My boyfriend and I got together to celebrate the holiday last night. He brought over take-out Chinese and we exchanged gifts and watched a video. I got him a "Thera-cane," a device for doing self-massage and getting at one's "trigger points." We'd come across the device in a "Relax the Back" store in November, and he tried it in the store and said that it got out a tough knot. He's always complaining about pains in his back, shoulder and forearm (as a graphic designer, he spends too much time on the computer by necessity). I was so impressed with the device that I got one for myself and one for my mom, too. For my sister, I renewed a favorite magazine subscription of hers that I've been buying her for a few years now. As for what I got, well, Tom paid for the annual B.J.s Warehouse membership that we share, and he took home two of my dresser drawers that were broken to repair. (This is typical; I buy him things; he gives me gifts of help with home maintenance and repair that I cannot do on my own.) My mother sent me a check, and I told her that some of the recent clothes purchases and a book purchase I made earlier this month were "her gift" to me. My sister says that she has something for me, but, knowing her, I suspect that I'll receive it when next I visit her in L.A.

As for the big day itself, it was quiet. As I'm Jewish and don't really celebrate Christmas but rather "the holidays," spending the day alone was no big deal. I had originally planned to accompany my boyfriend to his parents, but he was concerned about some current family stresses and felt it might be better if I didn't come today. The day was sunny and relatively warm, so I spent a couple of hours finishing up some fall garden chores, another hour or so on the phone with my mother and sister out in California, and the rest of the time puttering about on the computer, making goals and plans for 2008 and tallying up my 2007 expenses. Now I'm about to sign off the computer and watch the second video that I rented yesterday.

So today was more like a lazy weekend day than like a holiday, but it's helping me renew my batteries after an exceptionally overybusy fall term.