Christmastime is here

Notes from McLean:

1. My mom has cooked dinner the last two nights; L said she never had my mom's cooking before. The food has been so simple and good. Between regular rounds on the treadmill and dinners at home, I'm not feeling as comatose as I usually do upon returning home.

2. In what is becoming a holiday a tradition, L is feeling sick with a cold -- she's been partially quarantined in the bedroom and is excused from all family/holiday outings, as needed. But she is trooper and is bucking up as we speak.

3. I got a couple of new cd's on my ipod before we came down: Keyshia Cole's "Just Like You" and The-Dream's "Love/Hate." These will propel me all the way from Virginia to Armenia. There are some awesome songs here, and it feels very current -- like, this is what R&B sounds like in the last quarter of 2007; you got it, you're not missing it. I can't wait to blast it in the apartment so my neighbors can love it too.

4. We saw "Juno" last night, with my sis, and it was just as good on second viewing. Also spotted at the movie theater: Senator Chuck Hagel! Score!

5. We spent Friday night with Trish, Matt, Patrick, Cynthia, and Kateri -- very fun, very boozy. It was so good to see people I love, who know me well and where I'm coming from -- sometimes in New York you forget how that feels or how much you need it.

6. Tonight we're having a really early dinner (lasagna), then church, then preparing for tomorrow -- wrapping gifts, hoping everybody likes theirs, looking forward to that great period of 25 minutes when everyone's sitting around in pj's opening presents and feeling generous to the world. It hasn't really felt like Christmas lately (the mid-50s weather doesn't help, but thanks, global warming) but I know tonight that it will. I like the mysterious and spooky elements of Christmas -- thinking about Christmas Eve, carols of the bells, "silent night"/"night of silence," all those things that make the nighttime still and laden with meaning. Star of wonder, the shepherds in their fields, Linus on stage with his blanket. Things like that.

Merry Christmas.