Quick Pre-Christmas Update

I feel like I can't possibly catch up on all the good stuff that's been happening here lately. I shall have to resort to the bullet list format:

• Mum arrived safely on Friday, and we went directly to her favorite restaurant (visit number one).
• Saturday we ran some errands, not so exciting but nice to be together for. And a rare-for-either-of-us breakfast out!
• Saturday late afternoon we went into Boston, had a lovely dinner at Legal Sea Foods, our traditional choice of meal before attending ...
• The Nutcracker! Which was amazing! We had great seats (I got off two photos before being asked to put the camera away[I don't know why the Opera House is shy: it's beautiful!]):
  

• The music was lovely, the dancing, the costumes ... happy sigh. Plus, unlike last year, we didn't have lots of snow and bitter winds to deal with. It was cold, sure, but not miserable. Sadly, that's an improvement. A lovely evening.
• Sunday we had a relaxed morning, with a Dunkin Donuts run and the Sunday paper. In the afternoon, we went to an open house that friends of mine were having, which was a really nice time, involving good friends, good food, kids running around being cute, caroling, the whole nine yards.
• From there we went to dinner with family friends, at the wonderful Angela's Coal Fired Pizza in Saugus. And we saw excellently over-the-top Christmas lights on the way there and back (Saugus is good like that).
• Monday morning I went to work, as I had told my boss I would do this week if there was work for me to do. After a few hours of no work, I found my boss, she agreed that the work she thought would be ready and needing me this week seemed to be stalled, and after she checked with the other proofreader to confirm that she was okay with flying solo this week, I was sprung. Home in time for lunch!
• After which we went to the movies. The show-times for Harry Potter didn't work with the timing, so we saw Tangled, which was good silly fun.
• After which we went to drop in to my stitch and bitch group, but no one else was there, presumably because of the snow.
• Oh yes, the snow! Our first of the season! Not too much in terms of accumulation, but messy and all. I could have done without it, but it's par for the course, really. More is on the way--it's flurrying now. Oh joy.
  
• So we moved on to dinner, at Mum's favorite restaurant (visit number two).
• Following which, we came home to watch the rest of the Bruins game. Let us draw a veil over that game, and not speak of it again. Thank you.
• Tuesday we went to lunch with a former neighbor, then sat around her house catching up, and admiring the Christmas decorations and the animals, including multiple cats and a bunny:

• We had another lovely dinner out, then drove around for a while looking at Christmas lights. We saw a Santa in a convertible on the roof, one on a motorcycle (the inflatable kind), and one in an inflatable airplane complete with moving propellers. It was great.

Today my brother comes to town, I foresee visit number three to Mum's favorite restaurant, and tomorrow we go over the river and through the woods. Merry Christmas!