We flew through the ham on Christmas Day, and everyone talked about wanting to bake another one. We took one out of the freezer and set it out to thaw in the frig. This afternoon at 4 pm, I found out that I was baking it for dinner. Usually one expects more advanced notice on such things. And I wasn’t prepared for side dishes at all. I finally gave up and used things that were on hand. People were fed and happy, especially with Traci’s Crazy Mashed Potatoes.

Tomorrow we take my sister’s poodle for a trip to the groomer’s. No telling where else we’ll end up. I finally got out the notes for the book manuscript and did a little writing. Not much, but at least I remember where I left off last summer. Now if I only knew where I was going with it.

Women Narrow the Internet Gender Gap, Survey Finds, which, if history is anything to go by, means that men are about to move on to something else.

Life and Romance in 160 Characters or Less—of course brevity doesn’t always equal clarity.

Somehow I failed to record that I got a Cow Footrest for Christmas. There’s probably other stuff out there that I’ve forgotten. You’ll just have to forgive me till I get it all back to Illinois and unpacked.

Another Tuesday, another episode of Senior Citizen Discount Grocery Shopping. The main theme of this trip was purchasing food for the New Year’s Day meal. Our family traditionally has sausage and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes. Pork is believed to bring good luck. As a child and well into adulthood, I consider it poor luck, as it was accompanied with the sauerkraut gravy.

Most of the recipes that I can find online for sauerkraut and sausage use smoked sausage links or bratwurst. Mom’s recipe uses loose sausage, essentially breakfast sausage. It’s fried up. You make a white gravy with the fat, and dump in a huge container of sauerkraut.

One year when I was in college, I became wise. None of us ever liked this meal, though I actually don’t mind it now (but that’s another story). So I quizzed mom on what the element was that caused “good luck” and was able to argue that we could have pork chops for those who would rather die than eat sauerkraut. Thank you, analytical skills!

I don’t think that I’ve mentioned that I have my traditional visit to Virginia cold sores. Why do I get cold sores every Christmas here? Why? As if I don’t have enough problems, I have to go around with lip rot.

Everyone is happily coasting in post-holiday bliss here. I created Mini-Cheeseburger Puffs for dinner, to the delight and joy of all. Okay, maybe they weren’t that excited, but they ate a lot and no one was left hungry.

I’m sure that there’s something wrong with just listing your presents as an entry, but too bad. Here is an incomplete list of my haul.

• ToastStation Toaster Oven
• Hearthstone Stoneware
• Fiestaware White Pasta Bowl
• Rolling Herb Mincer
• Moleskine 2006 Daily Pocket Diary
• Bartelt Crumb Box
• Ginsu knife set
• The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable
• Virtual Cody
• The Story of Tracy Beaker
• Lady Cottington’s Fairy Album
• Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Letters
• Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book
• Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Deluxe
• Assorted candles
• Assorted Pampered Chef and generic kitchen things
• Yearly assortment of Hallmark ornaments

So you’re probably wondering why on some of those things. Some of the books are for my collection of children’s/young adult lit focusing on computer technologies. The Bartelt Crumb Box is something that I bought for my father many, many years ago, so that’s for sentimental reasons. The collected kitchen things are probably obvious.

I have a working webcam at home, but its base is broken. I have a mcgyver solution with a glued on screw as its base. It works okay, but it’s a pain to try to get it in the right place when I’m working on the computer. This new webcam is the kind that hooks onto the screen of the laptop. I had been looking for one like this for quite a while; so I’m happy with this new one. I’ll probably take the old one to work. I’m sure we can find some use for it in the office.

Every year, for many years, mom has been buying us each an assortment of Hallmark ornaments. I have a growing boxful of them in Illinois. The excellent thing about this tradition is that all of us in the family can have beautifully decorated trees, as they’ve accumulated over the years.

After all the presents, there was ham. I think we flew through that ham in record speed. We don’t have a sit-down dinner in Christmas in my family. Instead, there are piles of snacks and goodies around. People eat what they want when then want. There are cookies, dobish torte, petit fours, brownies, cheese ball, Swiss Colony Beef Log (baby, that’s what Christmas is all about), bread, crackers, deviled eggs (blech), and who knows what else. No one goes hungry. It was my job to cook the ham, which was surprisingly easy. Much less work than that evil Thanksgiving turkey breast was.

Now that all the gift giving and eating is winding down, I think everyone is ready to collapse into bed. It seems we’re always up into the wee hours every night before Christmas. So by Christmas day, we’re all ready to take very long naps.

Today is the day of much wrapping. Even though most stuff goes into gift bags, there’s still wrapping of things that are too big for bags and wrapping of things so that they are not obvious when you look into bags.

I have perfected the sandwich shop wrapping technique. I roll all presents in tissue paper as if they were submarine sandwiches and I were a worker at Subway. Occasionally, I secure them with shipping tape to annoy the recipient. One of the most important joys in life is making a recipient struggle with a package. The other important joy is giving your niece and nephew presents that are embarassing. There may be other joys, but they are absent at the moment.

I haven’t actually finished wrapping presents, and I’m not sure when I will. Not tonight, I suspect, but people aren’t coming over till 3 or 4.

Hauled off to Roanoke with mom, for the poodle clipping, around noon. Her appointment at PetSmart was at 1. Picked up my brother and went to lunch together. Whirlwind shopping fun: Sam’s, Books-a-Million, PetSmart (we needed some doggy and kitty Christmas presents). Picked up the perfectly groomed and pedicured Miss Daisi. Dropped my brother off at his house, and came back home to drop off the dog. Then it was out to Texas Roadhouse, for my mother’s birthday dinner (her birthday was Monday).

I set up a wrapping station in the living room, so that mom can work on the presents that she needs to wrap up. We all began that process this evening, but the bulk of it will be tomorrow.

Oops. Almost forgot. Saw this bumper sticker today :)

I am so very afraid.

From the e-mail ad I received:
“The Doughboy® has a dance for you! It’s no surprise that a guy dressed in
white can hustle… but did you know he can do the Robot and Running Man, too?”