First Christmas Day.

In the Netherlands we celebrate two Christmas days on the 25th and the 26th, so today is the first Christmas day. We don't as a rule exchange presents, but do start off the day eating good things with our cups of coffee and I just had a double chocolate chocolaty cake with peach filling at my sister's with my café latte. It was almost like eating pure chocolate, it was so good, and I could have had all I wanted, but unfortunately one piece was all I could handle and it was on the small side too. My sister would have liked to invite me for dinner as well, but since I can't eat anything she's going to serve, that's an exercise in futility and frustration, so we don't even consider that. It's very disappointing when you can never have dinner at someone else's house, but that's the price I pay for the gastric band.

We reminisced and talked about our childhood and about our mutual marriages and about our children and about what we have in common and how we function as human beings. We come from the same nest and have the same kind of oddities and the same kind of unique attitudes. We are more similar than we are different and that became apparent today as we shared some of our deeper thoughts about ourselves and how we deal with relationships and problems we run into as a whole. We are not so far removed from the core as we think we are. Our childhood very much influenced who we turned out as people and left a big impression on our personalities and we struggle with it regularly. Why this subject came about today of all days is a mystery, but sometimes we find ourselves in these conversations.

Last night, after I finished writing my post, I made lists of all the books I have mooched and that didn't take all that long. Then I arranged the rest of the books by color and I was done with everything within an hour. I need some bookends, because not all the cubicles are filled up, but I don't know if I have any of those. The Exfactor may have some that he may let me have. I'll have to ask him. I need some very simple metal ones, the kind they use in the library. I have one or two of them, but I need about three more. I should have grabbed what I could when I had the chance. I was not greedy enough.

Anyway, the bookcase looks great and I have two cubicles that can be filled with more mooched books. Some cubicles are tightly packed and not a pin can be pushed in between. That's what happens when you try to get all the same colors together.

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I've just slept two hours on the sofa. I was falling asleep behind the computer, practically nodding off. I think I need a cup of coffee and a strong one too. Tsk, tsk, nodding off while I'm writing a post, it's terrible. I hope I'm not that sleep inducing when you read it.

I've made myself a cup of strong coffee and now I can join the living again. The first thing I had to do was feed the dog, who then refused to eat because I was not right there beside him while he ate. So I stayed by him while he ate what was in his bowl. Silly dog. The cats weren't pleased, because that didn't leave anything for them to eat, beside their own kibbles. It's hard to please everybody and I don't even start trying.

So, I've wasted First Christmas Day doing absolutely nothing noteworthy, which is as it should be. Tomorrow is another day and I will finish my chores then, although officially it's a holiday. I don't care, though. You can have too many holidays in a row too and I need to vacuum my bedroom. There are dog hairs there that need removing and the bathroom floor needs to be mopped. I'm a great one for doing chores, aren't I? I talk about them more than I spend time doing them.

Does your dog scratch the rug too in order to make a good place to lie down? My dog is always doing that, as if he digging himself a hollow to lie down in. Apparently he thinks it works, because he keeps doing it.

I have to go walk him now and thank goodness it has stopped raining, because it was doing that nonstop too earlier. It's a balmy 4C outside. Nowadays you're thankful for any degrees above zero Celsius. All the rain has made the last of the slippery snow disappear, so that's good. No chance of breaking your neck anymore. Watch, these were my famous last words as I found the last patch of icy snow.

I hope you're all having a good time celebrating this holiday. Amazingly enough, it doesn't bother me that I'm spending most of it on my own. It is fine, as I have the animals and I did see my sister and I will see Joost on Sunday. But it really isn't a bad time to spend by myself and I can always watch the horrible Christmas shows on television.

Ciao,
Nora