Christmas is finally over!

So Christmas is over, it's almost 2012 and, because I always like to go over these things afterwards, I'm going to brag a little about the clever presents my fantastic family came up with for me. First and foremost: the crepe maker! It's a CucinaPro, it says on the box, and nonstick and easy to clean, and it works like such a dream I'm sure it's going to malfunction next time I use it. I made my family breakfast this morning - crepes - and despite the kiwis being so tart my mouth is watering reminiscently, they were a big success. I love crepes. I love French food.

Next, my beautiful new red beret, which I love to pieces, and which I have been wearing pretty much all the time since Christmas day. It is like this:

Only better.

Those are the outstanding things. There were earrings, shoes, books, movies, which I am so lucky to have ("The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob", a French movie, has been impossibly to find - until now!! Hallelujah!), but I'm pretty sure that I'm going to get the most mileage out of my beautiful beret and that ingenious crepe maker.

Next stop, lunch!

Two days till Christmas...

...and not a hint of snow. I find it all incredibly frustrating. It's 46 degrees outside here in central PA, which is normally absolutely frigid and icy this time of year - I'm told we're supposed to have snow this weekend, just in time for Christmas, but I refuse to believe it. If I do, it will turn out to be a hoax of some sort and we're going to get more rain. Rain! I ask you! If it was a proper winter it would have snowed last night instead of rained.

Weather forecast for tomorrow and Sunday: "Partly sunny. High 38. Chance of precipitation 10%." This is unspeakable!

Of course we've had Christmases without snow before - but they're gray and drab and very unpleasant.

On Wednesday - when it was raining - I managed to slip off my bicycle and fall spectacularly in the street, scraping my ankle to death, skinning my palms, and breaking my dignity to bits. And I tore a pair of my favorite socks to shreds, and somehow gave myself a concussion. On Wednesday night I became one of those ridiculous women in Victorian novels and fainted in the hallway.

There are few other things which could possibly happen to go wrong between now and Sunday. Well, besides my not being able to find any Christmas presents for anyone, because despite the time I've had to do it I have barely started.

Isn't this a muddle?

First blog

I'm starting a blog as an exercise in...um...ability to stay organized and on-task. And also because it's Saturday morning, I have nothing to do, and basically the entire country is just waiting for Christmas to arrive because not a thing else is happening this time of year. So, as an attempt to entertain myself until the holidays are over (when I'll probably forget this blog even exists), I'm writing brief, boring snippets about my quite dull life in quite dull central Pennsylvania.

Last night someone told me the local YMCA is building an ice skating rink - the Y is about half a mile away from my front door, and the next rink is about thirty miles away - and then, after I'd gotten really excited and started to plan my entire winter, she said, "But they're not renting skates."

Um, what? They're not renting skates? How many families do you know who own fitting skates for the whole family? And how are they going to make any money if no one is renting skates from them? A big group of my best friends is coming out for New Year's, and we always go ice-skating, and it would have been so great if we'd been able to take them to a rink not even a mile away, and yet we'll still have to drive the thirty miles because the Y's rink is so half-baked.

That's the biggest problem in my life at the moment, believe it or not. I did say my life is quite dull - it tends to be when you live in a dull place - and so the possibility of anyone actually reading this blog is quite slim. And I have terrible organizational skills and I never do things on time, so posts will be few and far between.

In January rehearsals are starting for Beauty and the Beast, so from the 4th to March 3rd I will have about five  minutes of spare time every day, which I probably won't be using for blogging. Watch as this blog sinks into the oblivion of the Internet which no one ever looks at.