Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had lovely, restful holidays. Rudi and I came north for Christmas. I’m hanging with the family and sleeping a lot. (Apparently two hours of sleep a night before Christmas leaves you with a deficit to make up for.) Rudi headed even further north to ski for a few days.

We head back south this weekend so we can celebrate New Year’s Eve with our annual movie-theater-athon. Any recommendations for things currently out in the theaters you think we’d enjoy? (I don’t like bloody, scary, or warlike, which lets out an awful lot. Juno is on the current list, as is The Golden Compass. Maybe Charlie Wilson’s War or National Treasure or P.S. I Love You.)

Here are three beautiful things from my Christmas week:

1. Growing up, Josh and I always used to go down to my grandparents’ basement after holiday meals and watch the men play pool (as the company started to trickle in after their own holiday meals). Naturally, we rooted for Dad to win. When the grownups had tired of playing, Dad would play a game or two with us. As everyone got older, fewer people would come to Gramma’s Christmas night, and Josh and I were welcome to play with Dad, Uncle David and Grampa. In recent years, though, the pool table was covered over and used as storage. Then Grampa died and we started celebrating holidays at Mum and Dad’s when they bought this house. Last March, we emptied Gramma’s house and the pool table moved in pieces up here. In the last month, Dad got the pool table put together, refelted, and ready to go. Christmas after dinner, my cousins, Rudi, and I got to play down in the basement. And tonight Dad and I spent a couple of hours playing (badly). This was a tradition that deserved to be resurrected.

2. To say I was a little behind in Christmas knitting this year was an understatement. I planned to knit all day on Saturday while Rudi drove to Connecticut. (It was easier for him to drive than to learn to knit at the last minute…) Ultimately, we got a later start than we’d intended and I only had an hour or two of daylight before the sun set. Luckily, I’ve now knit long enough that I’m able to feel my way along on patterns that aren’t too complicated. I moved slower on Dad’s scarf than I’d hoped to, but got about 15 inches knit in the car. (And, no, before you ask, I didn’t finish any of the Christmas knitting this year. The scarf is nearing completion and Gramma’s hat is next on my list. Mum’s second sock will probably have to be mailed…)

3. I headed to Massachusetts on Sunday to see what Northampton could offer me for my money. It was a remarkably productive trip, allowing me to shop independently at an organic food store, a music shop, two different bookstores, a gift shop, a chocolatier, a kitchen goods store, and a dry good department store. I like knowing where my money goes and Northampton has been remarkably diligent about keeping its downtown filled with small businesses as opposed to selling out to big franchises and national chains.

What was beautiful in your life this week?