How do I have time to blog -- with Christmas cards, gift shopping, travel to pack for, people to dine with, dustbunnies to vacuum and prose to write for pay? Super-efficiency, that's right! Or maybe some last-minute procrastination. I have just a few things left to do before we take off next Saturday, and only at Christmas would I be looking forward to cold, snowy weather and a crowded airplane trip with transfers. Kendra and John are here this weekend to shop for homes up in Valencia. We had dinner with them last night and it's surreal and wonderful that they'll be living here again in just 3 weeks. Time has passed so quickly since Kendra left for Boston four years ago -- now they'll be back with Bogart (dog) and Dylan (baby) - as SoCal continues to attract despite the housing/traffic situtation. What is it about this place?

Maybe it's Manhattan Beach, where Leslie had her first-ever MB holiday gathering last Sunday. The fireworks went off at 7 p.m. and all the MB locals had prepared by doing up their beach mansions and cottages in lights. The effect was ethereal and beautiful and I thought to myself, it does not get better than this. Akhil and I agreed that if we hit the windfall one day wherever we are, we'll come back and live there and be smug. That said, we have it pretty good. Happy holidays!

December is turning out to be a rather bustling and festive month after all, with cool "winter" temperatures here in L.A. and snow to look forward to in the east when we take off on Christmas Eve for a ten-day break out there -- marking our third visit to New England this fall. Impressive! If the shopping crowd is any indication, the economy is doing pretty darn well - this year it seems the hoards are out in full force, myself included, but as of this afternoon I think I'll be pretty much done with gift buying -- and two weeks early too. Also impressive! What did we do before the Internet?

We're doing pretty well keeping up with friends too: Julie was here from Houston for a wedding last weekend so I got a long overdue visit with her and Joel at the decked-out Ritz Carlton in Pasadena. Afterwards Akhil and I took Joy and Paul up on an invitation to the annual Castle Green open house tour. She and the other tenants in that building, which is a striking, enormous former hotel built in 1899, are serious about their decor. The place has become somewhat of a house of style, with prices to match, these days. Joy always provides an amazing spread of Japanese food and wine and desserts, that this year included these cream puffs from a place called Beard & Papas in Hollywood. Run, don't walk: you must try these things. They are 100 times dreamier than Krispy Kremes.

That kicked off a week that included our big office move to spacious digs-with-a-view in Encino, dinner at the Huntley Hotel with Tony and Angel last night in Santa Monica, and tonight, holiday fireworks chez Leslie (who's serving chili and beer) in Manhattan Beach. The restaurant at the Huntley is on the top floor (it's called "Toppers") so we got a view of last night's Marina del Rey fireworks during dinner last night, too, which was an unexpected bonus. No time for a tree in our place this year, but we do have stockings, lights and the requisite poinsettia, of course. What I need to do next is get the New Years Resolutions list going. It will be a tome. 2006 will be the year of taking control of our destiny.

I was reading the "Heathervescent" blog mentioned over the weekend in the L.A. Times piece on Los Angeles blogs and took away a real appreciation for what Heather, the blogger does so wonderfully -- she frames everything just right to ensure that life is what it is if you make it that way: a continually exciting and satisfying adventure. Such a great way to look at things! I love the Heathervescent blog. Here are the Thanksgiving Day Seattle participants -- we didn't take much time to appreciate things that day, but you can see we should have.