It is aways such a great feeling to hold that advance copy in your sweaty mitts. It all suddenly feels so much more real.

The rest of my life is actually pretty wonderful right now now that I think about it. I feel so damn creative in this city, even with the freezing cold invading my bones. The semester at Columbia went well and it's almost over so between now and late in January I am free to write, write, write. It's such a treat for me. The kids leave for Georgia before I do, however, as I do every year I will be down there for Christmas fighting off the drowsy mud dauber wasps who like to crawl around on my little bed before they die. Any time Ava and Chet get to spend time with their parents together it's Christmas and when it's actually Christmas it's paradise for them. It's good for me too. I get to feel a little mopey and sentimental for all that has changed, all that was lost and also to think about the New Year and and the adventures to come.

Still, we have another two weeks here so we're buying a tabletop tree. Ava is beside herself, got up at six just to unpack the decorations (one bags worth from the Duane Reade pharmacy). When I was a kid we had one main cardboard footlocker sized box with cardboard compartments for the menagerie of exotic ornaments my mom would collect throughout the year. We would string popcorn some years and I would bring in the tree myself from the Boy Scouts where I was selling them.