Holiday Season - Between my own holiday celebrations and those of my family (or families) and friends, there's not just one celebration in my life but a full season of celebrations.

Chanukkah - The first night of Chanukkah, I was home alone, late, and when I looked around for candles, could not find any in my own stash. The only candles in my stash seemed to be some camping Shabbat candles. So I lit a single candle, and said a tiny prayer that somehow there might be enough candles to get through the season. This seemed ridiculously appropriate.

My sweetie's son had asked for a chanukkiah (chanukkah menorah) of his own when he was younger, because all his friends at school celebrated Chanukkah. I brought over some dreidels, a little book about Chanukkah, and a box of candles, earlier in December. So on the second night, I went over to my sweetie's to find out they had lit candles the night before--but with Birthday candles, because they didn't want to "mess up" my box of candles. *laugh* So the three of us lit candles together, and I opened two gifts from them. I was given a large bath towel and a matching hand towel OF MY VERY OWN (so that no one will steal *MY* clean towel, if I'm over at their apartment). The towels are bright orange, really REALLY bright orange, and completely unmistakably mine. *grin* Of course, I had to squeal like the little girl in Despicable Me, "They're so FLUFFY!" I love them, of course.

Of the run of Chanukkah, I've received towels, various sharpie pens (SHARPIES! *SQUEE*), post-it notes, a journal, a pair of slippers, and a little yellow, wooden, kitty Christmas ornament. I wasn't over at their place last night, so there's one gift still waiting for me.

Shabbat - Friday night, we were released from work a little early, so I had the luxury of spending some time with my best friends and their sons, and we were able to light candles for both Channukah and Shabbat *and* share that with Bubbe and Zayde (grandma and grandpa) via Skype. I stayed for Shabbat dinner, something I haven't been able to do in just FOREVAR, and my household Cap'n and I were able to linger over a glass of wine and discuss sword-fighting projects for a few hours. I need to schedule some extra hang-out time with the Lady of the house, but she had her hands full with the toddler and the baby, with bed cloths and bed routines and other toddler joys. My poor sweet friend. I miss living nearby and being able to help her out more often. And of course, I love spending time with these "nephews." But it was a nice visit, all the same.

Christmas Eve - Christmas Eve, the boys and I went over to the teenager's "other family's house" -- his best friend and their whole family. The mom likes to consider the teen her "only son" and spoils him sometimes as much as her two girls. We had a lovely sit-down dinner together (turkey, wild rice, corn bread stuffing, green bean casserole, and cheesecakes), and gift exchanges. The Boyo received his very first iPod ever, a Nano Shuffle, pre-loaded with tons of current music. He was in heaven.

Back at the boys' place, it was time for the family tradition of "open one gift on Christmas Eve," and the Boyo and I both were given giant, fluffy robes. I'd squealed a little bit over the Boyo's robe when I was helping wrap gifts earlier, and so the boys went shopping when I was out, to find me one too. Now I have MY OWN towel set and MY OWN robe, when I visit their place. Now, I'm in heaven.

Skipping slightly out of order on the timeline, earlier Christmas Eve day I ran back to my house to do laundry, last minute shopping, and all my gift wrapping before Christmas day. Some of the gifts I'd been collecting were at my house, so I *had* to retrieve those, too, before planning out our Christmas day travels. I think I'd mentioned sharing Solstice with my roomies earlier in the week, and I have to admit, the house looks fantastic, because of all the prep they did for their Solstice celebration. I was also able to fill one of the glass doors to my room with all my holiday cards: One of my favorite traditions is still to hang up all the cards and photos received throughout December. I think I like this even more than any other decorating tradition.

Christmas Day - Putting time back into the proper linear fashion, Christmas morning dawned with the boys and with stockings ridiculously over-flowing with Candy. I think we must have been thinking "Halloween Chocolates!" when we were shopping this year. I have *WAY* more chocolate right now, at work, than I did at Halloween this year. I've started rationing the candies for myself: I can have X-number of candies per day, and then I place a large strip of clear packing tape over my chocolate drawer. If I reach for candy aimlessly later in the day, I cannot open the drawer and it reminds me I've already had plenty today, thank you very much. Now, what to do with the 8 tangerines, 1 orange, 2 apples, and 1 plantain also at my desk [also the spoils of Christmas]. I've only managed to eat one piece of Christmas fruit so far, and still have 12 pieces left. *le sigh*

Sister's House - After the Boyo clawed his way out from under and through the wrapped gifts from his Christmas morning (pics link), we cleaned up, snacked on bagels and lox (NOMZ!) and coffee and spiced cider, and headed to my sister's house for the family shindig. It was awesome to see all the siblings, cousins, spouses of siblings and cousins, kids, and assorted relatives. This year included probably the largest number of loud, wild, small children --> from baby I to toddler J to little cousins S and L and the cousins' boys C and A [those 4 are all 3rd grade or younger], the Boyo at 14, and the elder nieces 12th grade and college sophomore. And C and A's mom is expecting child #3... no telling whether there will be a "third Caesar" or the first girl (both C and A have Roman Caesars' names). Once all the siblings were finally there, we did our gift-card exchange. Oddly enough, I drew "last draw" from the cards, and my gift card was the last one yet unselected. That's fine with me: I'm happy to take the gift-card I purchased! :)

I also brought over my hair flower clips this year, as a "pick one out for yourself" gift to the adult women in the family. This year, I included the nieces in the "adults" category. My youngest niece suddenly decided that these might make the perfect gift for the little girls she babysits regularly, and suddenly family members were pulling out wallets to purchase additional hair clips as gifts for little girls. I wasn't expecting to *sell* my clips at Christmas, but now my stock is nearly depleted, and I made our gas-money out of the trip. Silly! [Plus a few friends back home just made several clip purchases, including one friend bought $50-worth of clips for herself. That was a wonderful treat for my shopping trips this year. Stunning.] I know that my January will be filling with several working nights, replenishing my stock. That's some good news, indeed.

Sweetie's Mom's place - We had a lovely potluck lunch in between all the gift giving and noisy children and chatty adults, then the boys and I were able to get on the road to his parents' place. We had just under a 3-hour drive north and east, so the boys commandeered the front seats to "game" together (a role-playing, verbal-only version of gaming they've developed over the years), and I relaxed in the backseat, listening to my iPod literature stories and embroidering until it was too dark to see. At Sweetie's Mom's place, her two best gal-friends were over for Christmas dinner, and we had a nice time with a Christmas ham, sweet potatoes, braised brussel sprouts, corn, and a double-row of christmas pies, cakes, and cookies. I had several hours to enjoy quietly weaving on my card-weaving project, and we finally retired to the living room with the gift exchange. Sweetie's step-dad is a professional potter, and we all received some gorgeous glazed porcelain from his wheel. I went home with another fantastic coffee mug, some very cute charms/ornaments, and some special curled glass hair ornaments that I believe they may have purchased from another merchant at the weekly Art Walk where they sell his wares. The stockings were over-stuffed with fresh fruit (see list above), and much fun was had by all.

Boxing Day at his parents' place included one of his younger brothers coming to town with his son, the 20-yr-old nephew. All the brothers and cousins had fun all day together, and I had many hours of pleasant weaving time (pics link).

Now it's that strange lull between Christmas and New Year's when the freeways are easy to navigate, the candy dishes still overflow, and the work office seems half-abandoned.

I never missed my dancing classes more than I do right now.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Joe: I think my blue coffee mug is currently one of my favorite gifts of the season.