Merry Christmas, and — to be all nondenominational — Happy Holidays!

I’ve been busy this holiday season. Mostly I hid in the back room crocheting a scarf for my brother and watching The Office, coming out occasionally for sustenance and familial obligations. Really, though, I had a lot of fun: the family Christmas party, visiting my Aunt Annie in her art-filled apartment, catching up with Leslie and ST over dinner, watching Kal Ho Naa Ho with Michelle and Merri Ann, seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls with Kim at the Seattle Science Center, playing White Elephant and dress-up with old friends at Katherine’s house, and opening gifts and enjoying the traditions films and foods at home with my parents, Max, Aunt Sandy, and Grammy.

The holidays so rarely feel magical anymore, but I was more okay with that this year. For one thing, the gifts were smaller and less overpowering. I had a good time picking out and creating gifts, and I felt less pressured to get something perfect — it was more for fun and the idea of the thing. Many years I have ended up with a huge pile of presents at my feet, half of which I didn’t really want, feeling sort of sickened at the whole thing. Not this year, though! I feel that I can appreciate each gift more, and hence enjoy Christmas more, without huge emotional and financial investments. I already have gift and project ideas for next year (when I hopefully won’t be as sick and crabby).

All the festive decorations draw my mind to my own house — well, the house I will build some day in the future. I got my dad to drag out his books on architecture and construction, which I may have to “borrow” like I did his copies of A Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language. I also have to get him to teach me some of what he’s learned about investment and finances; call me crazy, but I’m already thinking about how to practically create this thing. Bamboo flooring… window seats… shoji screens… radiant floor heating… solar panels… fruit trees… *sigh*