The Christmas Period

As we approached Christmas, there is the gradual wind down in work. I have been mainly reading Field's Kepler's Geometrical Cosmology and Munday's Introducing Translation Studies, both quite thought-provoking in their different ways.

Emma has returned from Cambridge for a couple of weeks. This might be our last ever time when she will be back with us for so long. This makes me rather sad but I am determined to not let it get me down. Emma arrives home with a job offer for next year - perhaps the most important things that has happened lately.

There are frequent shopping trips for various things - the highlight for me is the annual Emma-book-buying trip. This year she is most keen to buy books related to her future work. This would not have been my choice, and it does seem odd to wrap up a book on management consultancy for Christmas for her

On the Tuesday before Christmas we have a trip to Oxford to meet Code's parents. They are over for a week with some family and friends. We haven't met them before though Emma stayed with them in the summer. We have lunch in Jamie's and then a walk round Oxford for a couple of hours, including the dodo at Pitt Rivers and Christchurch meadows

Then over Christmas itself, I have three days virtually totally off work - depending on whether skimming through books counts as work. My main christmas presents are, as usual, various books - Tycho's Opera Omnia Vol 1-5, Campion A History of Western Astrology Vol 2, The Palgrave Advances in Renaissance Historiography, Rosan's The Philosophy of Proclus and Dick Dastardly's Guide to Being Dastardly! I bought Emma an expensive handbag and Linda an expensive watch.

Two of my heros

Boxing day is spent - as usual - at Andrew and Julie's, except for Emma who spends it with Code in London. My mum comes with us and seems to have a good day. Highlight is perhaps the DVDs made by Andrew from his collection of home videos - including some of Emma aged five or so.

In all, we have three days with my mum. I find myself thinking lots of thoughts about mum at the moment, assessing how she is doing, whether she is busy enough, how often I should visit and so on. Her downward mental trend seems to me to be more pronounced, but it is hard to say whether this is important or not at this stage.

Most popular present seems to be the ER boxset - all 15 series for £65. We have started to watch this from the beginning and might finish all 331 in 2010 at the current rate.