Phew, my aunt’s situation is not quite as bad as first expected. She will be on her way back to her (for now) permanent home in Maryland by the weekend. Her son arranged for a homehelper to check in every day as well, and a couple of her neighbours have been pitching in.

So, yeah, she didn’t let us know that she was poorly for a week and a half and wouldn’t let her kids, nor me, drop everything to see her, because she didn’t want to burden/bother us. Sound familiar? Yeah, she might be the relative I’m most like. Except for that thing where she doesn’t want to share anything about her life on the internet, outside of work stuff, so I will stop talking about her lest she find this and drive hundreds of kilometres (despite being in recovery from surgery) just to wring my neck.

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Last night’s shindig was pretty great. The two 7-year-olds and 10-year-old were handed a bag of puppets and told to put on a show (mostly to keep them from flying around the kitchen while all the fancy dishes were out). It starred a shy bear who cried a lot. A panda (I think?) taught her that she could be less shy if she tried to be happier. There was also an apparently schizophrenic rabbit. It ended satisfactorially, though, especially as it was only three minutes long.

Talking to grown-ups was good too, of course. This was probably the 32nd year we’ve gotten together with this group of people, so it predates my memory banks. This is one of the biggest events on the holiday calendar in December, really, given that the orphanarium’s open house is pretty low-key.

The drunken cinematorium’s Christmas party (tonight) is only ever slightly more loud than four children trying to locate a (understandably) terrified, hiding cat, though. Hoo-ey. I’m surprised my ears aren’t ringing this morning.

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Has anyone else been to this bookstore? I’m racking my brain trying figure out why I had to go to Portland to buy university textbooks.

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I woke up sick this morning, but luckily I can get away with not baking/potentially infecting people, at least for today. I just hope that crafting glaze isn’t the perfect medium for the proliferation of whatever creeping crud has taken hold of my throat. Merry Christmas! Have some strep!