Man, I've been quiet this December. I assume it's mostly because I've been kind of grumpy for most of the month, for various reasons, both personal and financial. The financial bit I can talk about: my car had to be towed four times since the middle of November and ultimately wound up costing close to $2000 in fees and repairs. That'll take the wind right out of your holiday sails. It was a real drag because I then had to scramble to have enough money to provide a decent holiday, which meant working more hours, doing more commissions, etc., etc. I was going through the motions, but it never really felt like Christmas.

So there, that's the negative stuff out of the way, now on to the positive, starting two weeks before:

• Paul and I baked our brains out this year. Apologies to my far-flung friends, but I just don't do Christmas cards. Hate 'em. Instead, I bake -- and anybody within close driving distance gets a plate of cookies. This year we made a triple-batch of homemade pretzels, and they were *awesome*; a new trick I learned this year is to use half cake yeast, and half dry yeast. Paul continues to be the better pretzel-bender; mine always look like cavemen beat them into shape with clubs. I also made Altoids-dark-chocolate-chocolate-chip brownies (mmm) Oatmeal-Raisin cookies using Paul's mom's home-dried concord-grape-raisins, which are the best. things. ever, and ginger cookies with crystallized and fresh ginger.
• I was on the radio! How awesome is that? I know it's super-nerdy, but that was seriously a lifelong dream for me. And they even made me sound smart and stuff!
• Matt and Tish came to visit. YAY! That was a lot of fun, and it was really great to see them both. We had dinner down at The Corner Bar, our favorite greasy spoon, and promised them the best ribs in town. All week we talked up the ribs. They fall off the bone! They marinate them overnight in pineapple juice and a secret mix of other nefarious herbs and spices! They are brought to your table by barbecue fairies! And the waitress shows up and says they have no ribs left. BOO! Still, it was a great time. We went and saw the huge saltwater aquarium below the Starship Radisson, and watched the bright yellow tangs zip past the blennies and teeny tiny baby starfishes.
• We had a great time at Paul's sister's house the weekend before Christmas -- it was great to hang out with them and their kids. We did a name-draw gift exchange, and Paul's sister got me the loveliest Pewabic-style tile to hang in our bathroom. Love it, love it. All of Paul's family are great cooks, and we had a huge spread and ate ourselves stupid and watched the new Hairspray musical, which was actually quite a hoot, for Christopher Walken's role alone, if none other.
• Christmas Eve with Paul's folks was also nice; we had a lovely dinner and then went to a candlelight Christmas Eve service at their church. It felt really nice, and was exactly what I needed that night.
• Christmas Day with my family also went really well. It was very small and intimate, and frankly, after all the running around, was exactly what I needed. Gifts were exchanged, and my mom's dinner was spectacular. My mom's an outstanding cook to begin with, but this year she even outdid herself. For my part, I made crusty bread and shell-fried prawns as big as your palm, and we had the best shrimp cocktail ever. Fortunately for us, we got sent home with six tupperware containers full of leftovers. We got three full dinners out of them, and every single meal was better than the last. God, I love holiday leftovers.
• Driving home Christmas Night we stopped over at the Flintofts to visit Cousin Joan and her family and had a really great time just talking and getting to know them all better. We used to hang out all the time as kids (I think we spent every single new year's eve over there for about ten years) but since all us kids went away to our respective colleges and cities, we've hardly seen one another. It's really great to get together after an absence of ten years and find out that your family is even cooler than you remember them.
• The day after Christmas, Paul and I finally had enough time to sit down, build a nice little fire, and exchange gifts. We shared a bottle of icewine that I'd bought during my trip to Stratford in October. It was nice -- really nice -- but I think for the money involved, I'll stick to port.
• Somewhere in between there, I got a full Saturday and Sunday to myself. I pulled up the drawbridge, hid in my studio, and listened to Radiolab and This American Life podcasts and drew. And holy sweet crap did I need that. I feel so very much better now. My goal was to have the first draft of the Seekrit Project's script done by the end of the year. Not only did I get that done two weeks ahead of schedule, but I also got the website designed and about 90% populated. Woo! I should be able to make the formal announcement in a month or two, but I want to get a backlog of about twenty pages done before I launch. Then I'll start running it as a webcomic. And then it won't be a seekrit anymore.
• We didn't have anything planned for New Year's Eve, and were pleased when our favorite Parisian ex-pat invited us over for raclette, which is a kind of fondue where you grill cheese a little at a time (as opposed to a big pot all at once) and then spread the gooey bubbling cheese on stuff and eat it. It. Was. So. Good. Nelly had this cute little raclette grill, and we spread our cheese on delicious boiled Yukon Gold potatoes and I baked an extra-large loaf of no-knead bread, and on the side we had cornichon pickles and sweet pickles and marinated olives and prosciutto and this other kind of delicious salty German-style ham and we literally ate until we couldn't stand up. And Paul and I split an entire bottle of white wine, something that almost never happens. Then we had a beautiful salad as a digestif, and then we ate a rhubarb crisp I made, paired with extra-strong chicory coffee. Nggagghglll. I'm already trolling ebay for raclette grills.

So yeah, a very good, very fun holiday season. And looking back, far more good than bad. On to the new year! May your new year be happy and healthy and full of everything you need, and also some of the things you want.