The day's top ten events

That title makes it sound as though the day was eventful, doesn't it. I suggest you take your expectations down a notch or two. It was actually a pretty calm day. These are in no particular order, by the way.

1. I tried to do something with the masses, other than leave them home to go and do frantic Christmas shopping, that is. So we all liked in the van to go see the current art exhibit up at Fine Line. I guess I should pay closer attention to dates because all we saw were people finishing up taking down the exhibit. 

2. I did a load of laundry and my laundry is currently caught up. 

3. I woke up a couple of hours before my alarm this morning because I had dreamed that the forest preserve behind our house was on fire and our barn caught fire as well. In my dream we had just barely time to get the horses out, which is when I woke up. I briefly tried to go back to sleep, but ended up needing to go downstairs and look out of the back door to be sure the barn wasn't blazing. None of it was restful.

4. I drove K. to work.

5. Between the order I placed this morning and the store I went to, I am getting close(r) to having the Christmas shopping done. Not bad considering I hadn't yet begun this time last week. Never have I left it for so long. And just to remind everyone, if you count spouses and significant others, I am shopping for fifteen people not including J. and my mother. I try not to think about it in those terms as it is fairly overwhelming.

6. It was G.'s turn to cook tonight and Julia Child's French onion soup was the chosen meal. G. did a magnificent job and Julia would've been proud. If you've never made Julia Child's version, I highly recommend checking out a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and trying it yourself. Even those who typically aren't fans of onions tend to like this soup.

7. We just finished Part 7 in A Suitable Boy at teatime today. This puts us on page 399 (out of ~1300) and about a third of the way through. People are enjoying it, but it's a book with a slow build and lots of characters to meet. I feel as though now we are starting to get into the actual story and we know the characters pretty well. I do love the Chatterjee family and would happily spend all 1300 pages just with them. 

8. After two weeks of being pretty non-stop, I had enough of a free window to actually start putting another project on my loom. Three weeks is a long time for my loom to be empty.

9. The weather has not paid attention to my request and stay below freezing for the whole season. Yesterday the horses had to all stay in because of the amount of mud. Today was only marginally better. We're beginning to hit the time of year when I look at my pastures and despair.

10. I filled the van up with gas. I'm beginning to realize that my dream of filling up the van every two weeks is just that... a dream. That only worked in Evanston where I would drive less than a couple of miles on the days I had to drive and not walk. Here it's 3.7 miles one way to get to the library and that's the closest place I drive to. It adds up.