Baked goods, bads, and morally ambiguouses.

In about four hours, give or take, I will be getting up, showering, placing a Santa hat upon my head, and heading out to Logan Airport, so that sigerson and I can go back home for Christmas. So what am I doing awake right now? That's a good question, and I'm glad you asked. I am:

- Restructuring the novel. I think I've got the hang of it now. Really.

- Experiencing some quite lovely schadenfreude regarding a gift I gave some time back. ("Imagine that you are a lounge singer/crooner. Imagine that you have suddenly been struck deaf. Imagine that you bravely continue singing nevertheless.")

- Figuring out what muffins would be best for a New Year's breakfast. Especially considering I'll have to make quite a lot of them.

- Making a grocery list.

- Working till after 9, then coming home and attempting to stuff everything I'll need for the trip home into two small bags. Then staring at the wall a while. No link for this one; just my own bone-weariness paired with an inability to sleep just yet.

Best of the season to everyone. I'll try to post again while I'm home, but somehow I doubt I'll get all that much time on the computer.

thomascantor, I know there's a reason it's called Boxing Day when it's really St. Stephen's Day. And I don't think it's because he was martyred by boxing. Can you remind me sometime?

I am resolutely not thinking about what's waiting for me when I return to Watertown. Instead, I'm thinking about how great these last few days have been. This is family, so of course there are tense moments and misunderstandings, but it's also been like a balm for my weariness. I've almost fallen over laughing so many times since we got here, and knowing this family, it'll continue till I leave.

We're a bunch of weirdos. We sing "Deck Us All with Boston Charlie" and demand to know what's snoo with you. Ribbons are stuck on heads, strange egg concoctions are made and then stared at in bemusement, bad and good jokes alike leaven most conversations. (And to think I got called the weird one just because I made the chocolate snowmen talk.)

I love this family dearly. We'd go totally binkers if we had to all live in the same house again for more than a week, but I love them. Of all the gifts I've received this or any Christmas, the best one has been to grow up in this family, with these people, secure in the knowledge that we love each other and can count on each other.