(no subject)

I got the dishes done yesterday, including all of those I had to hand wash because they couldn't wait for the dishwasher to be full. I don't expect to do more baking until tomorrow, but the mixing bowl and baking pans are clean and ready to go.

I also got all of Scott's and most of Cordelia's Christmas presents wrapped. I couldn't wrap the Crocs or the camping pad. Scott, when he got home, dug out a gift bag for the Crocs, and we decided that the camping pad won't get wrapped. We'll just scrounge a bow for it and put it under the tree as is. There will still be a couple of things to wrap for Cordelia, but they won't arrive for a day or two yet, and they're books, so they'll be easy to wrap after she goes to bed Christmas Eve. I just have to keep her distracted enough that she doesn't try to buy the books in question. (She just finished reading Divergent and is eager to get the next book.) I'm hopeful that having friends over tomorrow and Tuesday will help.

Scott was pretty much exhausted when he got home. Twelve hours will do that, especially when eight of them involve pulling carts. He did some present wrapping himself after he'd showered and changed. He got his father's present wrapped and the presents for our local niece and nephew. He still hasn't mailed the package going to Seattle. He wanted to buy a gift card for the older niece and thought it would be bad if the package arrived before the gift card. I suspect the gift card will arrive before Christmas, but I see no way the package will unless we pay to overnight it.

Today, Scott needs to buy the present for his mother (and, I assume, wrap it). Cordelia and I have a Girl Scout meeting. Scott is planning to run errands and wrap my present while we're gone. He also needs to finish designing the photo calendar for his parents. All the others are done and sent. Unfortunately, the calendar for his parents is the most challenging because they want pictures of so many different people. Scott says it will be hard to keep from having half a dozen photos per month.

(no subject)

Tell me what you enjoy about Zenna Henderson's People stories. (for hyperfocused)

My first Yuletide, I wrote for hyperfocused, a crossover between Zenna Henderson's People stories and Doctor Who. I would never have thought to write that on my own, but I really enjoyed the process. Reviewing the stories was fun as I hadn't read them in quite a while. (I didn't review Doctor Who because I didn't then have access to any episodes.)

I enjoy Zenna Henderson's People stories because they're about people who are fundamentally decent. The conflicts tend to be quiet. I like the personal relationship with the deity that the characters have and the simple phrase that calls these people to action-- "There's need." The characters aren't perfect. They feel fear and uncertainty, but they persevere anyway.

I first read the stories when I was in high school. I'm not sure if the books were my mother's or if they were books that my father left behind when Mom kicked him out. I think Mom is more likely because those books don't really seem like Papa's sort of thing. At any rate, the books pretty much immediately became mine. I was really pleased when the Science Fiction Book Club put out an edition that collected all of the stories in one place, including the ones that hadn't been in the two previous books. (And I was fairly upset when my copy of that book got water damaged by a problem with our kitchen sink. I need to replace it. It's still readable, but it's a bit warped.)

I had some trouble with depression in high school, and books like these helped because they gave me hope for a better world. The characters seemed like people I might know instead of like fantasy figures, in spite of their powers. They seemed possible.

(no subject)

Scott just pointed me at a website I think I'll be spending a lot of time playing with. It's a spirograph sort of thing. It's here for those who are interested. I need to use the arrow keys to make the disks move, but somebody else said that clicking and dragging worked for them.

I've been having fun playing with the different colors of lines and background.