Christmas eve

Well, except for making the dinner salad, everything's pretty much ready to go. We leave for church in about 2 hours for the "no-rehearsal Christmas pageant" where Veeka will either be an angel like last year or maybe she'll be one of the 3 kings. The weather here is cold but clear which is delightful for all of us up and down the East Coast who depended on decent flying weather to get in and out during the holidays. Oma and Opa arrived on Tuesday and they've been hanging out at the house, decorating the tree, helping me with the groceries, putting up a mirror and wrapping gifts for under the tree, 99% of which are for Miss Veeka. I, alas, am quite late with the Christmas cards, which I only recently ordered from Vista Print - great invention, that site. And there was a slight crisis with my hard drive crashing on Wednesday, which delayed my getting out the Christmas letter. Anyway, Opa is watching the Vikings vs the Redskins, Oma is dozing and I am half-watching Veeka who is playing with her dollhouse.I do have another article out; this one in The Christian Century; my first sale to that magazine and yes, it's about politics.  I have one more big assignment due and then I need to rustle up more business. Am also starting work for a web site so we'll see how that goes. The photo to the right shows a scene at the College Park aviation museum where I took Veeka and 2 friends to see Santa Claus land by helicopter which was a thrill (for them). Tons of kids mobbed the event but there were lots of crafts that were free so a good time was had by all except I was left exhausted! The things on their heads are balloons, btw.Tomorrow will be quiet; opening gifts, then doing little until we head over to Rob and Jan's for Christmas dinner. The other day, I took Veeka and a friend to the Newseum downtown which was a fascinating look at the history of media and how it has affected our culture. I never really knew about events such as the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and how that spooked the country in the 1930s. There was a whole section of the room devoted to September 11 and a whole wall of newspaper headlines that ran September 12. And screen upon screen of newsreels from the first few hours of that awful day.My two kitties have so enjoyed all the extra attention they get from Opa so they are definitely enjoying this holiday. Five years ago this week I was in Seattle, madly getting together extra cash for my flight to Kazakhstan. Amazing how quickly the years have passed as Veeka is now 6.Merry Christmas to all!