December

It's calmed down enough around here today that I actually remembered it's holiday time. Outside just now, I saw someone skateboard sailing on windy St. James Street, with a big plastic sail.

At stores during the holiday season, I have on several occasions over the past few years found myself spotting and reaching for a gift I want to buy for my dear grandmother, then quickly remembering that she's been gone for almost a decade. It's a reflexive response that happens when I see things like marzipan (her favorite candy), or anything rose-scented. That's what I bought her every year.

This year, the impulse has been followed by the urge to buy the item anyway, and maybe give it to someone else. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without getting her a gift. There's a charity box in the elevator bay at work. I think I'll buy some rose-scented soap or hand lotion and add it to the box, for her.

_{FUN FACT: She gave me the nickname "Plum Blossom" when I was a baby, in part because I looked remarkably Asian for the first year or so of my life. When I joined LJ, someone else was using the name, so I planted the Tree in the middle myself.}