Christmas is over, thank goodness.

It was good. It was nice. But there was a lot of traveling involved, and we're all quite tired. I wish we could just be and relax for a while longer, but Rice goes up north again tomorrow for work.

We received some lovely presents this year. I think one of the most touching gifts was the small, personal teapot my FIL gave me. In the past, my MIL in always taken care of the gifts -- buying them, wrapping them, etc. But he bought the pot and wrapped it up and made out the gift tag.

Earlier in the week, Rice and I lost the kids and went and saw Narnia, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I have a few nitpicks with the movie, but that's all they are. In my mind, it was just about perfect, which was quite a relief. I was afraid of what had been done to it so it would purely be a money machine.

We've been doing some post-Christmas cleaning. That's so much fun. And we're not done yet. Gah. We have a bunch of stuff in Rice's trunk that's headed for the local thrift store.

Today we went and visted one of Rice's clients who, up until the last couple months, homeschooled her son. We discussed philosophies, issues we have with the current educational system, practices, opportunities, resources, etc. She's an interesting lady anyway. She's an astrologer (the kind that has it down to a, well, science ... people from all over call her for consultations), a yogini, a fabulous artist, among other things. In ten minutes she had Avadore pretty well figured out and told me all sorts of things about him that took me a while to figure out. (I shake my head.) I wish it had taken me ten minutes to have him essentially figured out. She also told me what it meant for me (and Avadore and her) to be Aquarians. That was also interesting. Except for a few things, she had me just pretty much about right. At least now I can tell Rice I'm anti-social because I'm an Aquarian :D.

Tonight? We decided to stay in and have a quiet New Year's Eve. I brined a turkey yesterday (salt, water, peppercorns, minced garlic, maple syrup, orange slices) and am currently roasting it -- pepper, salt, thyme, poultry seasoning, sage -- and will pour a Coke/maple syrup mixture over the bird after it's roasted for a bit. A halved orange is currently in the body cavety of the bird. We'll have mashed potatoes and gravy and carrots and cranberries and gingerbread, which I still need to bake. Rice and I will watch Amelie after the kids are in bed.

It's nice to be in my own home and do what I want.

Goals for the New Year:

Love a lot, laugh a lot, play a lot, live a lot. Read some wonderful books, write some good stories. PICK UP THE GUITAR AGAIN! (It's hard playing musical instruments when one has young children.) I've worked out a writing plan I'd been following until the holidays and it works well -- I'll stick with that and see how it goes. Study some Latin. Be a better mother and wife. Be a better person. Eat more Indian food. Be more grateful. Find more joy in the simple things.

2005 was a good year. We had LD. My brother got married. I became closer to my in-laws. I made some new friends. I read some great books, e.g. (Passge by Connie Willis and by Audry Neffenegger. Both are excellent books. Jeez -- I discovered Connie Willis in the first place. And Jeff Vandermeer. And China Mieville. I my first pro story, in terms of HWA. I wrote a novel and nine short stories, and rewrote and reworked several others. I learned a lot, and it was all good.

Here's to another good year. And here's to a better year, hopefully with less pain and sadness in the world. But I'm afraid, in this country, we have at least another three coming to us. :(