1) Up before 7 AM, good coffeezzzzzzzz, and read all of The Private Life of Tasha Tudor, which I gave Mother for Christmas several years ago.
2) Late morning trip to [Insert Name of Big Box Store Employing Younger Nephew Who Must Not Be Tagged] to purchase new router and do a bit of Christmas shopping.
3) Lunch at home, and a NAP, and more Christmas cards, and then Nephew arrived (on his birthday!) to install the new router. So I was very glad I could give him his birthday card in person for a change.
4) Mother and I went out to S****** S**** for a good etouffé dinner. It's as warm and velvety humid as summer. I have to wonder if my growing-up years when we did have cold Christmases here were an anomaly.
5) The Christmas tree is now done!
6) Mother, who is really unable to throw anything away without asking at least 20 people if they want it, led me to a little basket of unwanted trinkets and such on top of the washer. I was surprised to find myself claiming a necklace of coins for myself. Insert References to Brecht's Mother Courage Here.
7) Mother also discovered a whole cache of Daddy's books that she didn't know about (but I did), mostly religious works around metaphysics or New Thought. But also books given to him at different Christmases: Anecdotes of Destiny, by Isak Dinesen, which Mother gave him one year because of Babette's Feast; Ricky Alan Mayotte's The Complete Jesus, which I gave him one year; and All About Me, which I also gave him (and which I don't think he ever opened).
8) Now that the internet is back on and I have full use of my laptop again, I can begin one of the more important tasks of this Christmas vacation: evaluating the many organizations that are sending Mother these constant waves of junk mail. They are keeping her from writing her book!