I was much more productive today than I usually am on vacation; I was out of bed by ten (shocker), and I finally unpacked my gigantic suitcase and hung up my clothes (worthwhile, since I'm here through New Year's Day). I was going to wear my snazzy maxstudio sweater/dress and leggings, but I knew that I had to go into town to finish some shopping, and I ultimately decided that the townsfolk probably couldn't handle the outfit that my brother dubbed "hobbit-western". So, I wore a more normal (at least for me) outfit, although I can't look entirely normal with my plum-colored down-filled bomber jacket and my hot pink Kipling bag.
I went into town for an hour and a half, reminding myself once again of how depressing the town looks in winter, how decrepit many of the buildings are (I parked on the side of the square for a few minutes waiting for the window at the post office to open after the worker's lunch break and realized that I was staring at a building with a bunch of windows knocked out and some badly faded drapes fluttering in the breeze), how little there is to buy, etc. It wasn't *that* depressing, since I knew what to expect, and it's not like it's gotten worse in the past few months -- but it still makes me sad that these little towns are dying out...
That's a story for another time, though; I'm in too good a mood about the upcoming Christmas festivities to dwell on my past and the future of my homeland. Despite the extreme dearth of goods sold in town, I still managed to find the last couple of things on my to-do list, and then I came home and wrapped presents. And wrapped...and wrapped...and between yesterday and today, I think I've wrapped something on the order of 32 presents. There are still a few things coming in through UPS tomorrow, but I'm tantalizingly close to done with wrapping, which is fantastic. This got me out of baking cookies, but since it took me so long, I spent some quality time wrapping at the kitchen table while Mom made three different kinds of cookies, so we still got to catch up. Then, my father and brother returned from their meeting in Des Moines, and my mom made tenderloins for supper (delish!) We debated trying to finish the game of Rail Baron that we started the other day, but given that we still have at least three hours of game play left, we put it off for another night. My parents pretty promptly fell asleep, and I watched a couple of hours of tv, put four strands of tinsel in my hair (difficult), and caught up on the latest gossip.
Even though it's earlier than when I usually go to bed at home, I should probably go to sleep; staying on California time while I'm on vacation is super easy, but it makes Christmas morning (when we of course have to get up before dawn to exchange packages that could have just as easily been exchanged at the more civilized hour of two p.m.) pretty painful if I fail to adjust before then. Goodnight!
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