Christmas wrapping and novel request

No church today - hurrah! And we're not going to this evening's carol service and party either. Double hurrah! We are indeed to be numbered amongst the lost ... Instead, Lord H and I had a lazy lie-in, followed by porridge (goodness, it must be winter) and our annual session of Christmas present wrapping. Not that it was that onerous, as we've cut out present-buying for most of those above the ages of 8 yrs. Seems reasonable to me. This session usually consists of me looking at the gifts and the wrapping paper, waving my hands in the air frantically whilst sobbing and then retreating to the safety of the spare room. Upon which desertion, Lord H wraps his cloak of capability round him and wraps them all up himself. There were no changes this year. Though, cunningly, I did furnish him with a pen and a pile of post-it notes so he could put what each present was on the top after he'd wrapped it. This saved the agony we had last year of having to unwrap everything to work out what it was before rewrapping it with a label, accompanied by a stiff brandy. Or two.

And hell's bells, we (that's the marital "we" here) now have them all wrapped and in bags to go. Somewhere. If only we could find a post office still open to take them after the government's last cull. Do we still actually have a postal service in this country?

Further deep joy - Two Ravens Press (http://www.tworavenspress.com) have actually emailed me to request the full MS of "Maloney's Law". Ye gods and little fishes! General rejoicing and astonishment abound in the house. So I've spent most of the afternoon printing it out, stroking it, kissing the pages and putting them in an envelope. Which is now ready to go - at which point the last para applies once more.

Oh, and to cap all the festivity, I forgot to say that Lord H got his first theology essay back from his new course - they gave him an "A" which corresponded to 72%. Double hurrah! Again. Naturally, I spent the next ten minutes after finding this out shrieking with joy and pounding him on the head. Well, I'm from Essex - this is how we express approval. And all Lord H could say was that he thought 72% was a bit low. Honestly, these intellectuals are never satisfied ...!

I've also done a job-lot of other submissions for other stuff, including non-fiction, so never let it be said that I have wasted my day of rest. I might even do some more to "The Gifting" later. You never know.

So this week's haiku is:

That afternoon, crisp.
In winter skies, a swan flew,
telling us of snow.

Today's nice things:

1. Lord H taking command of the wrapping strategy
2. Two Ravens Press requesting "Maloney's Law"
3. Not going to church.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk