Friday and Saturday were snowy (duh); Sunday dawned fine. In fact, the weather was beautiful on Sunday, and all the roads were filled with christmas trees. At the intersection of routes 100 and 113, three black minivans rolled by in line, each with a green tree lashed to the top.

Kate and I spent the day christmas shopping and comparing gifting styles, working out the stylistic compromise that will eventually become engraved in stone in our kids memories as THE ONLY RIGHT WAY TO DO THINGS and that will have to be carefully negotiated with their spouse(s), assuming they celebrate Christmas and not Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Robonikah.

I made one of those things where you stick a million whole cloves into an orange, and make a little fruit Death Star; it smells good, and the pain in the tips of your fingers makes you feel like you’ve Done Your Bit for the holidays. Kate’s knitting another baby sweater, and we bought a laser pointer for the cat. I swear, I’ve never had this much power over the cat’s attention before — it’s like having a cat remote control. I hope that he’s enjoying himself tearing up and down the hallway after the little red dot. It’s either that, or he’s frantic that he’s going to lose his job over this unkillable little bug. I hope it’s the former.