Countdown to Christmas
3:44 p.m. - 2006-12-19


Moment in Peking is giving me the idea that Chinese people are strange fragile creatures who can, for example, die by tapping their head on the doorpost. Last night one of the female characters, who is supposed to marry the recently returned oldest son of the family, spies him showing way too much interest in one of the maids, and when she tries to slink away, she starts coughing. The noise draws the attention of the faithless guy and he runs after her, only to see her cough up tons of blood that pours down her face and chin, and she falls over. I was thinking, well, she fell over, did she have TB and is now dead? But no, the next scene shows her sitting up in bed eating soup and the father and mother report to concerned relatives that the doctor says she just has a cold. This is what happens when you have a cold in China???!

No Christmas cookies in this house yet, but Abby is starting to make preparations. She tested out her new mixer by making bread, so for dinner we had vegetable soup and bread, with a salad of warm, herbed cherry tomatoes.

I read in the paper today that one of the local churches needed donations for their 'Christmas For Everyone' drive so we put together a big bag of stuff and I took it over there. Then I went over to the Kmart and got some milk, and pondered the selection of storage bins. All of my cookbooks are back in their shelves, but they seem to have expanded during their vacation (as do we all), so I no longer have a free shelf for my art supplies. I am going to clean off the cluttered shelf over the computer and put some nice bins up there to house my stuff. Or so the plan goes.

Jellie is coming over tonight, so I am going to put her to work helping to put up the Christmas tree. We are a little late this year because of the late great construction, so it will be good to see a little Christmas in the house.