Despite having recently won the Newbery Medal for best children's book, Neil Gaiman occasionally suggests children weren't his intended audience in The Graveyard Book. He mentions European librarians have the book shelved in both the adult and children's sections, while American librarians argue over placing it in the children's or young adult sections. Gaiman seems not too concerned, hoping that all have access to it; I agree. It is an excellent book for readers of any age.

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One of the things I am looking forward to this year is the Middle School production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." My son got a part after trying out at the urging of his friends who later dropped out. I am proud of him for sticking out the audition process which has to be tough on a 14 year old boy and landing the part of the book voice. He is also going to be in the scene for Brotherhood of Man with a little solo and plenty of song and dance. I am sure this means I will end up painting the entire set but hey I live for this crap.

I have also been considering what I might do with myself now that the kids are pretty self sufficient and I have a lot less volunteer stuff to do than when they were younger. I have been trying to get a job in social work or psychology but having been out of the field for 8 or 9 years hurts on top of entering a weak job market. The money stinks too which is a big drawback. I am considering options such as painting murals and faux finishes since I do get calls for jobs occasionally despite not really marketing myself as an artist. Despite a weak economy, I live in an area that is close to some very wealthy neighborhoods. If I can make this work, I think I would prefer doing the murals. I am still thinking on it though.

I have so much to be grateful for at the end of this year. My daughter is being taken off the immune suppressants to give it a go without drugs to see if she is in a remission of her autoimmune disease as yet still unnamed. She is going to have a minor surgery to clear up some damage to her vocal chords next week but it looks as though she is doing much better. She got all A's and one B+ in her first semester at Penn so that was great too. Hopefully one of these days she'll decide what she wants to do but hey I am still figuring that out so I don't have room to talk there.

( Infringing on Bluestocking's shout outs. See them all behind the cut! )

So, today I am recovering from the massive dinner for 20 I have once a year for my family and in-laws on Christmas. This is a beast of a dinner that I have made into a monster. The first year I had it I made the mistake of making Le Bec-Fin crabcakes so now everyone expects them every year. I usually make a tenderloin roast with bernaise sauce so we had that as well. For sides I have redskin mashed potatoes and Potatoes gratin with mustard and cheddar cheese, green beans with roasted peppers in balsamic vinaigrette and candied carrots. We had cheesecake, tiramisu, and a Philly classic Stocks pound cake. Top this all off with a the case of champagne my brother in law contributed and we had about an 8 hour feast that I am sure has some feeling not so terrific today.

This whole out-of-control dinner started the year my father died as an effort to have everyone together for dinner instead of one visit with my family and dinner with my in laws or vice versa. I got what I asked for so now I am left with spoils of doing this once a year. Generally, this wouldn't be so bad except for timing everything to come out at the same time. I think it might be easier to establish Middle East peace than to get everything ready for serving at the same time. By the time the dinner is on the table I am ready for the rag bag.

It's usually about this time that some of the craziness starts to unfold. I was reading an article about holiday movies which made the point that we like movies that show families more dysfunctional than our own. There is definitely some comedy that unfolds during these dinners that might make these movies look tame. Truth be told, I don't know anyone who doesn't describe their family as dysfunctional and perhaps one of the benefits of age is getting past the point where you are tangled in the dysfunction enough to watch it unfold as if it were a movie. I am not all the way there yet but my husband and I had a good joking debate on whose family was more dysfunctional. Mine won this year but he added in a moment of wisdom, "so far." We have about 5 more days for his family to win but I am pretty sure he knows it is unlikely. At least we can laugh about it. So how was your Christmas?