Merry Christmas, everyone.

Listening to WETA Christmas carols on Pandora, sipping hot chocolate by the fire. Junior's camped in front of the fireplace, the tip of his orange and white striped tail slowly swishing in pleasure. Callie was perched on the new kitty windowseat earlier. They seem to enjoy it, although Rothy rather firmly requested one for his favorite window behind the computer.

Rothy's tired, smiling in his sleep beside me, his soft fur rising and falling. We were both up late last night wrapping presents. Well. I wrapped. He snagged petting and attention between presents and played with ribbon-like strips of paper.

I could've finished wrapping quickly, but why not learn origami for the holidays?

I was inspired by copperbadge and raveninthewind. The Japanese know the right way to wrap my cousins' gift cards. So I have cube boxes, boxes with paper-hinged lids, Christmas lilies tucked in ribbons, and one hahaha, your gift card's in here, just try to open it. A night of fun.

Now I'm as tired as Rothy looks. No big plans for today. My aunt, uncle, cousin and her new baby are bumping around upstairs with occasional baby sounds. There's dinner later though I'm hungry noooowwwww. (Gets soup and cookies to tide me over.)

You'd think blue cheese and chocolate wouldn't be a good combo, but in fact....

Christmas sure sneaked up on us this year, didn't it?

New Year's. Hmm, what to do other than watch the ball drop.

Normally, if I don't have a boyfriend, I spend New Year's with a book (or fic), chocolate and some sparkling cider. I click on the TV somewhere around 11pm and watch the ball drop at midnight.

This year I'd like to do something where I can dress up (and perhaps come back before midnight for my chocolate tradition). I've been thinking about this off and on since Thanksgiving. Nothing's come of my ongoing flirtation with the cute-bouncy art teacher -- or rather, I decided I'm probably too old for him and I've pulled back the hounds. I'm keeping the connection until I find out more of what he wants.

(The only drawback of looking young is that twenty-something guys are sometimes seriously looking when you're merely cougaring.)

S. is busy that night, which is just as well, I need to stop relying on him as my back-up date.

Thoughts? Ideas?

I'm thinking culture, arts, music (alas, I missed all the Christmas concerts a week and more ago). There's that production of the Iliad that doesn't warrant dressing up but might be interesting....