Spinach pie, holiday cards, cold rainy day

For the first time in recent memory, today is both cold and rainy; gross really, but I don't really mind because we've been so lucky with gorgeous weather in recent weeks and we need the rain. Despite the soggy, chilly wetness all around, I am feeling totally infused with the holiday spirit. My cards arrived, and I got the first dozen or so off this morning. We busted out the Christmas music this morning, a CD Tom made me from an old record my parents still have that my sis and I grew up listening to. The record is remains in fine shape - though the sound has gotten a tad weathered- but we don't have a record player, my parents wouldn't let me have it anyway, and thus, I was desperate for a copy of the album for our house. Tom, my dear engineer, figured out how to copy the songs onto his computer, clean away the scratchiness and other background noise and then burn the like-new album onto a CD. I don't know how any of those steps occurred, but I am thankful. I have a sitter coming this afternoon and while I usually try to go great guns when I have help, I think I'm calling it a me-afternoon and going to stay home, bundled in sweatpants with a cup of tea, writing cards and catching up on reading. Amazing how luxurious that sounds and how hard it is to do it sometimes. I often feel like I need to be accomplishing things, even if those "critical items" are actually banal chores like picking up the dry cleaning and so forth. But today, non!

This evening I'm going to make a lovely spinach pie. My friend, SJ of buckeye fame, sent me the recipe she uses (Barefoot Contessa) so I'm going to give it a whirl. Mmm...that sounds lovely as a warm meal on a cold night.