Welllllll, the floor stain job didn’t come out the way we thought so we ended up putting on another coat.  Funny, when we were first talking about stain, I wanted to go with something darker; and now, here we are.  I think it looks sexy.  It’s hard for me to keep positive when someone else  gets upset about it not going to plan.  But, maybe that was the plan, and we just don’t know what the plan is.  God knows that’s been proven time and time again!

And now it’s off to Madison because my sister is on her way from the Zoo(what I call Kalamazoo, MI) and I want to spend Christmas Eve Day bopping around in the holiday spirit and awaiting her arrival.  Mom and Dennis are going to a holiday open house, “evidently not THAT open cos we’re not invited”, she says and we laugh.  So it will be just the two of us and I’m looking forward to some sister time.  With no one else around.  A rarity.

I feel bad leaving Malcolm behind (does going somewhere without someone really have to be called, “leaving behind?”  He’s not a mitten I’ve forgotten in my school locker for the weekend for goodness sake.  We’re having Christmas apart as people who are no longer in a relationship do.  It’s what’s appropriate.  I remember the day my mom texted me to ask if Malcolm was coming, ‘assuming you’re still together’.  At this point, I don’t know why anyone would assume it.  My sister says it’s basically a flip of the coin.  I’m glad she can laugh about it.  God knows she deserves that after all she’s heard me complain about it, and I hope I can too one day.

I am so in the spirit today.  The weather is quite mild, what those in Wisconsin would call mild, and I’m on my own going wherever I please for as long as I please.  The shops all have generous sampling of yum food and wines, everything is decorated and lit up, most people are in an extra good mood….I really groove on it.  I love special things.  I buy lots for the party and a vegan pumpkin pie and coconut whip to take to my aunt’s for Christmas Day.  It feels like a movie.

Later, Sara and I take turns googling restaurants that may be open and candlelight Christmas Eve services.  We’d love to go to Peace Lutheran’s like we always did when we were younger and lived around here, but decide that the drive to Sun Prairie is too long (it’s probably only 20 minutes) and the service to late (it’s at 11) and sometimes trying to travel back in time doesn’t work quite as good as you think it will (this, seems the only valid point and so I give in and go back to googling).  We  end up at a Laotian place in the Atwood neighborhood and have wine and curry.

With some time to kill before the service, we browse through Walgreen’s Christmas clearance shelves – it’s like the only thing open, and even here, we have fun.  My nephew Gavin says that we regress to our 8-year old selves when we get together.  As we get older,  I think that age gets older, but still….we can so easily go back to laughing easily together.