Two things this week. I failed to give Romeo equal time in front of the cameras this week. And I just never got around to even attempting those “try to make your cats look like they enjoy Christmas” photos. It was a clear case of anticipatory failure. I expected the attempt would flop, so I just never got around to trying it.

It looks like we’ll be distancing ourselves today. Meda said the most exciting thing on her schedule for the day looks like the morning shower. I hope my sous vide steak this evening will be at least a mini-highlight.

We don’t have a tree or much in the way of decorations. Back when we had youthful cats, we recognized it would have been an invitation to mayhem, and over the years we just got out of the habit.

And we’ve never been much on surprising each other with gifts. We’re generally better at picking our own gifts, which we don’t hesitate to do any time of year. Well, that’ not true. We hem and haw a lot whenever we’re tempted to spend money. Meda will usually want to check some thrift shops first to see if a similar product is available for pennies on the dollar. She’s successful a surprising amount of the time. A we’ll spend small amounts of money, no problem. But “real” money, conspicuous consumption kind of spending? Well, that causes both of us to recoil, reconsider, review, and repeat. But we have co-evolved in this same direction, so neither of us can complain.

As a result, Christmas is for seeing friends (but not so much this year), gifting copies of my photo calendars, an exchanging those long “what I did during my summer vacation” letters with people from the past who we wish we had stayed in closer touch with over the year.

But we have Kali to cheer us up, a steak in the freezer, and a good bottle of wine we were gifted. I’ll roast some brussel sprouts, Meda will slice a couple of tomatoes, and we’ll be good to go. I’m sure there are even some xmas cookies from friends to top off the meal. But the day between now and then is a bit barren, I admit. There’s a Zoom with Meda’s siblings somewhere this afternoon, and I imagine a Christmas afternoon nap will somehow suggest itself.

Oh, well. So it goes. Enjoy the cats.