We are Christmasless this year.  That is sort of by choice.  We were supposed to move next week.  That move puts us much closer to my family so visiting can be a day trip instead of a weekend.  We were going to have Christmas on New Year’s Eve. 

Every previous year the SO had bowed down to pressure from his ex to pretend that Z has a happy family life by getting up at the crack of dawn and driving an hour to their house to be there when she wakes up.  Every year I pointed out that it was completely f’ed up.  He would say that he wanted to see her open presents and I would say that he was just jumping when the ex said jump.  Over the course of this year he realized that I was right so he is declining to participate in the farce.  As a result we have the day to ourselves.  We aren’t even taking Z for a while since we decided that Christmas will be with my parents next weekend. 

We were invited out to dinner but he declined.  He’s tired.  He’s commuting four hours a day because the bank can’t get the paperwork right on the loan so we can move into our new house.  I’ve got the fixings for a Christmas meal of French Onion Soup, Wild Rice Casserole, and Berry and Struesel Pie. 

I’ve loaded up on more grey fabrics so I don’t run out while trying to finish up the current clues on the Orca Bay mystery quilt.  I have a 900 page book to read.   I checked the theater listings to make sure the two movies I want to see are playing nearby.  I plan on hibernating.  It will be fun.

(Am I the only person who gets stressed by the fact that nothing is open on Christmas?  It must be trauma from the year there was no power on Christmas and the only available food was at the gas station and movie theater.)