The Holiday Whirl

Busy weekend: we had to supply the lunch centerpiece at Hair Day—the chicken wings worked out so well at the mover's party we served them again. Also delivered a Hanukkah gift and received a Christmas dinner invitation.

Later in the evening we hit Border's (good book coupons this weekend) and then drove out to Birmingham for a friend's annual Christmas party. It's a long ride (about 140 minutes), but we usually only see her once a year. She just got a super new job, so there's little chance we'll see her back in Atlanta any time soon.

She delivered the sad news that she can't attend our Twelfth Night party because she's flying out the next morning to attend job training for a week.

In San Francisco.

And they're putting her up at the Fairmont!

Woohoo! What a deal!

We got back about three a.m..

On Sunday had lunch at Ikea, then hit Richard's in Buckhead just for the heck of it. Richard's is probably the last "variety store" left in Atlanta, and looks a lot like a Woolworth's used to except it sells no clothing at all, but does have houseware, hardware, stationery, gadgets, cards, and, at this time of years, lots of toys. They had the most incredible selection of retro toys, and books that I thought were long out of print, like Lois Lenski's "Small" and "Little" books, The Biggest Bear, etc.

They also have things like "action figures" of Einstein, librarians (she says "shhhh!"), and also GI Joe size dolls of various Presidents (they play different presidential quotations if you press the suit jacket lapel). The Theodore Roosevelt one uses actual recordings of his voice. Too cool.

Also stopped at the Buckhead Borders. The place was packed; turned out Rachael Ray was autographing her new book. I found a keen book called The Essential "It's a Wonderful Life". Those who know me know I'm not much of an It's a Wonderful Life fan (Uncle Billy would have been relegated to doorman long ago if it were my Building and Loan). However, this points out little things to note about the film (such as in the first scene where everyone is praying for George, in the scene you see of Bedford Falls, there's a man running up the street waving: George Bailey) and there are historical notes about the time the film is set in and other film trivia about the actors.

Came home to discover we also have a dinner invitation for Christmas Eve. Super!