Ben is spending the night video-gaming at a friend's house (the name and number is posted on the front of the refrigerator under Chuck's favorite magnet - the one that says "Beer---it's not just for breakfast anymore"). Of course the mother in me made me ask if he remembered to take clean underwear. Old habits die hard.

I just finished reading Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. It's a quick read, and I recommend it to anyone in need of some refreshment this holiday season.

Even with all the changes going on (i.e. Diana, Rick and their kids moving to Arizona; Ben moving in with us; Will and Donna and their girls overseas--I've still only seen pictures of Heather), this has been a relatively stress-free Christmas. I started shopping very early and stuck to a sort of schedule of tasks so I didn't have too much to do at one time. There have been several years, however, when the idea of skipping the whole thing occured to me. Well, maybe not the whole thing.....

My birthday is coming up in January, and my drivers license was due to expire then. Last time I had to renew my license I was allowed to do it by mail, but this time I was required to do it in person. So I spent and hour at the DMV today. They said I was really lucky, that there were three times as many people there last week. (Who has time to go get a drivers license on the Saturday before Christmas?) It was actually pretty organized, and everyone there was courteous. It's nice to know that my vote for Jesse White was not misplaced. I agreed to be part of the organ donor program, a tribute to our former pastor who recently received a new kidney and a new lease on life. I had them put my real weight on this license. I hope someday to be able to revise it downward.

Chuck and I attended a wedding today. The bride was radiantly beautiful, not just from the bits of glitter in her hair and on her skin, but from the smile of someone who is deeply joyous and in love.

Congratulations, Bev and J.T.!

I have acheived the goal towards which I have been moving since the end of October. It was a very simple wish, really. I just didn't want to have anything I needed to buy or wrap on December 24. I've already told Chuck that any last minute presents he buys he will have to wrap himself. The house could use a little spiffing up here and there, but nothing major. I really appreciate the fact that my company gives us today as well as tomorrow off. After all the activity of recent weeks, I can use a truly relaxing day.

As always, we got a live tree, and it still needs a few finishing touches, a few more ornaments and some tinsel. Will used to go to the lot with Chuck to select our tree, but this year Ben had that honor. He chose a very nicely balanced balsam fir. My usual Tuesday evening dance class was on Monday this week, so we didn't have time to maintain our usual tradition of watching White Christmas while trimming the tree. Maybe we'll put it on later in the day when we hang the tinsel.

Monday evening I participated in Chicago's 27th "Do-It-Yourself Messiah", along with Chuck and Jim who were sitting in the bass section, I myself being a soprano. This took place at Chicago's Civic Opera House, which seats 3,500. Professional soloists perform the arias and solos. This year (and last) a countertenor did the alto solos. If you closed your eyes, you had no idea that it wasn't a woman singing. He also did "But Who May Abide" which is a baritone solo. Even though this was the ninth time I had done this (I have all the ticket folders pasted in my hardbound copy of the score) I still get a thrill to be part of such a large chorus. Yes, for those of you who aren't familiar with this, the audience sings all the choruses.

It’s been a non-stop week, typical for this time of year. Monday, Lutheran Choir of Chicago rehearsal; Tuesday, tap & jazz class (forgot my shoes), Wednesday, church Cabinet Meeting, Thursday, Symphony (Berlioz’s Requiem, with the full complement of the CSO Chorus – FANTASTIC!); Friday, LCC concert in Chicago; Saturday, after working for 5 hours early in the day, LCC concert in Evanston (my little solo went very well at both concerts, thank you very much); Sunday afternoon, I went to Floyd’s choral concert at Trinity; this evening (Monday), the big Do-It-Yourself Messiah at the Civic Opera House; tomorrow, I’m taking a vacation day.

Some reasons to celebrate for this past week:

Diana and the rest of the family made it safely to Arizona, in spite of the car breaking down in mid-journey and having to rent a car to finish the trip. They even have a mailing address now, so I was able to send their Christmas presents.

Ben took the DLAB and passed with a 98. He only needed a 95 to get the job of linguist that he wants in the Air Force. He’s a really smart guy.

I had fun singing the solo for the LCC concerts, and (in my opinion, at least) I did very well.

I have managed to print the mailing labels for my Christmas cards, and also return address labels that just happen to have the same picture as the special Christmas offering envelopes from my church. (Scanners are fun.)

I was extra klutzy at dance class tonight. I left the bag with my shoes in it at home right next to the door. Of course by the the time I got there it was too late to go back for them. It wasn't so bad for the jazz, but tap without tap shoes is very quiet, not to mention the difficulty of doing a "shuffle" in rubber-soled shoes.

I worked almost a full day on Saturday, something I haven't done in quite awhile. It looks like this may happen occasionally at this new desk. The extra cash will come in handy, especially at this time of the year (although, really, I'm almost done with the shopping), but I will have to rearrange my routines so I don't feel as though I've lost the whole weekend when I have to work a Saturday.

My new job is as a "Journal Billing Analyst". Some companies call this arrangement "rebates" and some call it "ship and debit". A company will buy product at list price and put it into their stock, but it may be earmarked for a particular job. Had they shipped the product directly to the job instead of into stock, they would have gotten a quoted price for that job. Eventually, when they ship it from their stock to the job, they submit the paperwork to us showing where they sold the product, and what their quoted price for that job should have been.

It is the job of the Journal Billing Analyst to make sure that the customer has actually purchased the product, compare the price at which they purchased it with the rebate they are asking, make sure there is a current quote in the system to cover it, make sure none of the product had already been returned for full credit, etc., etc., before issuing a final credit to the customer. A lot of this process is made easier by having a computer program in place that will make most of these comparisons. Of course, the data must be put into the system first. I will not be doing the data entry on a regular basis, although I have been doing some in the last few days, just to make sure I know how. So far the job doesn't seem too difficult, although I'm still at a very basic level and I don't have the whole picture yet. Parts of it just bore me to tears, specifically, manually checking pages and pages of other peoples' data input before releasing a credit. That was all I did the first day, and I thought, oh please just shoot me. But it got more interesting after that. Still, I guess I'll have to do a certain amount of that checking on a regular basis.

We did our first "parental" thing yesterday. We attended an open house at Ben's high school. Ben did a short skit and a recitation in German. It might seem like cheating for him to be taking German, but actually, when he came here at the age of 13, he hadn't been speaking German at home for a few years. I spoke with his teacher, and she said it was a good idea for him to keep it up. Later this week, Ben will take the DLAB for the Air Force. This is the test to see if he has the aptitude to be a linguist.

This will make buying a gift for me easier for everyone. Once I add something to it, that is.

The kids actually got on the road by about 9:30 a.m. yesterday morning. Somehow, I didn't think they'd be leaving at 5:00 a.m. as Rick said he was planning. They stopped for the night in Staunton, Illinois, a town not too far from St. Louis but on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. This was a wise move, as there was freezing rain in that area, and having lived there I can tell you that driving conditions can really be dangerous.

Diana called to tell me that Ben had forgotten his camera at the house, and I knew he still wanted to pick up a small tv he had left there, so I picked him up from work at 10:00 last night and I waited in the alley behind the empty house with my trunk open and blinkers on while he went in to get the tv. (He had already gotten his camera after school.) I felt like I was driving the getaway car for a robbery. Naturally, some car came up behind me while I was waiting, and I had to move. I was really irritated when I realized that it wasn't someone who lived on that block, but just someone who wanted to take a shortcut and avoid the main street. When I got to the end of the block I turned right and was immediately honked at by oncoming traffic on the side street, since I was going the wrong way down a one-way street. I ended up going quite a bit out of my way due to all the one-way streets in that area, but I finally got back to my station in the alley and Ben loaded his tv into the trunk.

So far so good. Ben rode his bike in the snow to our house after work and arrived here about 10:30 p.m. He's very polite and thankful for a place to stay. He has a half day of school today, and he plans on going to see Nemesis with some friends in the afternoon, but he actually asked permission. He asked what his chores would be and assured us he was more than willing to help out with anything we asked. After all he had to do taking care of the little ones at home, this is going to seem like a vacation to him. He set his alarm for 5:30 a.m., took his shower and was eating breakfast when I got up at 6:00. By the time I got out of the shower, he had already left. He's working until 10:00 again tonight. I have a feeling we won't be seeing a lot of him.

It's back to the real world again today. So what have I done this past week? Some Christmas shopping and wrapping, and got Ben's room ready. Most of what I cleared out of the closet in that room (two boxes and a large trash bag of clothing) is going to the church rummage sale. Much of it was as much as 15 years old, and it just made me feel bad to have it around. If I'm ever that size again, I will want new clothes anyway, to celebrate. Some stuff went in the garbage. Some is still sitting in my bedroom waiting to find a home. One thing I couldn't bear to give away was the nightgown and pegnoir set I wore on my wedding night. It's hot pink trimmed in cream colored lace. It has held up remarkably well for being almost 32 years old.