Holiday preparations continue apace. I've stamped thirty cards and posted them. (If you'd like to exchange Christmas cards, email me.) We've settled on which New Year's Eve party we're going to attend. I've agreed to host a Boxing Day open house and started planning the food. We'll get a tree this weekend, and put up at least the lights and the tinsel; the ornaments never get done the same day. All the online gifts I ordered have arrived, and are in the process of being wrapped for shipment this weekend. John's ordered the various fruits, cheeses, and Dobosh torts that our close personal friends at Swiss Colony and Harry and David send to his family every year. We bought something for our new niece. I've got Mary Lou, Dad, my bosses, and my co-workers totally taken care of. I can't decide what to get John or Denise, but it's not for lack of ideas. Everything's coming along nicely. I'm in a good mood all the time.
I find staying away from malls helps promote such peace of mind. However, I am going to brave the hordes at Stanford Mall this weekend to meet Denise after work. She's been putting in long hours over there as a portrait photographer, and we haven't had a chance to get together lately. Saturday evening we'll have some dinner, and mooch around the mall looking at the decorations and trying on jewelry. There will be much shrieking and laughing. It's our modus operandi.
Work has started to slow down. I'm still fairly busy, but the calls will continue to taper off until January. I'm still fielding inquiries about Millennium celebrations, but unless the callers are prepared to drop a bundle they aren't going anywhere warm with a beach. I've done a lot of gentle education on seasonal availability, the variables of airline schedules, and the immutable limitations of small islands. I've also suggested places like New Orleans and New York, where you can still get some kind of deal. I get a lot of shocked silences, and whining.
I'm very pleased my boss has approved my request for vacation days next year. I am definitely going to spend a long weekend in Palm Desert in January, in Seattle in March, and in Portland in August and November. I've been traveling on Alaska Airlines by choice, United being the 900-pound gorilla of the Bay Area, and I finally signed up for frequent flyer miles today since I've got those four trips coming up. I have a remaining six days earmarked for May which will take in Memorial Day Weekend, but it remains to be seen whether John and I will be going to Italy, or whether I'll be going alone to the U.K. for PloktaCon. If we buy a house it'll be the latter since going to the con will be quite cheap compared to swanning about Tuscany. Either alternative will be a great vacation. Lord, it's a fine thing to be a travel agent.
Time to get going. I feel a holiday diorama coming on. It's going to involve troll dolls, plastic dinosaurs, ceramic animals, and a lot of broken up Triscuits which make excellent small scale hay. Ho ho ho!
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