The tree at the ‘rents.

Getting ready to do a reading at my parents’s Christmas Eve Advent service (in my mom’s sewing room.)

I’m curled up in my bed right now, candles burning all pomegranate and jasmine-y (trust me, it works) and Crescent City Christmas playing, and you know what?

In addition to being a tired, tired girl, I’m happy.

Not just because it’s Christmas — even though this season is all kinds of crack for me — but because I have a funny feeling that things in my life are about to turn a corner. A wee corner, not a big one. But a corner nonetheless.

And not on rails, like they usually do.

I’m one of those people who spends more time feeling guilty about feeling bad for myself than I do actually feeling bad for myself. I know I’m blessed, even when things are difficult, so indulging my frustration always seems like an act of willful ignorance.

But I’ve had an ignorant year, apparently, since it feels like frustration has had its way with me and didn’t even bother to call the next day.

So. Enough of that.

Change in the air is a brilliant thing.

A gift, you could say. One that I won’t get Christmas morning, but maybe as 2007 meanders into being. Stay tuned, okay?

I promise not to get too sappy about it.

Now, as I sit in my quilts and look at my bag packed to head to my parents’ house…

…tomorrow night, I’m thinking that now might be a time to dwell on some joyful things and — you knew it was coming — share them with you:

• Tomorrow I have Catherine and Meg Christmas Brunch, where we exchange our gifts to one another, and celebrate before we head off to our families. I’m VERY excited to give Catherine her present. BEYOND. Even more excited than I am about pancakes and bacon and coffee and stuff. I think.
• Tomorrow night, I’m doing a reading at my Dad’s church for their Christmas Eve service. I think the idea of this makes my parents pretty happy, but what makes my mom even MORE happy is that she’ll have my hand to hold when she gets all puddly singing Christmas carols. She does that, you know. And I love it.
• Tomorrow night even LATER, we’ll get Chinese takeout and watch some silly Christmas movie together, or play a game, or just sit around and talk. This is honestly one of my favourite moments every year, and it’s a fairly new tradition for us. It’s a ritual that began as a panacea at a difficult time, and then became a total delight in a less-difficult time… and anything that reminds me of that journey out is a wonderful thing.
• Um… you guys. Are awesome. How do I know? Well, a couple of fellow addicts donated to the Meg Coffee Fund in its various permutations. And I’m not going to name names, but a couple of you are going to get freaky emails the next time I get a seven-shot latte and see pink hippos wandering the streets singing Donovan hits.

I think it’s time for this girl to sleep, but you’ll hear more soon.

Like you didn’t know that…

All the evidence you needed that I am a sucker for holiday marketing.