Merry Christmas!

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The Twelve Trees of Christmas

Orlando airport:

Pop Century Resort Food Courtt:

American Adventure, Disney World:

Disney's Animal Kingdom:

Disney Pop Century Resort Lobby:

Disney's Floridian Resort:

Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom:

Epcot:

The Christmas tree at our Christmas lunch (at "The Bulldog"):

The tree on my desk in my office:

Tree on top of Jeff's computer at the office:

Our tree at home:

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Covered in cats

Last night's activity--after getting home, heating up a can of soup for dinner, then going to Target and the grocery store with Bob--was wrapping soap. I had picked up some large sheets of scrapbooking paper at the craft store over the weekend with the idea of cutting strips to wrap around the soap bars, then sealing them with a Christmas seal, and that part worked fine. I was less sure of how to label them, and ended up just writing the name on the paper strip with a Sharpie. They're not terribly attractive, but I just ran out of time. I had thought about creating some kind of a cool looking label on the computer, but at this point, handwritten Sharpie labels are better than nothing, I guess.

It ended up being terribly time-consuming--I had to cut the strips to the right length and width, then wrap them around the soap and seal them, then label them, then wrap them in tissue and then bag them, and mark on the bag who they were for. A few got placed in tins lined with tissue paper. It was kind of fun, actually, until I cut my finger with the scissors and had to go find a band-aid. Then when I was finally finished and cleaning up the kitchen, I was loading the dishwasher and stabbed myself with a fondue fork. Not badly, just enough to say to myself, "Enough! Time to go to bed."

Tonight I need to wrap a few things for John and his family--Bob's going out to see him tomorrow--and hopefully get a start on wrapping everything else. The dining room is a complete disaster, with bags and boxes and wrapping paper and mail all over the table and floor. But one way or another, it will all get done by Saturday afternoon when we go over to Bob's folks' for Christmas Eve.

The table is covered with stuff; Bob is covered with cats.

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Quick one

We had our own little annual Christmas party tonight, Bob and I. He and his dad had gotten a Christmas tree for us on Saturday, and Bob put it up, and tonight we decorated it. I hung the stockings, and he built a fire, and we watched "White Christmas," ate boiled spiced shrimp and cheese fondue, and snuggled on the couch with the kitties. It was lovely.

Earlier in the evening, I had gone by the office to see Bob and Dinah taking a nap together:

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Tired

I am so tired tonight. It's 11:30. I spent the day out Christmas shopping, and the evening on my feet in the kitchen making soap, and I've got laundry in, and a cat (Dinah) on my lap, and I'd like to go to bed, but I'll probably be up another hour anyway until the laundry is done. What I should be doing is wrapping Christmas presents. Or addressing more Christmas cards . . .

I'm having fun, though. I made soap! I guess I bought all the supplies back in the summer sometime, and I just never got around to doing it. I was recently thinking that it was really dumb of me to spend all that money on the stuff, because obviously I was never going to actually use it, then for some reason I just went and drug it all out on Thursday night and plunged in, and had a great time. I made green tea soap and green tea/hemp massage bars, and honey-scented soap and chamomile bars. Then tonight I made oatmeal-spice soap and peppermint soap for my sister who loves mint, and lavender glycerine soap, but I don't really like it.

I bought a lot of different kinds of soap base to try, to see which kinds I like best. I like the translucent olive oil base, and I like the opaque cucumber- base, which is white. I made the peppermint soap with a goat's milk base, which was nice, too. I didn't really like the clear glycerine, but I think it was just because it ends up looking so sparkly and artificial. I like the handmade, rougher look of the soaps with "stuff" in them--oatmeal, lemongrass, spices and herbs.

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