And A Good Yule To All!

First, a bit of explanation may be in order:

I am Wiccan.  Most of my family are not.  Therefore, I do two celebrations.

Yule  -  Winter Solstice  -  is for quiet alone time for my own meditations, prayers, chants, and reflections.

Christmas is for family  -  lots of good food and noisy fun, stockings and presents and a tree with lots of shinies.


So it's Christmas Eve. 

All my gifts are ready to be wrapped, except one small knitting project to be finished this evening and tucked into a stocking.  All the goodies are baked, there's a turkey defrosting in the fridge, the house has miraculously stayed clean and tidy since last weekend's gathering, and for once I think we have enough tape!  All my holiday cards went out on time, and I've received more than I expected.

Big Guy is out in his workshop wrapping away, and when he's done and brings the supplies back inside, I'll be shutting myself in my workroom to wrap J's gifts before she gets home.  Then she and I will finish decorating the tree and wrapping P's and Big Guy's presents while singing along to White Christmas and The Muppets' Christmas Carol and swilling eggnog.

Tomorrow Big Guy and I will have a quiet, leisurely breakfast before he starts assembling turkey stuffing and I hop in the car to pick up P and her Damndog (yes, all one word).  Apparently, she can't leave him home alone (her partner will be spending the day with his daughter) or he (the Damndog) will destroy her house.  Granted, he behaves well enough here  -  as long as he has P in view  -  but FatBrat kitty loathes dogs, so she'll hide in the basement all day, and sulk at me all day Boxing Day.  Ah well, at least that means she'll confine her hairball-hurling to the basement for once ...

All in all, I'm more pleased with how everything is going than I thought I'd be.  I only had to make one trip to the mall to find everything I'd planned to buy, the weather is nicer than we expected, the house looks nicer than I expected, and I stayed under budget! 

I really had an awfully hard time getting into the holiday spirit ... but today, I think I'm finally there.


I wish you all a peaceful and joyous holiday and nothing but good things in the coming year!