21 December 2010

4 Days Before Christmas

Since James worked on Saturday, today was his compensatory day off. We slept late because we stayed up last night hoping to see the lunar eclipse. This one was notable because it was taking place at the same time as the winter solstice. By the time it started, I was walking around with my eyes half-open, but nevertheless went out on the deck with a camera to try my luck, luck because light clouds were scudding in ahead of the potentially rainy weather.

As the eclipse began, we had some good glimpses of the moon being "eaten" by a shadow, but my aim was shaky because I had to hold the camera overhead, so I went back inside for my tripod. Of course, now that I had the camera secure the clouds thickened and gaps between them became further and further apart. I did get a few pics, which I posted on Facebook later on, but we never did see the full eclipse. We got into bed about three and fell into deep sleep until 10:13.

After breakfast, we headed out to the hobby shop because James hadn't visited there Saturday, and he wanted to wish Rusty a merry Christmas. James Corley (owner of the store) had his little dog with him, a Lhasa Apso named Leela. What a little cutie, with big brown eyes. He had her behind a baby gate, but when I saw the big eyes I said, "Oh, what a cute little puppy!" and she got on her hind legs and wagged her tail and did cute to perfection.

After we left the hobby shop we went to the Borders at Merchant's Walk to buy the very last of our Christmas gifts, armed with coupons. The store was packed; I've never seen a bookstore that crowded except during a signing or the release of a book like Harry Potter—the line snaked past several aisles of the store!

I also ran into Michaels to get something with my 50 percent off coupon, and then we cut through the back to get to Town Center. We had Barnes & Noble coupons and wandered about happily amongst the other shoppers for a bit before heading to Golden Corral. Neither of us had eaten lunch and by now it was after four, so we had our supper. I was very pleased to find a whole turkey on the buffet so you could get dark meat! Also had some pot roast and a bit of steak, plus some cantaloupe and a small slice of chocolate cake.

James gets small gifts for a few co-workers every year, so he stopped at Hobbytown to pick them up, and then we headed home. I wrapped the rest of the gifts and finally cleaned up the spare bedroom, which has spent time since December 5 looking like the shipping room at Amazon.com, since I was wrapping a few gifts a day. James got his dough out of the refrigerator and baked the Splenda and spice cookies as well as chocolate ones.

And later we watched A Christmas Story.

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