I did not do my part for the American retail industry. I bought some materials at Tandy Leather and at the local hardware store, which I need for a gift I am making for my older son James. That’s it. Actually, I did my serious Christmas shopping months ago, and had no intention of going near a mall today.

I also started a batch of mead. After reading about rhymeswithghoti‘s mead brewing a while back I had been thinking it was time to brew again. This will be another of my sparkling dry ginger meads, which have been well received by many, including the dance guild of colgaffneyis. Long ago my father said that my mead was the only drinkable mead he had ever tasted. Anybody who knew him would recognize that this was quite a complement.

This morning our younger son Tom let mia_mcdavid and me sleep until 7:20–not as good as yesterday, but not bad by our standards. Later I was able to to do all of the mead preparation while Mia was taking a nap, and while I was also watching Tom–the aide we were supposed to have was AWOL. Tom was quite well behaved, and both of us actually had quite a pleasant time.