And Merry Christmas Everyone!

We leave for the UK in a little over an hour. Everything’s wrapped and packed, and I am sitting here with the traditional glass of wine, waiting for the car that will take us to the airport.

Speaking of tradition, we started a new one this year–the pre-Xmas family Christmas, which we celebrated yesterday. We exchanged all our tree gifts, some of which, like Chelsea Chinchilla’s new mansion, were too big to transport. Others, like Becky’s new incredibly light MacBook air, and my Coach handbag, will be coming with us en voyage.

(I’ve never had a handbag people were as likely to steal for the bag as for the contents before! I’ll let you know how I make out!)

Then I cooked a full Christmas dinner for 8, because we had invited our friends and neighbors over for some early Christmas cheer. Of course, I’m not used to cooking for 8 so I set fire to the oven and nearly burned the house down. I should probably stick to words–I’m good with any number of them!

I didn’t send Christmas cards or do a Round Robin letter this year–I think Facebook and other forms of social media are gradually making them obsolete. We definitely received way fewer ourselves too. Anyway, I figured this blog entry could be a sort of general Christmas card to anyone who’s interested enough to read it!

So, the itinerary is Manchester–Barnsley–Whitchurch-on-Thames–Little Haywood–Barnsley–Manchester–Phila.–LA (for Quincy’s wedding)–Home. If you’re in any of those places I will be hoping to catch up with you in person. If you’re elsewhere then have a wonderful Holiday/Merry Christmas and I hope 2014 brings you everything you could possibly wish for!