job in bringing me Christmas joy. Thank you so much, Steph!

Apparently the afterthought portion of last night’s post (the line where I wrote I needed some sleep during the holidays) was an understatement. I didn’t truly appreciate the sentiment until after I woke up this afternoon at nearly two!

I made the most of the rest of the day, though. I dropped off Toys for Tots at the local fire house, stopped by the garden (chard is the only thing left; the peppers that were too small to pick a couple weeks back were still small — and dead, to boot) and the library, and ran by Trader Joe’s for a few supplies.

I came home and baked a batch of brownies that elicited rave reviews, although, as usual with my stove and brownies, I had to add more than 15 extra minutes to the cooking time. (I had a large bar of squares of dark chocolate and used six with the butter. I then opted for semi-sweet chips mixed in with the berries. Oh, and I ran out of white flour and finished the cup off with a few tablespoons of whole wheat.)

And then we headed off to a party, where I got the chance to spend a Saturday night with some of our favorite D.C. folks. It was great!

All in all, a nice way to spend a short Saturday during a busy time of the year.

Two weeks until Christmas. Two weekends before Christmas. I’m trying not to focus too directly on those statements to avoid the freak-out that accompanies them.

I have too much to do. I’m not ready.

Okay, I admit it. I have too much I want to do. There are far fewer things I have to do, short of coming up with a few presents to take up to Connecticut with us, sending off a box to my brother and his boyfriend, and then driving home.

But what I want to do includes so much more.

I want to:

• Attend the parties friends have invited us to, including two this weekend.
• Write and mail Christmas cards. I love this annual ritual and am hoping to spend some of this weekend on it.
• Do some baking. I keep bookmarking new recipes from the blogs I read. And I bought some Christmas cookie cutters last month. Plus, I could bring baked goods in for people at work, who are always appreciative.
• Make a Christmas mix. I have failed at this for so many years now, but am closer than ever before to actually creating one. The problem is that I am a thorough (Rudi would say obsessive) researcher and am having a hard time letting go of that part of the process.
• Watch holiday movies. Rudi and I watched Holiday Inn tonight, but there are still so many others I want to see.
• Get crafty with my gift-giving. Also, do some knitting for me that is holiday-themed or desired to be worn for the holidays. This last bit, particularly, is seeming less and less likely.
• Take advantage of some of the fun things D.C. has to offer at this time of the year. The Botanical Gardens has a model train display that I’d love to see again this year. I hear Union Station has one, too. National Cathedral has creches. The Kennedy Center has a tuba Christmas carol concert on Monday. (Must remember — Monday!) G.W. has a Make We Joy-type event that I know I’m going to miss again. And it’s seeming less and less likely I’ll be able to get over to NoVa to catch GrooveLily’s folk Christmas musical. And there are others…
• Send the Christmas boxes off to friends far away. I am pretty sure Grey Kitten is up to three years worth of presents in my tiny apartment once I finish this year’s shopping… But at least he’s the only one of the three left over from last year…

I’m sure there’s more, but it’s late and I want to go to bed. Sleep. That’s one more of those things I want to do before Christmas…

What are on your lists of must-do’s and would-like-to’s for this season?

How did it get to be Thursday already? And it’s the end of Thursday, even… That doesn’t seem fair. If I promise we don’t need to go back and work again, could we rewind to Monday?

But, no, time marches forward and all we can do is note three beautiful things to mark the passing of the time:

1. Who knew that all it would take to make Northern Virginia pretty is a fresh blanket of snow?

2. The living room glows pink when the Christmas tree is the only thing lit.

3. Glee had its fall finale on Wednesday, and I enjoyed the last episode as much as the first one we saw over the summer. It’s far from a perfect show. In fact, it might be the most flawed show I’ve ever loved, but love it I do. I can (almost) overlook the plot sinkholes and the egregious overuse of auto-tune because of the things the show does have going for it: A great soundtrack (the overproduction of the songs isn’t so obvious on the cd where there’s no dialogue to compare it to) you can sing along to. Characters you like (or like to hate). (Incidentally, I think Quinn might be my favorite, which was a surprise to me.) And a sense of joie de vivre I can’t find anywhere else on tv.

What beautiful things have you noticed recently?

Rudi and I traditionally spend New Year’s Eve at the movies. It started out with just seeing one movie, but has morphed into seeing anywhere from two to four, depending on what’s playing where and when — and if anyone else wants to go with us.

It currently looks like it will just be Rudi and me on our own this year, but what still remains up in the air is what we’ll see. Because we live in a major city, we are lucky in that many of the Oscar contenders open here at year’s end to be eligible for the award season.

Does anyone have suggestions for movies to see? Things that you’ve seen in the last few weeks that might still be playing here? Shows you’ve heard good buzz about? Films featuring a favorite star?

We didn’t make it into the advance screening of the George Clooney movie, Up in the Air, last week, so that’s definitely on our long list. (Calling it that suggests there is more than one film on it at the moment. I’m just thinking ahead right now…)

Leave us tips in the comments…