Christmas Wrapping

Eddie gave me a hand (paw?) with wrapping the Christmas gifts for friends and family afar. I'm determined to get this lot in the mail tomorrow.

My Christmas shopping is mostly done -- partly because many of our gift are homemade (John has been busy in his wood shop) and partly because I've been picking up odds and ends right along -- books from bookstores or bookfairs where I've been presenting and for the very young in our extended family, some knitted finger puppets from Peru (llama, cow, sheep, elephant, etc.) that were so neat I really wanted to keep them for myself. But I was strong and wrapped and labeled them before I could change my mind.

I spent most of the day at this -- while listening to a reading of The Minotaur by Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell's alter ego). It was a leisurely psychological tale with a somewhat ambiguous ending -- but perfect listening for a dreary, drizzly day.

Bit by bit, I'm getting out the Christmas things. Before the weekend, John will go to the Farmers' market and buy a really big Fraser fir (they're grown in western NC) and on Sunday we'll string popcorn and cranberries and decorate the tree.

Tomorrow I'll hit the post office and then it's back to Miss Birdie who is poised at a rather crucial juncture -- actually, two crucial junctures, one in the present and one in the past.

It's kinda schizophrenic.