The weekends are doing me in<

/div>It ain’t the work, it’s the weekends. At least in December it is. So crazy busy lately. Friday night, got talked into going to rollerskating night at the elementary school, something I’ve never done before. I was happy for the chance to strap on some quads for the first time since I can’t remember when, and it was as orderly as an event featuring a school gym, countless children, and rental rollerskates can possibly be. If the PTO really wanted to raise money, they’d tape it and sell it, because watching hundreds of kids constantly hitting the deck doesn’t stop being funny.

Yesterday, running around, a birthday party, household chores and the Aimee Mann Christmas show at the Egg. Aimee was great — less of a blow-the-roof-off-the-dump approach than last time around, but a nice mix of her current Christmas stuff and a few songs from throughout her career. Grant Lee Phillips, an able showman, was there, as well as Rachel Yamagata — neither one was my cup of tea, but by building them into the show instead of presenting them as opening acts, there was a much nicer flow, there was no intermission, and things just kept on moving. Very nicely done. Today, two rounds of dress rehearsals and finally The Nutcracker itself, the late show at the Egg tonight. Somewhere in all this some laundry and housework got done.

Christmas is a little messed up this year. For starters, my mother is of the belief that she can just up and decide not to provide lasagna for dinner on Christmas Eve. She tried this once before, it may have been 1977, and there was a general revolt. But the crowds are smaller and perhaps more docile now than they were then, and she’s probably thinking she can get away with it. We shall see. And because of the shuttling of children, my sister is declining to do the Christmas day get-together, which is fine but which leaves me scrambling to figure out how to fill the day and feed the family. There may be a sudden repeat of last year’s Rachael Ray Christmas. In fact, the panettone is waiting to be made into pudding right now.

New Year’s Eve is even more messed up, as Albany has cancelled First Night, and I’m really not going to want to drive all the way to Saratoga. There’s a smaller schedule of entertainment during the daylight hours on the 30th, but that’s not the same, is it? Not sure I’m up for hosting anything, and we have an invitation or two, but still not sure what we’re going to do. (Of course, if I could, I’d be skiing on any and all of these days, but still no snow to speak of here in the Northeast.)