My mind is boggled from holiday prep, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. My To Do list never seems to end. 

How are you guys holding up?

Yesterday, while it was twilight, cold and snowing, we ran down to the hot, crowded store to restock the cat litter (hey, it's a tradition) and sitting out front was the best Salvation Army bell-ringer I've ever seen. He looked just like Santa, including the suit, and despite only getting maybe one in every 15 people to drop a dollar in the pot, wore a sweet, warm smile and called Merry Christmas to everyone who passed. Irresistible.

I was also chasing a last-minute gift that I knew someone dear to me wanted, and undoubtedly exists SOMEWHERE but not, I discovered, here. It can't be shipped, it isn't stocked, and so I was left frustrated and having to settle for a lesser mutation of it, instead. That frustration led to one of those silent meltdowns in the brain, where you're left pushing a twenty-ton cart full of cat litter and birdseed through a steamy, clogged and crowded store with narrow aisles and people who see you struggling to get past them but still stop dead and turn to statues right in front of you, forcing you to push your boulder-on-wheels cart around them.

Talk about a moment of very un-peace-on-earth-good-will-to-man thoughts. 

Luckily, it passed as soon as I got out of there, and now I know for absolutely sure that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE online shopping and do not love real shopping.  I hope I remember this next year.

In book news, HOW IT ENDS picked up 5 stars and was called Heartrending, catastrophically beautiful over at A Good Addiction and the rest of the review is lovely, too. Makes my day.

So, with that in mind, it's time to make fresh coffee and get moving. It's snowing -- just flurries -- and there's brisk cheer in the air.

Good. That'll work.