Mortaine’s Blog

I’m being remarkably productive this week! Sent a chapter in to my editor last night, and only a month late (facepalm). My goal for the holidays is to finish and send in 3 more chapters, plus get some serious work done on my side-contract (which will mean about 20 hours of work, total, I think).

If I’m lucky, I will have all four of my major manuals done before I leave tomorrow night for the holidays (2 more days!)

Last night I met up with Chris and Ann to exchange pressies– they both LOVED their books! I’m so glad– books are fun to shop for, and really are personal (most of the time). They gave me a beautiful hand-crafted writing journal for Christmas (and now I have something else to write in with pretty lavendar-scented ink!)

I need to make cookies tonight for the group here at work. I’ve put it off for far too long now, and I’m reaching a critical point (i.e., the last day before the holiday!)

My Christmas gifts received so far are not things I would have bought for myself (except maybe the ink), and some of them are in the “thought that counts” category in the sense of being kind of silly/tacky gifts. BUT, I love them all. I love them because the act of giving and receiving is so much fun. I love them because I don’t feel guilty about getting something I don’t like– I just give it on to someone else who does. I love them because it really means that someone actually thought about me this holiday season, and I appreciate that. I’ve let go of a lot of my expectations this year when it comes to gifts– there’s nothing I really desire for Christmas, nothing I’m just dying to have, so I’m wonderfully surprised and delighted by everything I’ve gotten.

I am, however, absolutely shameless when it comes to opening my holiday gifties early. If the person is there in front of me, I open the pressie. If it arrives in a shipping box, I open the box– never ship me a present unwrapped if you don’t want me to open it immediately! Hah hah!

From , my sekrit LJ support bunneh: The Time Traveller’s Wife, a pair of hand-made earrings and hand-made cross-stitch card, a glass pen and lavendar-scented ink!
From Chris and Ann: A handmade very pretty journal
From work people:
A bottle of wine and a back massager
A canister of liquored bridge mix that is from Costco and is probably a year old.
A tin of home-made cookies
A candy from Japan (it was sweet that he thought of me at all, actually!)
Another bottle of wine from my new boss
A box of smelly bath stuff
From work: $25 Safeway guilt card and a holiday party at which I got pelted with small, hard, uncooked brown beans.
At betta club meeting: A holiday-themed candle lamp
From Carol, my mom’s best friend: A candle and candle warmer thingy and a package of kitchen towels.
Cards from and , and e-cards from (also cards from other folks, but these are the ones you would know).