What I would have missed if I’d gone into labor today:

• (Leftover from last night) Getting tucked into bed by my daughter (yes I went to bed before she did) and hearing her sing “Shepherd, Shepherd, Where Are You Going?” while brushing her teeth.

• Seeing her reprise that song and others during her preschool Christmas program.

• The 11 hours of sleep I got last night.

• The chance to buy stocking stuff for R, C, and Mamala at the Rite-Aid. Drug store shopping is one of the most fun and relaxing activities there is. No joke. I love the tiny shopping carts, the bland music, the cheap random stuff crammed into a very small space.

• The appreciation I feel for my mother and the quiet way she does the laundry and dishes, tends to C, etc. I pulled up this afternoon and she’d brought the recycling bins from the curb and stacked them by the garage. This may seem like a small thing, but it was huge to me, because it’s one of those things we forget to do, sometimes for a couple of days. (Yes, they’re going to kick us out of the suburbs sooner or later for our lax attitude.)

• Our staff Christmas party with its truly stupendous potluck. We made king ranch chicken, which is so good and has no redeeming nutritional value. We hadn’t planned to stay for the white elephant exchange, but it turned out to be fun—almost half of the gifts were stuffed animals that wiggled and played music. We put them all on the floor at once and it was quite terrific.

That’s all for now.