Holding Pattern

At the moment, we are in a holding pattern on the activities for tomorrow.

I have invited the best buddies and their crew up for a turkey dinner and a visit tomorrow night. I thought it was going to be about a 5 hour visit but it sounds like one will stay till the New Year. I'm okay with entertaining for a set amount of time because I know there is an end time. This is too wide open for me.

Good news is that it is not me that is the hold up. One of the best buds has a sicky on her hands and we're waiting to see if it would be better to stay home than spread the germs. I'm all with NOT spreading the germs but it could be my 'holiday anxiety' talking so we are waiting on her decision.

New Year's (oh, I forgot about the Polar Bear swims - I have often thought I would like to do this and then remember I don't like being cold) is not my favourite holiday and is probably the second to last with Valentine's Day being my worst holiday. It's not the sentiment of VD although I think the card, candy and jewelry people are making hay but February is a tough month and VD is smack dab in the middle and I'm usually smack dab in the middle of the Feb. blues - bah! It's probably a weird admission for a lover of romance books but then, I never had a secret admirer or received those candygrams in school. I wonder what bah humbug would be for those of us not thrilled with Valentine's Day?

Aside: Go read what Valentine's Day is like in Japan! Women *must* buy for their male co-workers!? Marketing teams have run amok! There is a compliment day called White Day where the men are supposed to buy white chocolate but have decided it really means lingerie. Only men can do that ;)

So New Year's is just weird. We had a blast as kids because we got to stay up and we were with our family's best friends so it was noisy and fun. Not having kids and having us all grow up it is much more quiet and well, anti-climatic. I enjoy January and I like getting the tree down and stuff so you would think NY would work but I'm not that person anymore. Now I prefer just staying in and watching a movie with Bob or treating the day like any other - which I think we are doing with having our friends down on a Saturday night for dinner. We'll see.

I'm going to work on my favourite books for the year, although I think I may have listed most of them already. I have done no reading over the holidays because I didn't want to get sucked into a book and then resent those around me. If the friends don't come I think I'll pull the latest Kleypas from the pile and get cozy with my new cotton blanket I got for Christmas from Bob. I need a kick start and I'm not sure where to turn for a good read. I was going to pull a Stuart but I need those when I am in dire straights. Right now, I'm just running on time constraints.

I believe Kristie and Renee have some great books in their sidebars under the coming soon section. It's a good thing others are looking ahead and posting the covers or I wouldn't know what was going on. I need to get to AAR and do some research on what's coming up and what I may have missed this year. I received some Chapters gift certificates but I don't want to go until everybody is back to normal. That way I can peruse at my leisure.

Off to play for a bit. Anyone watch Primetime and the story (which ends tragically so beware) of the female Pope Joan? I'm not sure she really existed but there are some really interesting arguments that she did. I liked the historical references to women in religion before the Church took over. I get 'smoke out of my ears' mad when I think of what certain men in powerful positions did to the image of women. I think there may be *finally* a renaissance of women in religion. It's about time!