Thursday, 5pm

- Eastin: Eastin is playing on the Wii. Some air hockey game, I believe. Am I kidding myself to think that playing the Wii is better than watching the Disney Channel or surfing the web? We just recently set down new limits on the girls' TV and computer time, but didn't limit the Wii time -- and they've been playing out the wazoo. Hmmm.

- Leslie: Leslie is practicing piano. This is the last of her schoolwork for the day. She doesn't normally do school until 5, but she's essentially getting off school entirely tomorrow. She has P.E. in the afternoon, and a woman called to ask if Leslie could babysit her son in the morning. I couldn't say no. But I did say her schoolwork had to be done ahead of time.

- Keith: Keith is still at work. He's usually home 6 or 6:30-ish. He's having a rough week; he has to go through this public speaking training that is making him crazy--mainly, I think, because it keeps him from getting any other work done.

- Tagger: Lying in his chair. Licking himself, at the moment. He got kicked out of his chair while family was here Thanksgiving weekend and he was a sight. Wandered around the house like a lost soul. Not until Sunday afternoon did he seem to accept the idea of lying on his cushion where we put it on the floor. We debated leaving it there, seeing if he would just give up the chair altogether. But poor dog, he's an old coot, you know. Those old bones have to feel more comfortable in a soft easy chair. We're suckers.

- The House: The house is almost all decorated for Christmas. Just the manger scenes and the tree left to do. Last night, I got out the box of all the little felt elves my mother made one year. I've had them for a long time and never put them out, because I wasn't sure what exactly to do with them. But I found a spot: they are hugging the metal posts going up our curving staircase. I think they look adorable. Nobody in the family has even commented on them yet. We'll see how long it takes before they notice them.....

- The Kitchen: The kitchen is smelling like caramel corn -- just pulled another batch out of the oven. Leslie and I made a list yesterday of all the people we will want to give a bag to this year. The total was over 40 bags. I need to find a wholesaler for brown sugar. Tomorrow, someone's supposed to be coming to fix the dishwasher that quit washing the dishes on the top rack. They'll be here sometime between 1 and 5. Wish I could live my life on that kind of schedule. Actually, wait -- I kinda do already.

- The Yard: Outside is white. Light snow flurries have been falling all day. Nothing like snow on the ground to make it feel like Christmastime! And the white lights Keith spent hours winding around all the evergreen trees on our property will look great reflecting off of the snow. But I already lost one of the two big red bows I put out front. Less than 24 hours, it took. That's what we get for living on a windy hill. (But then, we didn't have to rake any leaves.)

- Me: I'm blogging. Duh. On my new laptop. We got another one because the first family laptop (now the girls' laptop) is being held together by duct tape. They don't get to touch this one. All mine.

So, I just spent the last 5 minutes re-reading this post and trying to come up with a clever way to wrap it up. And I've decided that was a waste of my time. For heaven's sake, it's a boring post. It deserves a boring closing. So, there you go. I'm done. Create your own wisdom from all this.