The Ankle Biter @ Quibbling.net

• Advice for clearing literary clutter | Ask MetaFilter
  How should one clear out their book collection? Inquiring minds like mine want to know.
  (tags: advice books cleaning clutter organization)
• Download Uproar: Record Industry Goes After Personal Use - washingtonpost.com
  Hey assholes, if I BUY the CD, what do you care if I listen to the music on my iPod?
  (tags: business copyright law legal mp3 music riaa piracy)

If there’s anything that makes me happier than Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘em Up Style,” it’s Blu Cantrell’s “Hit ‘em Up Style” covered by a band with a violin and banjo. You MUST hear the Carolina Chocolate Drops sing this song. It’s better than the original.

• robert linxe’s chocolate truffles | Smitten Kitchen
  smitten, she inspires me.
  (tags: chocolate truffle food gifts recipe cooking)

I know, I know. The Preparation got away from me, and then we had to travel, and then I came down with a cold shortly after we arrived in Davis… so anyway, here’s a new Advent entry.

The third week of Advent is for rejoicing, and here’s something to rejoice about: When Tom and I arrived in San Francisco on Tuesday night, one of the stories dominating the local news was that of the Dominguez family- the father and three kids had gone out into the woods to look for a Christmas tree and hadn’t come back- the search and rescue operation was under way, but so far there hadn’t been any sign of the family. I’ll admit, I expected that the family would not be found alive. But, in what can seriously be called a Christmas Miracle, the family was found alive, and suffering very few ill effects from their ordeal, four days after they had gone missing. (Aside from Divine Providence, the family also credits the childrens’ extensive camping experience and the wilderness survival training the son had taken with their survival.)

• Food Network Fondue Recipes
  we were given a Fondue pot for Christmas… now I must find things to melt.
  (tags: fondue recipe cooking cheese)

• Who strikes? - Los Angeles Times
  a point/counterpoint on the WGA strike.
  (tags: writers debate wga strike)

• Sailor Jerry: Halter Dress
  Okay, the dress is cute. But I’m sharing because of the descriptive copy next to the photo.
  (tags: dress clothing sailorjerry tattoo marketing copywriting)

• - Secret Santa Exposed! - washingtonpost.com
  Ah, Miss Manners, how fond I am of you… I hate being pressured into office Secret Santa exchanges. I love choosing gifts for my loved ones- I hate trying to come up with something for someone I barely know and may not even like.
  (tags: holiday christmas secretsanta gifts)

• Slate’s first year-end Gaming Club. - By N’Gai Croal , Seth Scheisel, Chris Suellentrop, Stephen Totilo - Slate Magazine
  on gaming as art
  (tags: videogames gaming)

I know! I know! I missed a few days of Advent posts! Boo! But now I am back, and we’re into the second week of Advent: Preparation.

And of course, Preparation is one of the things that so often adds stress to this season of joy. How many Christmas cards do I have to write? How will I get the lights up in time? Who do I have to find gifts for?

I haven’t done much to prepare for Christmas in the last few years- it always seemed superfluous to decorate the house when I wouldn’t be spending Christmas in it. Christmas baking was a non-starter in a kitchen with as little counter space as I have (though now that we have a table it might be more feasible). There were always gifts to buy and wrap, of course, and I always intended to do Christmas cards, but this is the first year they’ve even made it so far as getting signed and addressed.  And yet I wondered why Christmas always felt like it was sneaking up on me.
This year, as Tom and I are finding our relationships with our own families’ traditions changing, and now that even our idea of “home for the holidays” is changing, we’re trying to develop some ideas for what Our Traditions will be.

So last night, we had what I hope was only the first occurrence of a tradition that we will enjoy for many years to come.  We had an early Christmas dinner with some friends at our home, and spent the whole day in preparation.

First was the trip to the grocery store. We had this idea that we were going to do lamb roast, but of course lamb is out of season, so the lamb roasts at the grocery store weren’t looking that great, like the butchers had needed to trim them aggressively.  But they had a special on standing rib roasts, and some particularly good-looking roasts to choose from. After (I admit) a moment’s hesitation, we decided that Christmas dinner was exactly the occasion to splurge a bit on your loved ones… so we picked up a big ol’ roast and carted it home.

And of course, there was the housecleaning to be done. There’s the picking up all the stuff the cats have knocked to the floor, cleaning up the kitchen, vacuuming, trying to find spots for all the books and other objects that have found their way into the house, etc. So we put on some Christmas music and got to work- the front half of my house looks great!  Our bedroom will look better after we do battle with the laundry monster again, and I am giving myself permission to not worry about the back room until New Year’s weekend, when we’re planning to do a purge of our belongings.

This year, I have been determined to put up SOME kind of Christmas decoration to remind me each day that it’s the Christmas season, and it’s not just cold and crappy for no reason, like in January.  I won a wreath at my company’s holiday party (real pine branches! It smells great!), so that has gone up on our door. And then once the living room was clean yesterday, I rearranged some stuff on our shelves and got out our Nativity set.  You can see that I didn’t really have an ideal place to put it where it would be safe from the cats, but we make do with what we have.

That’s two whole Christmas decorations, which is officially two more than I’ve had for the last several years.   Most of our Christmas stuff takes the form of Christmas ornaments, which is great except for our total lack of room for a Christmas tree.  So this is a bit of a victory.

So last night we had a fantastic meal, with wine, good friends, and spiked eggnog.  What’s not to love?

Now, to finish those Christmas cards and get my shopping done…