Ahh . . .

Grades are in, and most semester stuff is finished. I *think* yesterday I finished off responses to students beseeching, whining, whimpering, or "just asking" about grades--and their parents, believe it or not. As in, "Please contact me on my cell phone at your earliest convenience regarding my child's grade in your course . . ." Uh--no. Maybe I should set up an auto-response email. The end of the semester feels really good except for the parent-email buzz-kill.

Apart from that, things are turning festive around the old (new) homestead. We put our tree up, and it sat naked and unadorned in the sunken room for a few days, until it got dressed in a cute little corduroy skirt yesterday. Beads and dangly stuff hopefully tonight. I've been baking lots of cookies in between grading and unpacking and sorting stuff.

There's still lots to do:
Get food ready for Christmas
Finish shopping (almost done . . .)
Wrap gifts
Send off Christmas cards--eek!
Finish clearing space in basement for Christmas guests :)
Clean basement
Set up guest bed
Replace toilet in guest bath & clean
Paint baby's room
Repaint dresser
Refinish trunk
Finish book review
Send in notes from research trip
Continue endless unpacking and sorting and cleaning . . .

Of course, the toilet project is pretty much all Sam. My job will be to try not to hover and look concerned when things crash and bang, and noxious gases and curses escape. But it all feels much more leisurely and relaxed--we have faculty meetings, etc., tomorrow, but today it's bright and the sun is shining down on the snow and later we're going Christmas shopping.