Got a copy of The Vermont County Store catalogue today, and just had to sit down and look through it. Lordy, how I love that catalogue. Where on earth else would you find Cloverine Salve, Blue Waltz perfume, and maple sugar Santa Clauses? Oh, and get this: this year they are selling GLASS WAX and the CHRISTMAS STENCILS we used so long ago! They also have all of the little Christmas candles Mom had (like the Thanksgiving ones) - choir boys, reindeer and Santa, just all of that great stuff. And I just moan and groan over all the candies. Think I'll have to buy Allen some chocolate-covered-brandy-cherries this year.

This catalogue is as much of a wish list for me as the Montgomery Ward and Sears catalogues were when I was a kid. And getting it today provided just the right break I needed from the busy-ness of the last couple of weeks. I've been working and working to get my house back in a new order. The bedrooms and bathrooms are almost finished with the new decorating - I'm so very happy with the paint colors I've put in those rooms. The two bathrooms and the guest bedroom just need a few finishing touches. But I'll clean the living room tomorrow so I can do the touch-up painting that's needed around the archways where they were reinforced. Hoping to get that painting done on Thursday. Then those finishing touches and, maybe, one more project in the living room - and I'll be ready to relax and enjoy the end of the year doings.

Will be going back to the Nutcracker this year. Haven't gone for a couple of years because Orlando Ballet has had to change the venue, due to priority bookings at the Bob Carr Auditorium (year before last was the Rockettes Christmas show and last year was the Lion King). I don't like the venue where the Nutcracker was staged - the old Tupperware Auditorium. So I just didn't go. But I've missed it very much, and am happy that it's back at Carr again this year.

Actually wishing for some sunshine. It's cooled off here - a lot - but that's because there's a stationary front parked right over Central Florida that has brought overcast skies and lots of rain. I don't begrudge the rain; the area is still far behind the rainfall average for the year and rain is badly needed, still. But I long for sunshine. It wasn't until I'd been in Florida for a number of years that I realized how much lack of sunshine affects me. I really believe I was affected by that highly when living up north, and it's one reason I wouldn't move back there, ever. How strange it is that so many different things affect people in different ways.

So, will read for a little while, check for one more on-line Scrabble play, then lay myself down for a good night's sleep.