The last several days are rather a blur; much talking, much eating, not
enough sleep. I slept until noon yesterday, finally catching up a bit,
and another eight hours or more last night. I'm honestly not so sure what
I've done between then and now...I spent much of today playing The
Sims, so my brain's a bit foggy. I've set it aside now, and have
been reading The Two Towers again. I meant to pack it, but
forgot, which is just as well since Sharmi (youngest sister) had a copy.
Much fun.I took a lot of photos of Sharmi this Christmas -- tons of photos overall, in fact, over 150 of my family. Of course, I didn't take most of them -- I handed the digital camera to my young cousins and told them to go crazy. It did take me a couple of hours to delete all the bad ones and edit the rest into reasonable form, but that's okay -- I ended up with far more good photos than I would've if it'd just been me taking photos...and if it'd been a regular camera, well, then I probably wouldn't have bothered taking pictures at all.
The kids loved their books. Christmas evening I sat in the living room and read it to some of them. Very pleasant. :-) I can't imagine what it'd be like not knowing your cousins; I'm very fond of mine. Because I'm the oldest, and so much older than the rest of them (at least five years), I haven't really had any conflict with them. They also hardly ever see me. So I get to be the beloved older cousin who they willingly fetch and carry for. They're so sweet. :-) And getting really interesting as they get older and develop their own personalities; you can watch them forming, year by year. It's fascinating.
I think I'm going to go back to Tolkien; it's been a decade or so since I read these, and I didn't realize how much I'd forgotten. I couldn't remember what happened in the middle book, aside from the Ents. But there's lots -- Theoden and Isengard and the Palantir, and then with Frodo, Cirith Ungol and Shelob and a fair bit more, I'm sure. And of course, it all takes a while, given the fancy way these people talk. :-) Plus all the pretty descriptions that Tolkien likes lingering over. Not to mention the songs. I'm really curious to see how they dramatize this second book -- it's driving me a little nuts that it's done, and we still have to wait 'til next December. Argh....