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.