Here are Chateau Herkes, feast prep is complete & relaxation is underway.

Spouseman & I took a long walk through the neighborhood to enjoy holiday lights, the roast beast is in the oven, and we’re settled in with the 1951 Alistair Sim Christmas Carol on TV, and snax + hot cider at hand.

These are our modest holiday traditions. A couple of classic movies, and cozy time together with simple foods--ones that are easy to cook & providing of many leftovers. This year that's ham, mashed potatoes, salad, a baked fruit dish and (of course) cookies.

Nobody has to cook tomorrow, and for days after that, we have ingredients for multiple one-pot easy meals. I mean, we still WILL cook tomorrow, but only breakfast. There will be cinnamon rolls and bacon and lots of lounging in our jammies reading books & listening to music. Another tradition.

Our seasonal purchasing & decorating were scaled back this year, due to kitten, work, pandemic, the universe and life in general. But we have our sparkly-lighted faux Yule trees, one for each floor of the house, we have lots of Christmas music, and we have new movies to watch thanks to Netflix & HBOMax.

And it all starts on the Eve. It’s been festive all day in a very quiet way.

Outdoors, there are candy cane decorations and strings of lights in the yard,  and light-up presents, too. The birds are getting extra birdseed for their holiday feast, plus some dried cranberries I found way back in the kitchen cabinet when I went rummaging after baking ingredients.

Spouseman has been downstairs most of the day enjoying the heck out of his miracle Christmas present: a PS5.

You may wonder how I scored a PS5 when they’ve been impossible to find in stock anywhere.

WELL. There’s a story, let me tell you.

TL;DR edition: I got lucky.

For months now, whenever I went onto a retail shopping site, I would throw in a a keyword search for Playstation, just on the off-chance. I got to know all the various messages of disappointment, from “Out of Stock” & “Currently Available” to “Entry will be active when stock is received.”

I was combing sites for Covid rapid tests after Thanksgiving and did my usual, “Enh, I’ll do a lookup,” and instead of one Out Of Stock entry on Costco dot com, there were unexpectedly TWO.

Curiosity is not my middle name, but that was a puzzle, so I clicked the unexpected second entry and LO, THERE IT WAS!  THE "ADD TO CART" BUTTON WAS LIVE!

Now, I wasn’t entirely sure the listed PS5 was the right version, and it came with accessories I wasn’t sure Spouseman needed, but friends, I tell you I have never clicked through a sale faster.

And after I took a screenshot of the confirmation and got the email, I told Spouseman. Because some things make good surprise presents, and some are so exciting they need to be shared right away.

OK, maybe it isn’t much of a story. But it arrived in three days, and Spouseman has been playing happily on it all day, and that makes me happy.

ANYway.Other highlights of this Eve:

All the things had to be chopped, sliced, mixed, mashed or otherwise cooked ahead are set for today & tomorrow.

Cookies have been baked.

Mr Pips halped with food prep & looked cute sleeping on his high chair. Now he’s crashed on the couch next to me.

I’ve watched all three Princess Switch movies. Silly, cheesy, lighthearted fun.

There was napping near the Christmas tree.

And this marks the second day off social media. It isn’t a long time, but it feels WEIRD not to be tossing my random thoughts onto Facebook and/or Twitter all day long.

Freeing, but weird.

That tells me I’m doing the right thing. It shouldn’t feel weird to be fully present in my own life.

And on that note, on screen Little Tim is behaving himself in church, Ebenezer Scrooge will be getting a big scare from Christmas Yet To Come very soon, and it’s time to for me to sign off.

Have a Merry Christmas, or a merry weekend, whichever. May it be full of happiness and free from stresses. May you have many books to read, and plenty of time to enjoy them.

Until later!