December already

Yes, it's December in Ridgecrest. It's gotten much colder, into the 20s at night, the 60s during the day. It even rained once, lightly. The roses are still blooming, but the black widow spiders seem to have all died, due to the cold nights. But they've probably left bulging egg sacks hidden here and there around the perimeter of the house. There's a cheerful thought.

I spent November working on my NaNoWriMo novel, but now that is over and I am back among the living (as opposed to the fictional). I wrote 84,000 words and got to the end of my outline, but now I have to decide what to do with those 84,000 words. I enjoy editing, but is it worth it to edit these words, or should I just stick them in a (virtual) drawer somewhere?

I've been feeling pretty gloomy since November ended. I'm missing Boulder now. If I were in Boulder I'd be shopping for a gift for the Admin gift exchange, preparing a finger food for the Boulder Bird Club holiday party, making peppermint bark for the Open House at work, and studying up on birds for the Christmas Bird Count. But here in Ridgecrest I don't seem to have anything to do. That seems silly: it's the holidays, of course I should have a project. Let's think about that. What needs to be done for the holidays?

Cards: I got busy and designed our holiday cards last night, so they'll be arriving in a week or so and then I can work on writing and addressing them. I also wrote our xmas letter, though it could use a bit of tinkering.

Gifts: I ordered Rocket Boy a shirt yesterday. We don't usually give each other a lot of stuff. The babies are supposed to be getting a toy kitchen, but the one I wanted is out of stock. I'm on a mailing list to be notified when more come in. I should think of a couple more things for them, get those ordered. My family doesn't really exchange gifts anymore...

Cooking: Later in the month I plan to make some cookies, probably just sugar cookies. I don't think the boos are ready for Date Crunch, though we do have a lot of dates in the house. RB always likes it if I make some German cookies, especially Lebkuchen. I'll think about it. (I hate Lebkuchen!)

Decorating: The only place a Christmas tree will be safe from the boo bears is on top of the grand piano, so our plan is to put up half the tree. It's a fake tree, and the trunk goes together in sections, so we'll just put together half the sections. RB and I will work on that together. Maybe in a week or two. We probably won't do much other decorating. I hung the boos' stockings on the fireplace screen and they've already knocked it down once.

Charity: I need to sit down and make a list of who we'll give money to this year and how much. We're now getting Clifford's mail and he must have given to a lot of organizations, because the number of begging letters he receives is just unreal. Lots and lots of animal charities, which are of course heartbreaking, and then some odd ones, like one we got the other day for a rehab clinic for alcoholic priests.

Church: Normally we would be going to church for Advent, but I'm just really wary of Ridgecrest churches. I did pull out my Advent wreath and lit the first candle last Sunday. That might be all we do this year.

Hanukkah: We're going to Risa's Hanukkah party on December 12, that'll be fun. I would have gotten the boo bears a book about Hanukkah at the library today, but they only had about 4 books and they were all for much older kids. It's all right: boo bears don't understand anything about Christmas either. Next year, next year.

Music: I should start playing Christmas CDs so the boos can learn the songs. We should put the new cartridge in my turntable so I can play my old records too. And finally we should clean the cat vomit out of the piano so I can play some songs.

I'm not feeling inspired.