I must say, after just the first day off for my Christmas PTO, I am feeling particularly great about the decision to take this time off now—and not just because it gives me a good excuse to get out of working store holiday shifts. Although I will admit that's a significant part of the motivation (because I am an unrepentant weasel—which I have now told multiple people, to their fairly consistent amusement).

I do so much stuff around and for the holidays, it's nice to have a week with extra time in which to do it. By 1:00 yesterday afternoon, I was feeling especially productive, as I'd spent a bit over an hour getting all my Christmas presents wrapped (almost all of them calendars, three of them White Elephant gifts).For the calendars, I used what might be my favorite gift wrap I've ever used, one a red version and one a blue version of a sparkly snowflake design. The photo I took doesn't quite do the sparkliness of it justice. Also: much as it had annoyed me that switching to Shutterfly for my calendar printing service forced me to order smaller-sized calendars, the upside of that was that the gift wrap was the perfect width for the calendars when cut right down the center.

My feeling productive continued later in the afternoon, when I took the bus from downtown to meet Shobhit when he got off work at 3:00—even though he was out delivering, and I had to wait in the car for nearly half an hour, for him to get back. That was fine, though. I first walked across the parking lot to Michaels to see if they might have anything for stocking stuffers (they did not, I should have known), and then in the car I just killed the time on TikTok. Porn and TikTok: these are evergreen time killers.

We then did a bit of shopping, going first to the Ballard PCC, yet again, to use up two more of the "Friends & Family" $10 off $40 coupons I had from work, after having used another two of them on Sunday. These can't be doubled up in the same transaction, so we just split up our product and made it two transactions. We stocked up on cat food.

We also drove to Shobhit's new produce favorite stand, now that MacPherson's on Beacon Hill has closed: Lenny's Produce, in Greenwood (I had to consult a map of Seattle neighborhoods to figure that out). It was there that I decided, after weeks of thinking I would not do so, to make something for the Ugly Sweater Brunch I plan to return to the office for today: they had fresh strawberries at a good price, and also sold bananas, so I decided, okay fine, I'll make strawberry banana bread after all. We watched Meet Me in St. Louis after making dinner once we got home, and I then made two loaves—one for the brunch today, and one for Christmas.

By the way: we didn't have any new episodes of television to watch, so I suggested we watch an old holiday movie—and I chose Meet Me in St. Louis, which is streaming on Max. I spent most of the movie wondering how it got to be so beloved. It must have just been on the undeniable strength of Judy Garland's star power, as well as a couple of classic songs it introduced to the world (The Trolly Song, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas). Most of the movie does not take place at Christmas, though, so I even felt that calling it a "Christmas movie" was kind of a stretch. But, I added it to my Christmas Watches 2023 list anyway—making it the eighth I've watched this year already. In the end I will have watched at least nine, maybe ten this year; either way I'll have a record number watched this year—mostly because I started unusually early (Batman Returns, my pick or Action Movie Night in November) and because the latest Action Movie Night pick was also a Christmas movie (Violent Night).

The Major Event of my day yesterday, though, what might even be called the highlight, was my return to this year's Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Hotel. Yesterday had long been my selected date to go to that this year, with Laney, but I wound up going earlier than anticipated when Shobhit and Alexia and I made the impromptu decision to go there on the 9th, after we had walked downtown to see the Holiday Lights & Delights at Westlake Park (we also checked out the Fleurs de Villes Noel floral display at Pacific Place, making three holiday-attraction stops that day).

I figured coming back with Laney would yield details I missed the first visit, though, and I was certainly right about that: there were several references, particularly to the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, that I missed on the 9th. These included the Blueberry Girl; Veruca Salt with her demand for a golden egg; and the glass elevator, which actually extended from a long pole right out on the confines of the gingerbread house as long as you pressed a button.

This means that, both in 2022 and 2023—after covid cancellations in both 2020 and 2021—I had an initial visit to the Gingerbread Village, taking the bulk of the year's photos, and then a return visit later, with a few more photos added. Last year, I just went by myself on Wednesday, the second day of my Christmas PTO, at 1:00 in the afternoon, and took 21 shots. I then returned 10 days later with Shobhit and his niece Shivi, during her first visit with us, and took another 5 shots, making the total number for last year 26 shots.

This year, I took more photos both visits: 26 shots when I went with Shobhit and Alexia; then an additional fourteen when I returned with Laney yesterday. I think the biggest contributing factor here was being with other people both times, who could help me see details I would otherwise miss. (In my defense, all of these gingerbread houses are insanely detailed. I can't fathom how many hours they took to construct.)

It only ever takes maybe ten minutes, max, to go through and look at all the gingerbread houses (these days "only" four, but they are all giant and insanely ornate). When we got through it, Laney suggested we get a drink from the Starbucks that's right there in the lobby, to visit for a bit, and kill time before I needed to head over to catch a bus to meet Shobhit.

This was where, even though I had just wildly overpaid for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory on Saturday (one entree and two cocktails plus tax and tip coming to $66: even Alexia's jaw dropped when I told her), I overpaid here as well: at least it wasn't anywhere near $66, in my defense, sort of. But it was a "Gingerbread Chai," which is really delicious, in the smallest cup they had available, eight ounces: this still came to a total of $7.33! And, because even when it's expensive, I am not comfortable not tipping a barista, I added a dollar, so I actually paid $8.33. For an eight-ounce drink.

Now, I suppose I should add: Seattle's cost of living is insanely high. I don't have any idea how much Starbucks baristas get paid, and I would presume it's less than we pay store staff at PCC. I would hope they get paid a living wage, and that's what these prices fund. I kind of doubt it, given the gargantuan size of the Starbucks corporation—and the well-known fact that they are union busters—but, in all likelihood, the fact that we're simply in Seattle is likely a factor there.

Now, because of both that stupid chai (honest though? worth it) and because of extra shops at PCC to use $10 off $20 coupons, I am over budget by about $39. Which really isn't too terrible. and I won't need to buy cat food again for a while. This is the whole point of budgeting rather than relying strictly on bank account balance (which is always far higher than my budget balance, for a multitude of perfectly logical reasons): I can easily absorb going over budget when I might need to, in cases like this. I haven't been in danger of overdrawing my account in a solid two decades. Shobhit does also deserve a lot of the credit for that.

Anyway, Laney wanted a selfie for our little outing, and I suggested we hold up our holiday cups standing in front of the pretty Christmas Tree in the Sheraton lobby. So, once it was close to time to go, that's what we did—deliberately positioning our cups so the Starbucks logo could not be seen. Everyone will still recognize them as Starbucks cups, but this way I felt less like I was giving them free advertising. I paid them enough already!

[posted 8:52 am]