Hullo, loves, I'm back!

My "holiday" started Wednesday evening and ended last night. It included two Thanksgiving dinners at two mothers' houses, with two gatherings of relatives, plus one Hannukah celebration. Yow, I'm beat. I had four glasses of sherry whilst stirring the gravy this year, and that was about three glasses too many. But it was really, really good gravy. Let's hear it for one-armed cookery.

Still to come: latkes all this week along with the Menorah and our own Hannukah celebration on Wednesday. Then we can focus on Christmas, which I try to make a really lovely time for us. Living so close to my mom, I've never yet had my own Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, so when my daughter was born I declared December 23 our very own family Christmas Eve, and hold it sacrosanct: Christmas carols on the CD player, a yummy dinner, and every candle in the house lit. Don't laugh at me when I say this, but I have a weakness for Christmas music. And candles. And holiday food. So, it will be good.

Work, on the other hand, will suck this month -- our graduate application deadline is December 15. Valar help me. And that's just the warm-up for the whole admissions process that goes through April. If I'm a bit quieter here for awhile, you now know why.

I've missed you all, and have caught up as best I can. I noticed linaelyn and anneheart really held down the holiday fort here! And daisy_gamgee, where are you? I really miss you!

*SMOOCH*