Twelfth Day

Happy Epiphany! Sorry I've been AWOL. The holidays have that effect on me...

So. The big news around here is that Plain Jayne has released! In fact, it was found in Wal-Marts throughout the Eugene-Springfield area. I say "was," because (by all accounts) they've been kind of cleaned out. I haven't poked around much to see who else has it in stock yet, and I'm admittedly unmotivated because I have a box of copies taking up floor space in the study. Also, I'm kind of holding out for Borders, and they're not stocking for a couple weeks.

But it is out there, and now when people (inevitably) ask me when the book is out, I can (finally) say "Oh, it is out." Like that.

In other news...

-If you're in Eugene and near campus, there should be a bit of something or other about me in Thursday's Oregon Daily Emerald.

-Mark your calendar! Not only is February 14th Valentine's Day, it's also the day I'll be signing books at the Beaverton Powell's. Will get back to you on the time...I think it's 2-ish.

-If you received your CBD Catalog, disregard the bit about Jayne going to "Harrisburg, Oregon's Amish Community." Because Harrisburg is never mentioned in Plain Jayne. Because that's not where she goes. However, two Harrisburg residents (one former, one current) are listed in the acknowledgements, so maybe that's it...

Today is Epiphany, and I had this whole grand plan about making a special dinner or something. Never came up with specifics. I'm thinking of the Butternut Squash soup from Molly Wizenberg's "A Homemade Life" book. Or this recipe, which I'm made before and I think will be much improved by the addition of sour cream (I was underwhelmed last time). And cheese. And maybe a bit o' guacamole for garnish.

Anyway, this all depends on me having day where I'm not completely wiped, which hasn't happened yet this week. We had a BUSY weekend involving a LOT of driving, as well as the dismantling of our tree.

I don't know about you, but with the holidays ending, I'm ready for spring. Like, now.

Lastly, if you received a digital photo frame for Christmas, beware the alarm. I was home, minding my own business, when I started hearing (and not softly, mind you) the sounds of a rooster. Crowing. Yes, my frame was crowing at me, because at 2:43 in the afternoon it thought it was 9am, and therefore time, I guess, to crow.

Hoping to get moving today. We'll see how goes...

On the ______ day of Christmas

We decided around here that we're celebrating Christmas through epiphany. If you follow me on facebook or twitter, you probably already know that. But my thinking (for those of you just coming in on this conversation) is that if you're going to work quite hard, the payoff should last longer than two days.

Even better, some of the payoff days might be quiet, relaxed days.

So I'm trying to come up with activities to include during the twelve days, from December 24th to January 6th. I'm thinking on the 6th, I'll make a nice dinner. In between, no specific plans.

Here's a log thus far:

December 24th (Christmas Eve): Danny doesn't get off work until mid-afternoon, so I catch up on a couple last errands (but do not set foot in a grocery store) before returning home to do a tiny bit of last minute wrapping. Danny comes home, and after a short nap, we dress for the Christmas Eve service at church. This particular service featured children in a nativity pageant, a first for a First Baptist Christmas (at least, in my sentient memory). Afterwards we had dinner and exchanged gifts at my parents' home, and had a very nice, very pleasant evening.

December 25 (Christmas Day): Sloooooow start to the day, and I realize that while most of my wrapping is done for family members next weekend (Danny's family), none of the Christmas Day extended family wrapping has even been touched with a ten foot pole. Also, the kitchen is a tiny wreck (tiny, because the kitchen itself is tiny). Danny tackles the kitchen, I tackle the wrapping. We finally exit for the Big Christmas Extended Family Event, each in one of our new, cozy Christmas present sweaters (mine, a cute ruffled J. Crew merino sweater from Danny, his, a handsome Calvin Klein, dark emerald green merino sweater from me. Truly. This Christmas brought to us by sheep. Love it.) We greet, we eat, we enjoy the barrage of family. I receive a cupcake cake stand that gives me yet another reason to finally throw a cupcake party.

December 26 (Boxing Day/After Christmas Shopping Day): Considered doing some After Christmas Shopping, but when faced with the option of staying home for a cozy day with my husband...husband won out. I made Blueberry Buckwheat pancakes for breakfast, and Magic Chicken for dinner (a mango, coconut milk, tumeric, and chicken slow-cooker dish). We saw Sherlock Holmes later in the evening, and really enjoyed it.

December 27: Taught Sunday School in the morning, enjoyed a very nice nap afterwards, then went to my grandma's and played her piano while Danny studied. We both munched on tree-shaped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and watched Pushing Daisies episodes on DVD. We may finish Les Choristes afterwards; it's been a nice, relaxing day.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow - I need to finish Chapter 11 soon and get to work on Chapter 12. I also have yet to make Christmas sugar cookies, but may wait until we're in Lincoln City with my niece and nephew. I do need to take Danny's Christmas sweater from last year (as yet unfinished and ten-stitches off) to the Knit Shop to ask for assistance. I don't know where I went wrong, and am willing to pay cash for help! (Not to say that I couldn't figure it out, but it's a whole lot of brown wool stockinette with a whole lot of decreases, and for the sake of finishing the sweater, someone else needs to take a look before I go a little crazy).

Lots of things, but open to ideas - leave a comment if you've got a suggestion!

Resolved:

Granted, New Year's Eve was a few days ago. Today is Epiphany, the day the wise men showed up with gifts for the baby Jesus. We attended a White Elephant gift exchange (does anyone want a turtle-shaped flute? An inkjet cartridge refilling kit?) that discussed the advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas, not the song. I like the idea of Christmas lasting that long, although I'm ready for my tree to go away.

(Nothing against the tree. It's a great-looking tree. I've just been irrationally bitter about it since it arrived, damp and unshaken, at our tiny apartment.)

Today, however, I've scored the assitance of my lovely sister to help me with the take-down of the tree. Seems if she's given chocolate (preferably Dove) and if Gilmore Girls is playing on the background, she'll agree to any number of tasks.

But I was thinking around New Year's about resolutions. I'm not much for resolutions - I don't like to resolve to do things and then not do them in two months. One year I resolved to buy a pair of gray pants - that one was pretty cut and dried. This year, I've made two decisions.

1. When there are people on the side of the road holding advertising signs, dancing, waving, and possibly dressed as a gorilla, I'm going to wave back.

2. I resolve to limit the amount of time my clean laundry spends in my hallway.

The latter will be the tougher one. We have a washer and dryer conveniently located in our hallway closet. Clean clothes come out of the dryer and land on the floor if I'm not immediately prepared to deal with them. They may spend a lot of time afterwards on the floor. One pile in particular spent a great deal of time there before Christmas (granted, this is when I was sick), and when I folded everything up before a trip I was amazed. Who knew our hallway was so large?

So here's hoping the resolution helps.

It's going to be a busy next few months. The book is due at the end of April. I want to be finished at the end of March and spend April doing dry edits (dry edits are when I've printed up material and edit on real paper). To comfortably reach that (very neccessary) goal, I need to be putting out two chapters a week for a while. If I kept it up throughout this month and the next, I could conceivably be done by the end of February. The idea of not worrying anymore about the deadline has a certain appeal.

So here's hoping. On top of that, I have a mound of wedding photos to be edited, as well as a Heart Gallery shoot (and subsequent edits) coming up tomorrow afternoon. There's a lot to be done in the Lodge household.

Including folding laundry.