I went to a Christmas brunch with Ann today. The food was good, the atmosphere was festive and the company was perfect. I’m thankful for the lovely time. We even got a bonus visitor at our table.

This evening I lit a fire in the downstairs fireplace and started wrapping Christmas presents. I used a cheater log—one of those Duraflame ones that burn for 4 hours. Only I thought I’d speed it up by knocking it apart. DO NOT DO THAT! It burned aggressively and started smoking. I was half afraid I’d wind up with a chimney fire. And then I had to open the doors to let the smoke out. I also put up our new smoke detector, just in case. I’m really grateful nothing came of it, and I got a good start on wrapping.