FUN ON DEMAND

GREATEST SUCCESS OF R&J'S VISIT: I managed to book them onto the correct SuperShuttle, which was a relief, following my blunder with Dan!

While I was at church yesterday - where it seemed as though they were mopping up with all the carols we hadn't sung already, which was excellent - Max took Richard and Judy off to the National Archives. Unfortunately they didn't have as good a time there as Kate did, as it was terribly crowded, but they managed to see the 'big three' (the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence), then came home for lunch before packing and heading off to the airport.

It was very lovely of Richard and Judy to bring the mountain to Mohammad (to mix my religious metaphors) by coming here for Christmas and was nice to have a slice of home here at such a family-oriented time. I'm really glad all the cooking went well and have renewed respect for my Mum and Judy, who seem to take these big family occasions in their stride, but must work unbelievably hard!

Collapsing exhausted, we watched the next on Tom and Bambi's list of screwball comedies - 'Mr Deeds Goes To Town' - and I LOVED it!! Gary Cooper is one of my favourite favourite actors and Jean Arthur is fantastic in her movie debut (apparently she was very hard to work with and spent most of the shoot in tears of self-doubt). In classic Frank Capra style, it's funny and touching, while making a comment on society and the evils of putting money before humanity. And it features the line, "my game little wife", which I suspect Max might be using quite a lot from now on!

Maxy took today off, which was really nice, because I don't really feel like I've seen him all Christmas. It was also really nice to have the flat back to ourselves, as lovely as it's been to have his folks here. It's been an amazingly warm, sunny day and I was excited to that Max was going to have the chance to come to my brilliant yoga class this morning, where I was going to debut the ace yoga mat that Mum and Dad gave me for Christmas.

So we wandered down to the YMCA, me proudly joining the swollen ranks of DCites with yoga mats slung over their shoulders, only to discover it was closed due to a powercut! I was disappointed to see my yoga instructor disappearing around a corner, sad that I wouldn't get to use my new mat or show Max how cool the class is.

Instead, we pootled to Filene's Basement, where I bought a set of light dumbbells, because Carlos says I should be working out every day and at the weekends, go for walks while carrying dumbbells. I think Max was more embarrassed than me that I was standing at traffic lights, pumping weights, but I certainly regretted my decision to buy them quite so far from home, as they were quite heavy by the time I got back!

We took a detour on the way home and hit the Lucky Brand sale, which is always a pleasure. Then this afternoon, we discovered a whole world of fun on our TV - On Demand.

You press the On Demand button on your remote control, then have access to this huge cache of movies, programmes, music videos and even workouts(!) that are just sitting there, ready to be accessed - you've guessed it - on demand!

Some of the things, like new movies and shows like '30 Rock' - you have to pay for and, because the BBC pays our cable subscription, we don't want to complicate things by starting to buy stuff that just goes straight onto your bill. But there's a whole world of free stuff to watch, including loads of movies, 'CSI:NY', 'The Soup' and 'Leverage', which we watched four episodes of and are now really into (it's basically like 'Hustle', but with a bigger budget). Good news in this new age of the pitifully weak pound!

The future's bright, the future's On Demand!

This evening we went to see 'Marley & Me', which was fine, but not amazing. Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson were both fantastic, I thought, but the overwhelming thing I took from the movie is Never. Own. A. Dog. When alive, they make your life a misery, and then they die and you're really sad.

MEEEEERRY CHRISTMAS!!

KEEPING UP TRADITION: I of course spent Christmas Eve night with my stocking on my head, as per the tradition in my family...

This is the first Christmas that I've ever 'hosted' and it's been a really interesting and odd experience, to no longer be the person who gets to sit on the sofa, having meals cooked for them and drinks brought to them, but rather the person who, after loading the dishwasher for the millionth time is already starting to prepare the next meal and constantly think about what's next and what their guests might want.

Although it's been tiring and hard work, there's been something fun about the challenge of being the hostess with the mostest and I'm pleased to say that everything's gone pretty well.

On their request, we took Richard and Judy to the National Gallery on Christmas Eve and then I made a pleasingly successful white chocolate cheesecake, as I was keen to have dessert with every main meal over Christmas. I realise I had the opportunity to break the mould and not serve up a disgusting amount of food, to shun the notion that Christmas must be a time of over-indulging with rich food, but I didn't. The tradition is alive and well and I have the tummy to show for it. I doubt I have the body fat of an Olympic athlete anymore!

All four of us were up at 6am on Christmas Day, but not out of excitement at the presents that awaited us (in fact, I was embarrassingly disappointed to discover the stocking I'd put on the end of my bed only half in jest was empty!). We went over to my church to work at Charlie's Place, a homeless charity that works out of the church, serving hot breakfast to homeless people in the area.

Charlie's Place operates every Tuesday-Friday mornings, but they were short of volunteers for Christmas Day, so we all decided to help out and I'm so glad we did - it was an amazing way to start Christmas Day and Max and I plan to become regular volunteers there throughout the year.

Richard and Judy mostly worked in the kitchen, helping get ready the pre-prepared food (rice and beans, pasta with meat in it, salad, bread, veggies...), while Max and I were upstairs in the Sunday School room sorting through donated clothes and distributing them to those who needed them. There were probably about 30-40 (all-male) 'clients' who came for breakfast, and about 10 volunteers. We helped serve up breakfast and my job was to hand out Christmas presents at the end of the line. The guys had the choice of a present or a backpack and in fact, most went for the backpack, but those who went for the present got a box of toiletries and socks.

After such a great start to the day, we went home, not as tired as we were expecting to be, and opened stocking presents from Richard and Judy, then I went to church before coming back and getting the turkey on the go while we opened presents from under our spectacular tree.

It all got a bit embarrassing after a while, because most of the gifts were for Max and me, but Richard and Judy had lots waiting for them back in England and seemed happy enough to watch us open our booty. Maxy gave me just what I wanted - a beautiful two-tiered cakestand that's made from blue glass, with a doily pattern in it. My brownies will look wonderful on it! He also gave me a Nigella Lawson cookbook, which says quite a lot about the way I'm spending my time during this period as the goodly housewife!

I had a nice chat with Pickle, who called from Cardiff, and then served up lunch. It was a minor success - certainly not the disaster of the first Christmas lunch I ever cooked, but not quite as nice as the roast I did for Alison et al last week. Richard and Judy were kind enough to bring crackers over with them because - unbeknownst to me - you can't get them here. So it felt like a really proper Christmas lunch, bad jokes and all.

We were all keen to get out of the house after lunch, as it was a beautiful day, but I was aware that it was my only chance to call Mum and Dad, due to the time difference, and when I called them, they were in the middle of playing a game at Gordon's house, so Max and his folks headed off to see the gigantic tree at the White House, while I stayed home waiting for Mum and Dad to call me back, with a view to cycling down and meeting Max and his parents for the rest of their walk.

So I waited and waited. I cleaned the kitchen, made my thank you letter list, filled in next year's diary (thanks, Mog!) with birthdays and stuff and still waited. Three hours, I waited, all alone on Christmas Day!! It was dark by the time Mum and Dad called back and the walking party came home during our conversation, full of tales of the most beeeeautiful sunset and amazing Christmas tree. Huh!

The day was nearly redeemed by spending the evening in front of the first film off the list Tom and Bambi gave us - My Man Godfrey - which was great fun, though not quite as brilliant as we were expecting.

Yesterday, we went down to Alexandria, where Judy loved wandering around the artisan shops down by the waterfront and I enjoyed wandering around the Gap Outlet. Then I was up until 12.30am, putting together Anne's stinking photo album! It was only when I got halfway through putting the photos in that I realised I'd got completely the wrong person as the groom! So had to go back and make sure the right chap was better represented...!

It was beautiful weather again today, so we walked to Georgetown through a very sparse and spindly Dumbarton Oaks Park and saw the excellent 'Frost/Nixon', before having supper at Bangkok Bistro, where we've never been before and almost certainly won't go to again as my duck was groooss. We all really liked the movie, though and are kicking ourselves for not seeing it on the stage when Frank Langella and Michael Sheen were on the West End. They were both superb and for once I even enjoyed Ron Howard's directing. I usually find him something of a point-and-shoot director, but in this film he really used the camera, lighting and timing to make a point.

CHRISTMAS VISITORS

MOST DIFFICULT THING TO FIND SINCE FACECLOTHS: custard! Try as I - and SIX Wholefoods employees - might, I couldn't find custard to go with the apple crumble I'd had planned for one of our festive meals this week. It totally baffled everyone I asked!

Yesterday was mostly spent stocking up for Christmas at the various supermarkets around our area. I go to Wholefoods for stuff that matters if it's organic, like fruit and meat, Safeway for day-to-day stuff that isn't worth spending lots on and Harris Teeter for halloumi and my cereal - it's the only place in town that sells either!

Wholefoods and Safeway are on my way home from the gym, so I'm getting into quite a nice rhythm of swinging by there after a work out (I had my first proper personal training session with Carlos today, which went really well - he pushes me to the point of feeling like maybe I'll die, but I never actually do, so it's good). As much as I loathe my bike for all the trouble it gives me (I now can't change gears, because the chain keeps falling off, so I whizz down hills with my feet going ten to the dozen, and can barely get up hills or move away from traffic lights, so tough is it to pedal), it's jolly handy to have the baskets on the back for pootling around the supermarkets. I certainly couldn't have managed without them in the past couple of days - the amount of food I bought was pretty obscene (and heavy).

I had lunch with Anne before she disappeared to New York and New Mexico for Christmas then, as she was rushing for the bus this afternoon, she called to ask me a favour. I've learned an important lesson about friendship today: feel free to ask your friends anything, because they won't be able to say no! Anne has a couple of friends staying in her flat while she's away and the couple got married back in September, before moving to Geneva. Anne took a bunch of photos at their wedding and had promised them an album of them but ran out of time before she had to leave town for Christmas. So she's asked me to put the album together for her friends and leave it in her flat for them! While part of me really enjoys sorting stuff out and displaying it nicely, the actual putting the photos in the album bit is only a tiny part of the favour: first, I have to go to her apartment and pick up the stub to collect the prints, then I have to go downtown to collect the prints, then I have to wittle 500+ photos down to 250, then arrange them in the album, then go back to Anne's apartment (let's never forget she no longer lives next door, but 15 mins up the road - up being the operative word, cos she's up a hill) and leave the album for her friends! All the while, hosting Max's folks for Christmas.

So of course I said yes! (mainly because i hadn't put all this together in my head and it was clear Anne didn't have too much time for me to mull her question over, as she was jumping on a bus.)

It's funny, I almost miss having a job, for feeling that brilliant demob happiness when you 'break up' for Christmas. Max was very excited to finish work today, especially as it marked the point at which we were able to dig in to stuff on 'the table'. The Table is a Newth family tradition at Christmas - there's always a table loaded with treats like Quality Street and jelly fruit slices and biscuits and cheese strawbs and stuff and over the Christmas period, you're allowed to eat whatever you like off it whenever you like. It's shangri-la in table form and a tradition both Max and I are very happy to keep up in our own home at Christmas.

Max's parents flew in this evening and, as they were on their way from the airport, Max and I went and had a mini-Christmas meal just the two of us, before we put our hosting hats on for a week.

We finally managed to go to Lauriol Plaza, which is a four-storey mega Mexican restaurant just around the corner from us on 18th St, and something of a DC institution. Unfortunately, despite the fact it's massive, it's always packed, especially in summer, when jugs of frozen margaritas grace every table and queues stretch down the street.

The food was delicious and I can see why it's so popular. I guess we'll just have to limit our visits to cold winter nights, if we want to get a table!

Max's parents arrived full of Christmas cheer this evening and had kindly brought with them the Monster Munch that Max had ordered from Britain and also a jar of goose fat for me! I only meant for them to bring some if they could find it in a can, but the jar survived the journey and now our roasties will be all the more tasty!

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING & CAROLS

EXCELLENT NEW ADDITION TO OUR TREE: candy canes! Classic American Christmas treat and in keeping with our red, white and blue theme. Mmm, tasty too.

Man, it's so annoying. I started my Christmas shopping weeks ago and had almost everything for everyone by early December, having spent months planning and scheming.

Max, however, hasn't given it any thought, hadn't bought anything until yesterday, then spent an hour in Macy's and got the whole lot! No fair.

After the express Christmas shopping spree (which I spent in the lobby of Macy's, on the phone to Mum), we went to see 'Milk', which we very much enjoyed, though didn't necessarily love. James Franco was terrific, as was Josh Brolin, who I thought was extraordinary, and we could see that Sean Penn was really good and natural as Harvey Milk, but are kind of used to seeing him transform himself for roles, so somehow the very fact that he was convincing kind of made his performance less amazing to us.

What was amazing, however, were the trailers for 'Sunshine Cleaning' and 'The Wrestler', which we saw before the movie. Man alive, the one for 'The Wrestler' reduced me to tears - it's just great. And it helps that it's set to an amazing new Bruce Springsteen song:

Last night, we tried again with another film by the guy who wrote and directed the awesome 'Role Models', but unfortunately 'Wet Hot American Summer' was every bit as bad as 'The Ten', despite yet another stellar cast. We're going to give up now and assume that 'Role Models' was just a happy aberration.

I helped out at Sunday School this morning, but no-one turned up! So I hung around until church and was excited to see that David Plouffe's wife and little boy were reading the lesson and lighting the final Advent candle. David Plouffe stayed hidden away behind the lectern, but from where I was sitting, I could see him and it was so sweet when his little boy ran back to him after the reading, because Plouffe gave him a mini-fistbump! So that's where Obama gets it from...

We had a lovely webchat with Matt and Jilly when I got home, then walked up to the National Cathedral with Maxy for their Carols by Candlelight service. I'd never seen the stained glass windows in daylight before, and they're amazing.

It was a really beautiful service and a treat to sing carols in such an amazing building. Two choirs sang, both of whom were excellent, and halfway through we were given candles to hold during the prayers, the choir singing 'O Holy Night' and the congregation singing 'Silent Night' and 'Hark the Herald'. It was beeeautiful. Unfortunately Maxy spilt some melted wax on the coat slung over the chair in front of him, but otherwise the whole candle thing went well!

Among the familiar carols were some gorgeous pieces of music I'd never heard before. There was a really cool African hymn called African Noel arranged by Andre Thomas, in which the choir processed to the back of the church, chanting 'sing Noel' rhythmically and swaying from side to side. It was really cool and the rhythms and harmonies intertwined in really interesting ways. You can see far faster, less good version of the same carol here. We also heard O magnum mysterium by Morten Lauridsen, which was goosebump-inducingly beautiful, with its close harmonies and dissonances.

After the service, we decided to head up to Chevy Chase, to an independent cinema called the Avalon which we hadn't been to before, to see 'Happy-Go-Lucky', the new Mike Leigh film. On our way to the metro, we passed the most excellent example of what I thought Christmas in the American suburbs looks like:

The movie was terrific, we abolutely loved it. It captures London life so exactly, from the way people interact with the main character, to the way her flat is decorated, to the fact that it was filmed in and around Finsbury Park, including the street Max lived on when we first got together! It made us really nostalgic for London and I felt a bit smug that I was picking up loads of quintessential Britishisms that will've passed most of the audience by.

Apart from its improvised energy, it's quite an atypical Mike Leigh film, but probably the one I've enjoyed the most. The protagonist is Poppy, a primary school teacher living in London with her best mate, hanging out with her sister and getting driving lessons from a psychotic Daily Mail reading BNP-type played brilliantly by Eddie Marsan. Sally Hawkins - who it turns out I was at Edinburgh with, but don't remember, despite her directing me in our Freshers' Play - is luminous as the irrepressibly happy Poppy. I was a bit dubious when I read that the film is about someone who's really happy all the time, assuming it'd be about someone who's a bit simple and oblivious to what's going on around her.

But the strength of the film lies in the fact that Poppy is only too aware of what's going on - how the world can be rubbish, that her driving instructor is a nutter and life can be hard - but what's interesting and uplifting is that she makes the decision to be happy and not let stuff get her down. She's not obliviously happy; there's real strength in her.

After such a lovely day, we treated ourselves to supper out and went to a Greek restaurant down the road. It was alright, but overpriced. I miss the days when the exchange rate allowed us to eat out all the time and not worry about the cost. *sigh*

MULTIPLE CHRISTMAS DINNERS

WE MIGHT BE STAYING HERE LONGER: the author of last month's herogram to Maxy - head of World Online News - is recommending that Max's contract be extended when it expires in April. It'd be unprecedented for anyone to have that job longer than 12 months. Watch this space...

I've had a lovely Christmassy week and am getting very excited about next week.

I've mostly been trying to finish off once and for all the work I've been doing for Lib Dem man on the election online. The main thing he wants, in addition to articles about what online innovations the candidates harnessed to help them in the election, is videos made by the candidates and associated groups. I finally found a way to download videos from YouTube, thanks to Bambi's computer whizz brother, but our internet works so slow that each one has taken ages to download, robbing me of my will to live as it goes.

By November, I think I'd managed to download something like fifteen videos, then we FINALLY got our internet fixed and in the first day, downloaded about a hundred videos in a couple of hours!

So now the project is done, I've printed it out and got it all properly bound and I've sent it off! Yipppeee! It has taken many trips to Kinkos, but it's done. Phew.

On Tuesday, we had Anne and her Dad and Megan and Jonathan over for Christmas supper, which went really well. Anne is vegetarian and I made mushroom risotto for the first time. I must confess it was very tasty!

Then tonight, I made dinner for Alison, Emily and Brewster. This time I was able to cook meat and treated it as a dry run for Christmas Day lunch next week, so made roast chicken. I am thrilled to report that that too went really well and was deeeelicious. I'm a very nervous cook, so surprised whenever something tastes nice. I needed tonight's dry run because the year before last - mine and Max's first Christmas together - I painstakingly planned Christmas Day lunch and woke up Christmas morning to a clear schedule. Everything went in on time and was due to be done all at the same point.

With the potatoes going nicely golden, I noticed that the turkey wasn't cooking, despite having been in for ages, so took it out to check it, only to discover that I hadn't removed it from the plastic tray it came in! I'd taken off the clingfilm, but not the plastic from underneath! So of course it hadn't been cooking! The potatoes burned, we sat down to eat at about 4pm and at one point I threw a whisk at poor Max in frustration. Not a great scene. Hence tonight's practice! Here's hoping next week's turkey goes as well...

Emily and Alison spent Thanksgiving - and Alison's 30th - in Peru and were telling us terrible horror stories about all six of the girls in their gang got really really ill and spent long coach journeys in the loo and stuff. Ick.

We got really bad news from home on Wednesday - my friend Adrian and his girlfriend Rie, who have been living in our flat in Maida Vale, are moving out three months early. Adrian moved back from three years in Tokyo just as we moved over here, so the timing was perfect and it was good to know that someone nice was living in our flat. But Adrian has found it really hard to find work since being back (he's a hotshot lawyer, but wants to move from corporate law to media law and there isn't a big market for that in the UK), so is having to take the first job he's been offered in 8 months, which means moving up to Glasgow.

He's really sad about it, as he loves London, and although it leaves us in a massive bind, my eight years of freelancing and feeling between contracts like I'll never work again means I know just how he feels and we're just going to have to find someone else to move in until April, or maybe beyond. Oliver's going back to the UK in a month or so, and funnily enough used to live on our street, so he might be interested. And Max's friend has also shown interest, so all might not be lost, but it's not great.

Yesterday I treated myself to an afternoon DVD - something I dream of doing when in a full-time job in an office, but haven't really let myself do much over here. I watched 'Etre et Avoir', a fly-on-the-wall documentary about a one-room school in rural France, which I've been wanting to see for ages.

It's such a lovely film and really cleverly put together - there's no voiceover and hardly any interviews to link the scenes together. It's a series of really touching and funny vignettes from the classroom where ages range from teeny kindergarten age to 11 or 12.

The little children are soooo sweet, and there are some really funny cutaways, when the teacher is attending to the older children, like one little boy sticking a pen up his nose.

The teacher is amazingly patient and really traditional in his teaching. There's a sad scene where a mother is helping her son do his homework and illustrates a maths problem by means of how many hits he'd get if he got it wrong, but it was all part of the insight into rural French life.

I was interested to read afterwards that the teacher sued the filmmaker for a share of the multi-million euro profits the movie has earned, on the basis that he is the 'star' of the film and that his teaching methods are his intellectual property. But he lost his case because of the implications to future fly-on-the-wall documentaries that might be comprimised if the subjects are getting a cut of the film's success. I'm not sure what I think.

I totally understand the reasons for not granting the teacher the money he asked for, but am also aware that he absolutely is the driving force of the film which has unexpectedly made nearly £2million and he's earned very little money from teaching and is now retired, so could do with some extra cash.

In preparation for next week's overeating, I've been trying to get some last-minute workout time in at the gym and went to both yoga on Monday and butts, guts and guns yesterday. It was a really good class again, so I approached the instructor - Carlos - about getting a few personal training sessions with him, to kickstart my exercise regime and learn how to do things properly for the maximum effect.

So today I met with Carlos to get weighed and measured and for him to assess my fitness levels. Turns out, I have the body weight of an Olympic athlete!! I was stunned and am quite sure he did some calculations wrong. Besides, the body fat machine is just something you hold and it magically tells you how much body fat you have. Surely pinching an inch should be involved somewhere?

Anyway, I was thrilled and have high hopes for the three personal training sessions I've signed up for. Though I can't work out whether getting better results than expected gives me carte blanche to eat what I want next week, or whether it's something I should maintain by not pigging out on Christmas treats. Hmm...

PHOTOS: NYC AT CHRISTMAS

Click HERE for photos of our festive weekend in NYC

I ♥ NY

LAME BUT LEGITIMATE CELEBRITY SPOT: Colin [son of Tom] Hanks had brunch in the same place as us this morning!

I love New York. The city has a really visceral effect on me whenever I visit, as if however at home I feel in DC and however fond I am of the city, it can't match the deep love I have for New York or the excitement I feel when I'm there and the sheer feeling of being at home in a place.

We went up on the 'DC Deluxe' bus on Friday night, which mercifully didn't show movies, like the DC2NY bus we took last time. We were able to gobble up loads of episodes of 'Entourage' on our laptop, which passed the time spent in Friday night traffic just nicely.

As if the heavy traffic in DC wasn't trying enough, there was a chap on the bus who asked us where in Philadelphia we stopped. I wasn't aware we went via Philly and started to panic that the journey was going to be even longer than the 5 hours we were bracing ourselves for, before someone put the man straight and explained he was on the wrong bus. But then the bus driver drove all over DC, trying to find a coach that would take the mook to Philadelphia!

The subway was disrupted when we got to Penn Station, around 11pm, so we had to find a cab to take us to Williamsburg in Brooklyn, where we met Max's college friends (and, I'd like to think, my friends too) Mat, Grace and Mark.

Williamsburg is a hip suburb of Brooklyn that is a lot like East London - it used to be run down and industrial but is now its scuzziness is a badge of honour for the boho types who've moved in to make it a cool place to be. As befits the area, the bar we met everyone in had no name or sign outside. And it was really really cool inside - I loved it. And it was great to see Mat, Grace and Mark again - they always make New York so fun and it's nice to be around good friends.

It was really sad that Jo wasn't there, and we really felt her absence, but Grace was able to let us know how she's doing and we all drank to Jo and her Mum and brother.

We stayed in Mat's flat around the corner and managed to walk in on his flatmate sleeping, while Mat was giving us the tour!

Mat had loads of marking to do yesterday (he's a PhD student), so we took ourselves off for breakfast in a cool cafe around the corner, then wandered around Williamsburg. It was a beautiful day and I was in sensory overload with the cool buildings, graffiti and baths on the pavement, so poor Max had to stand by while I took a bajillion photos.

It was such a sunny day that we decided to walk into Manhattan, and headed to Soho to buy some trainers, because DC is inexplicably bereft of any decent sneaker stores. Much like in DC, the sales were crazy and I had to be physically restrained from buying a whole new wardrobe of shoes. I limited myself to two pairs of Converse and was distressed to find them cheaper at nearly every shop we subsequently visited, but they were still bargainous.

By the time we got to the north end of Broadway in Soho, we were pooped, having walked many many miles. So we got the subway up to Rockefeller Plaza to Radio City, where we watched the Christmas Spectacular that Anne's Dad had recommended to us months ago and which served as our pantomime this year.

Radio City is an amazing old-school building with gigantic chandeliers and sweeping staircases. I hurriedly changed into a dress and my kickass new green suede shoes in the loos, for the first time using the huge mirrored powder room, which one would usually dash through, and got back to Max in the theatre just in time for the start of the show.

It certainly was spectacular! It kicked off with a cool 3-D cartoon of Father Christmas whizzing over rooftops, for which we needed 3-D glasses, then there were lots of little song and dance numbers. Max says that the 12-year old him would've been really bored, but we both really enjoyed it and the Rockettes were an extraordinary feat of mathematics, if nothing else! The way they pivoted round in one long line of high-kicking legs was a sight to see and they did this cool Nutcracker skit, where they were standing in single file and then all slowly fell backwards one by one, like dominos.

For some reason, I expected the Rockettes to be old! Because I associate them with the 50s, I suppose I thought maybe they'd all be people who performed back then. But of course that would make them more like the Roly Polys than a troupe of dancers who perform five shows a day!

There was a very cute baby sitting next to me, who randomly grabbed my finger whilst jigging along to the music, which was sweet. Then the show ended with a live nativity, with a real life camel on stage and everything!

Feeling thoroughly festive, we hopped skipped and jumped up town to meet Max's second cousin once removed (or something), Rachel. Her Mum and Dad are Jim and Elaine, who we visited in Marblehead, Massachusetts and Jim is Max's Dad's cousin. So you work out how they're related.

Max and Rachel hung out quite a lot when they were younger, including going travelling together in Morocco, so it was really nice for them to see each other again and for us to meet Rachel's boyfriend. Rachel is an ER doctor in the toughest hospital in New York, which deals with lots of prisoners and uninsured people and sounds like the most full-on job you could possibly have - I was in awe of how she retains her sanity!

Handily - and coincidentally - enough, the restaurant was just a couple of blocks away from our next engagement, which was Anne's family's tree-trimming party. We were so touched to be invited to the annual tradition and the one-bed apartment was packed with people when we got there.

It seemed to be mostly friends of Anne's parents there, but there were some people our age and everyone was very friendly. I'm terrible with names - really awful - when I meet someone new, I tend to concentrate so hard on shaking their hand right that I don't register the name I'm being told. So I was thrilled to meet two nice people called Marina and Bambi, because there was no way I'd forget the names they shared with my sister and sister-in-law, so stuck with them all night!

Anne showed us around the tiny flat, including where she and her sister used to sleep as children, which was the minute study, which was just about as long as a single bed, but only just. Above the desk area, there was an L-shaped bed built in, just below the ceiling, which Anne and Susan shared, despite the fact that the person on the short end of the 'L' (Anne) no way would've been able to stretch out. They were still sleeping there as teenagers! It's crazy! Though Anne seemed a bit upset when I joked that it verged on abuse...

I was thrilled when the party turned to carol singing and we all huddled into the sitting room with songbooks and sang lots of traditional carols. Though many had the 'wrong' tune. But it created a lovely festive atmosphere and I'm so pleased we went.

We left the party really late, after getting chatting to Anne's sister-in-law and Dad. It took ages to get back to Mat's place on the subway, but I was struck that everyone on the subway platform at 1.30am was around our age. It's kind of cool, to feel part of an age-group. I can't really explain it.

Fortunately this morning was nice and slow and we just hung out with Mat, before heading to the Lower East Side to meet Grace and Mark for brunch (they always know the best brunch places). Mat told us about one of the papers he was marking yesterday, in which he detected plagiarism. But not only had the dude copied stuff directly out of a book without changing it, the book he'd copied from was by Mat's supervisor and had been proof-read by Mat before going to the printers!! I made Mat act out with me how he was going to deal with the culprit and I have to say, I pity the poor plagiariser - Mat's quiet and calm approach to discipline is frankly menacing! It's amazing though - the cheat will just lose a mark on that paper, he won't get disciplined or anything.

We mooched around the Lower East Side after brunch, making our way slowly up town to the cafe at the Neue Gallery, where we were meeting a friend of mine from school who I haven't seen since we left, 12 years ago. I didn't know the Lower East Side before, but really really like it - it's a very cool area.

I was a bit nervous about seeing Alex again, as she was always very cool at school, but also really friendly and super-clever, so all-in-all a bit intimidating. We had such nice chats, though, and it was really nice to see her. My account of what I've been up to since we last saw each other was painfully lame, compared to her tales of modelling, addiction, abandoned degrees and living in a rock star's mansion in LA. I joked that someone should make a film of her life, and she said that someone is! Her time in LA is being immortalised in a new movie called Freeloaders. She now lives in Manhattan and works as a costume designer on movies, which is very cool. She's currently working on a Natalie Portman film and next is working for Disney on the live-action Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Feeling a little inadequate, we left and made our way to Anne's flat (again, handily up the road), where we got a lift back to DC with her and her Dad. It was really late and we'd had a packed weekend, so I mostly slept. Zzzzzzzzz.

HAIRCUT FROM HELL

I LOVE THE SMELL OF CHRISTMAS TREE IN THE MORNING: it's right by my desk, so I get lovely wafts of pine needles while I'm working

Kate left today and I'm bereft. It was so lovely having one of my best friends here, with whom lark around DC and both Max and I had got really used to having her here and enjoyed having a fun buddy living with us.

With Kate jetting over to LA to stay with Tom and Bambi with a suitcase groaning with funky new threads, I caught up on emails and accounts and stuff that I haven't done for a week and then went to get my hair cut by the lady with the gigantic Vidal Sassoon bob tattoos who's cut my hair twice since we got here.

The first time she (Barbara is her somewhat incongruous name) cut it, it was the best haircut I've ever had and I LOVED it. The second time was so-so and this time was a disaster!

I wanted to go really for a really short crop (a la the Swedish pixie we saw in Bourbon), but Barbara's mind didn't seem to be on the job, or something, because she was taking forever to cut my hair, then her next client arrived and she panicked and basically started again, wetting my hair all over again and going for something different.

I'm not sure what her vision was, but I'm quite sure it wasn't the weird fringe she's given me that has gigantic, dramatic steps in it halfway across my forehead.

I also chickened out of going blonde, but instead dyed my hair dark chocolate brown when I got home, in an attempt to make something good come out of the crime to hairdressing that Barbara left me with. Ah well, I take comfort from a real life hair salon in Ladbroke Grove, called 'It'll Grow Back'...

We go to New York tomorrow for a weekend of Christmassy fun, including the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, featuring the Rockettes, and Anne's family tree-trimming party at her parents' apartment on the Upper East Side.

We were due to stay with Max's friend Jo but found out today the terrible news that her father has died suddenly and she's had to rush back to Britain. I'm so so sad for Jo and her family - it must be particularly hard for Jo, having it be both a shock and living so far away when it happened. It prompted me to call Mum and Dad because sometimes being over here feels like a waste of time I could be spending with my nearest and dearest, which I'll regret when they're gone.

My fiendish plan is to die before anyone I love, so I won't have to face such things. You have been warned.

LADIES WHO LUNCH. AND SHOP

FINALLY! spotted outside the Capitol. Now we have pictures of numberplates from every state in the US! Erm, as thrilled as I am to have finished, I'm not quite sure what to do with the photos now...

It's so much fun having Kate here - I'm getting to do all the things I thought I'd do when we moved here and I didn't have a job, but haven't done because they're not so much fun without a buddy.

Yesterday, we spent the whole day in Georgetown in the sunny warm sunshine, shopping til we dropped. Fortunately Kate - unlike Maxy on similar expeditions - was very much in the mood for buying and we had great fun, making her try on clothes she wouldn't normally wear (ie: colourful and tight) and she ended up buying loads of really gorgeous things.

At one point, I burst into tears like at the end of a style makeover show, when Kate emerged from a dressing room in a killer black dress and high heels that totally complimented everything about her amazing height and extreme skinniness, but that we never get to see in the clothes she normally wears. Eat your heart out, Trinny and Susannah!

As befits ladies cruising the shops of Georgetown, we had lunch at Cafe Leopold's, my favourite daytime Georgetown haunt. Afterwards, we planned to do a bit more shopping (the sales are CRAZY!! I got three cashmere jumpers from Gap for £100! And some AWESOME green suede wedge shoes - Kate wasn't the only person branching out from her comfort zone! - for £22!) then go to the movies again. However, Anthropologie sucked us in and wouldn't let us go.

We were in there for aaaaages! And we tried on loads of stuff. I decided to try to follow the advice of my friend Jilly and invest in a couple of expensive but well made things that would make my wardrobe a bit more grown up and sophisticated than the extensive array of jeans and t-shirts in which I parade around DC. I bought a gorgeous skirt that I can't really describe, but it was amazing and made me look like the grown up I'd like to be. But when Max's reaction was a little luke-warm last night, I panicked and took it back today, because it was mondo-expensive and there were some stripey cashmere jumpers with buttons on the shoulder (MUCH more me!) on sale in Banana Republic, so I snapped them up instead.

While we were single-handedly propping up the US economy, Max was working on the hilarious story of Rob Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, who's been trying to sell Obama's senate seat to the highest bidder! The funniest thing about the story is how defiant he is, despite there being actual wiretap evidence of him trying to make the deal with Jesse Jackson Jr! Apparently there's a rich heritage of the Governors of Illinois being crooked. In fact, so many have gone to jail for corruption (including Blagojevich's predecessor) that you're now statistically more likely to end up in prison as a disgraced Governor in Illinois than you are a murderer!

This morning, Kate and I went on a tour of the Capitol. On arrival at the just-opened new visitor centre, a greeter detected that we're British and said we were allowed to go and watch the Senate in session! If we were American, we'd have to get tickets from our Senator's office, but because we're foreign, we could walk right in! So we excitedly made our way to the Senate, through miles of corridors and security checks and took up our seats, just in time for a handful of senators and pages to come in and take their seats.

We were given a seating plan of the floor, so we could see where people like Obama and Hillary would sit if they were present and were interested to see that there was a lady there who's a parliamentarian, so just an expert on the political process, who I guess is deferred to in matters of procedure.

There was very little exciting happening in the Senate this morning - we heard the Senate majority leader through something about the auto bailout, and then his Republican counterpart articulately reply, then Liddy Dole started delivering her farewell speech having lost her seat in North Carolina after running an EVIL campaign, accusing her Christian opponent of being 'godless' because she attended a fundraiser at the house of two atheists.

When Liddy started paying tribute to her high school teachers, we knew it was going to be a long speech, so decided to leave. Probably the coolest thing we saw were the stenographers, who were wearing their stenographing machines around their necks, like they were selling ice creams in a theatre, and would go and stand right in front of the person speaking and watch their lips as they tapped away.

Although what was actually happening in the Senate was quite boring, it was really fun to be there and see what's what and the tour of the Capitol was a bit of a let-down by comparison. We saw some nice artwork and the statuary room, where each state has sent two statues of local dignitaries (Mississippi inexplicably saw fit to send one of massive racist and President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis) and we also saw the first ever Supreme Court (left), where cases like Amistad and Dred Scott were tried, which was pretty powerful.

Perhaps to make up for the slightly boring tour, or perhaps because she lives by herself with only cats for company, our tour guide was SO enthusiastic, to the point of breaking my heart! She was really cheery and energetic, kind of willing us to enjoy ourselves and desperate that we have a good time. She'd even say, 'good job!' when we all managed to get up the escalator.

One quite cool thing she showed us was how, when John Adams was sitting at his desk in the old Senate chamber, a quirk of architecture allowed him to hear his opponents on the other side, whispering about him. Our over-enthusiastic tour guide demonstrated this very excitedly (right) and it was indeed pretty cool.

Kate and I did our very best to listen extra-attentively and make her feel appreciated in the face of fairly non-plussed tourists.

After our tour, I took Kate around the boutiques of U St, 14th St and the mighty Shake Your Booty on 18th St, but they were all a bit disappointing and certainly couldn't top our Georgetown triumphs of shopping. After a quick bite at Love Cafe, complete with its amazing cupcake bar, we hot-footed it into Georgetown, in time to see 'Australia'.

We had to walk really quickly and were knackered by the time we got to the cinema, just in time to relax in front of a 3 hour movie! As we were going into the cinema, I noticed that the Potomac looked like it had evaporated and been replaced by enough dry ice to service a Jean Michel Jarre concert! It was really eery...

Despite terrible reviews, Kate and I both loooooved 'Australia'. I suspect that the generous number of shots of the gorgeous Hugh Jackman emerging from smoke helped get us on side! I just loved how it's a throwback to the great epic Saturday afternoon movies that you don't see anymore. Sure, the effects are dodgy, the plot is predictable and Nicole Kidman looks like a toothpick, but it's sweeping and epic and romantic and Hugh Jackman walks through smoke a lot. AND rides a horse a lot - turns out that's an extremely sexy quality in a man. The little boy at the heart of the movie is gorgeous, too. Apparently, Baz Luhrmann cast him after sitting opposite him on a bus. Yeah, like Baz rides the bus.

Kate and I emerged from the cinema all a-quiver, and I felt a bit sorry for Max meeting us for dinner at Nathans, because unless he happened upon a big bit of smoke and was able to suddenly look a bit grubby, like he'd been wrangling cattle in the outback for a month, he didn't stand a chance of making us forget about gorgeous Hugh!

Fortunately I snapped myself out of it and we had a lovely meal at Nathans before going home and decorating our Christmas tree. Yeay! We got it yesterday and brought it home on the bike, attracting lots of admiring comments from passers-by! Usually we teeter home with it across Max's lap on the back of the scooter, so this was definitely our safest transfer of Christmas tree to home.

It was like something out of a Nancy Meyers romcom, as we had old-school Christmas tunes on the stereo (which will now be the only thing we listen to until 2009) as Kate 'helped' us decorate (see below) with decorations I got from Ikea (for less than $20, all-in!). We colour code our tree each year - last year was red and white - and this year we decided to go patriotic, with a red, white and blue theme and the tree looks fabulous - regardez!

VAMPIRES & EXORCISTS

GROSSEST THING ABOUT THIS TIME OF YEAR: the ground is littered with really pretty-looking pink berries. But beware! Their prettiness is at odds with the foul smell they give off, especially when burst. They're called ginkgo berries, but I call them stinko berries, because they make the pavements smell of sick and poo and sweat and death all rolled into one, pretty pink berry. A very embarrassing smell to carry around if you step in them (which is tricky to avoid, as they're EVERYWHERE!)

Today was my final day the pesky exorcism job!! I'm so relieved and am not sad to see the back of the project. I got kind of into it by the end, as I very rarely got hold of anyone, so mostly just spent my time leaving messages on countless answerphones, which is easy enough. I didn't actually find anyone in the end, but have put out lots of feelers, so hopefully someone will want to do the documentary and get in touch with the producer.

Not only was the work horrid (as well as yet more re-mortgaging shenanigans), but now it's over, there's nothing between me and Christmas! Yippeeeee! I can't wait and am so enjoying the fact that Christmas started here about a month ago, with twinkly lights, Christmas music everywhere and dark, cosy nights. And of course many houses and front yards have been decked out with seasonal goodies. I've yet to encounter that real hardcore suburban frenzy of lights that films like 'Home Alone' would have you believe exists, but hopefully it's just a matter of time.

Because I had to work my final half day today, Kate took herself off to Mount Vernon this morning and then we went to see 'Twilight' together, to celebrate my finishing work and finally being a free woman.

We knew the film was going to suck, but are both big Buffy fans, so figured we'd give it a go. Kate has read a couple of the books in the series, but had to give up after the second one and resort to reading plot summaries on Wikipedia, so despairing was she of the terrible writing and characterisation of the teen protagonist Bella, who keeps melodramatically declaring that she will DIE if not allowed to be with her true love - a vampire called Edward.

Sure enough, the film did suck. Robert Pattinson as Edwards was pretty charismatic and handsome, but his makeup was really inconsistent and I found Kristen Stewart's 'naturalistic' umming and erring before every sentence really annoying.

More annoying, however, were the other people in the cinema. Loads of people were just openly talking throughout the film and the guy in front of us spent the whole time sending texts from his phone. I was just annoyed by the glowing white screen in the darkness, but Kate had the misfortune of being actually able to read the texts and see that they were gross and pornographic. What was he doing in a cinema?!

We had a really nice time tonight at a bar on 18th St called Bourbon, which we've never been to before, but which looks nice from the outside and is part of my determination to try new places, having fallen into something of a rutt of where we hang out.

We met up with Oliver and his friend/Max's colleague Zoe, who's really fun. It was a great night; Kate got on well with Zoe and Oliver and we had really tasty, quite cheap food and the bar is just like my perfect bar - dark and modern with a nice laid-back atmosphere. I'm so pleased we branched out!

There was a girl at the bar in Bourbon who had the coolest hair and I've decided that's what I want to look like. Though she may've got a bit disconcerted by everyone looking around to check out her hair, so I could get a second (and third, fourth, fifth) opinion. It was short and choppy and blonde and she looked like a cool Swedish pixie. I'm not sure I could carry off blonde, but I reckon I might give it a go. With no job to have to look professional for, I figure why not?!

SIGHTSEEING WHIRLWIND

WHAT THE FUNK???: I'm genuinely outraged that the winner of 'X-Factor' will record a cover of the sublime 'Hallelujah' and can't bring myself to even contemplate such horror.

Yikes! What a busy few days! We've dashed all over the city, showing Kate a good time and relieved that DC has been putting on a very good show for her, including three parties in two nights, a real-life Father Christmas and twinkly snow falling on a brass band playing carols.

Kate had to 'do a Dan' while I worked on Friday, taking herself off to the monuments, National Archives and Folger Library, all of which she loved. I realise now that DC is a very Kate-centric city, as she's really interested in history and politics and literature, so is in her element, which is lovely.

I, meanwhile, was so utterly bored and dispirited by my work that I *actually* repierced my ears, by way of procrastination!! Ouch.

I didn't get anywhere with work, but was THRILLED to get a lovely email from Oliver, thanking us for our ace Christmas card. All the effort was worthwhile!

We made the mistake of watching 'The Ten' on Friday night, based on the logic that 'Role Models' was awesome, so a film written and directed by the same guy, also starring Paul Rudd AND a bunch of other good people, must be good. It is not. It's so bad that we stopped it halfway through to watch 'The Soup' and didn't go back to it.

Yesterday, the three of us met up with Anne to go to a Richard Avedon exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery, which was great. Although I felt really ill halfway round, which was not great. But it was amazing to see a photo essay he'd done for the New Yorker in 2004, profiling politicians and political supporters, because it rather presciently culminated in a portrait of Obama.

We whisked Kate up the Post Office tower for views of the city, as it was a beautiful day, but unfortunately were once more subjected to terrible live 'jazz' as we ate lunch downstairs afterwards. We seem to be being followed around by awful live music!

We spent the afternoon in Alexandria, which again, Kate really liked (and I wasn't too sad to pay another visit to the Gap outlet store!). The town looked beautiful and twinkly in the wintry darkness, with every tree festooned with fairy lights. It even snowed, which was most satisfying.

The waterfront was like a traditional Christmas wonderland, with a brass band playing carols, a big tree and some bell-ringers, too. We'd gone to Alexandria for the Festival of Lights, in which boats cover themselves in twinkly lights and parade past the waterfront.

Unfortunately that was a bit of a damp squib, as there were only about four boats in the parade and it took them forever to drift past us. So we bailed on the 'festival' and headed back home, catching the trolley back to the metro. And who should be on said trolley, but Father Christmas himself!! I'm serious! He was really jolly and had a real white beard that was really long, and white hair, and was wearing just normal clothes. It was Father Christmas on his day off! I was so excited.

when did you last share a bus with Father Christmas?!

I was not, however, excited to get home only to reluctantly turn around and go straight back out again, to a Christmas party held by Max's favourite colleague, Katie.

She lives just down the road, near Dupont, so we decided to walk, but it was soooo cold, that when we couldn't find her flat, the whole thing became a real hassle. But we finally made it and her place is lovely. There were only a few people there and it wasn't a laugh riot of a fiesta, but it was perfectly pleasant and we stayed as long as was polite, before dashing back home to collapse exhausted.

Today was just as freezing, but beautifully blue and crisp - I love days like that. Maxy took Kate off to Eastern Market while I went to church and they had a great time, especially on discovering an excellent second-hand bookshop. I met up with them after church and, after wandering around for ages, finding somewhere to eat, we went for lunch in a really nice French bistro.

This afternoon, we went to the Museum of American Art, which is in the same building as the National Portrait Gallery. Again, it's somewhere Max and I haven't been before, much to our shame of having been in DC for months. But we knew we'd get round to all these sightseeing staples once visitors started coming to stay...

There was a fantastic exhibition of posters in the Portrait Gallery, looking at posters as a form of modern portraiture and a great exhibition combining for the first time work by Georgia O'Keefe and Ansell Adams, both of whom painted/photographed New Mexico a lot. I can't wait to go there - New Mexico looks amazing. There was also a good exhibition called 'Women of our Time', which was twentieth century photographs of women that was really interesting.

The American history geeks spent ages meandering through the gallery of portraits of every American president and we spent what felt like forever, trying to find the room with an exhibition of Lincoln's inauguration ball in it, only succeeding once we'd trapsed around both galleries! The one advantage to this wild goose chase was getting to walk through the amazing Kogod courtyard, which joins the two galleries in a Norman Foster-designed atrium-type space, a bit like at the British Museum. It looks like an awesome space for parties and probably really nice for just sitting and reading.

There was no rest for the wicked (which, incidentally, I used to think was 'wicket', assuming it was some allusion to cricket...) when we got back from our busy day, as we had to turn around and go back out to no fewer than TWO parties! Kate's certainly getting a slightly distorted sense of our social life here in DC...

First stop was Anne's tree-trimming party in her new apartment, which is looking very nice. Megan and her sister were there, as were Sarah and Derek, who are friends of Anne that we met at the party we threw for her ages ago and are really nice and there were also two very quiet cousins of Anne's there.

Frustratingly, considering we could only spend a couple of hours at the party, we all spent about an hour and a half putting together food with Anne, so only had a short time of sitting around chatting before we hurriedly each put something on the tree and then headed off to fiesta number 2... (on a Sunday night!!)

Because the party didn't really get going at Anne's for ages, we were late leaving. Which meant we were late getting to a surprise birthday party being thrown for Brewster just down the road from our flat, at Chris's (of 'Lost Sparrow') apartment. We always knew we'd miss the jumping-out-from-behind-the-sofa moment, but were dismayed to see a stream of people leaving Chris's apartment as we arrived, only to get upstairs and discover only Alison, Brewster and Chris left at the party! And Alison and Brewster had their coats on and were saying their goodbyes. Whoops!

We stood around, indulging in some awkward conversation for a while, then left with the birthday boy himself, who seemed less than impressed by our tardiness. Well, timekeeping's tough when you're such party animals! Whose party finishes at 9.30pm, anyway?!

REVOLVING DOORS AT DEVO TOWERS

FAVOURITE NEWS STORY OF THE DAY: perhaps mindful of the phone hoax that Sarah Palin fell foul of, a Republican congresswoman hung up on Obama twice when he rang to congratulate her on her re-election. I particularly love that the way she was persuaded to believe it was really Obama calling was by one of her cronies proving his identity to her by means of in-jokes they share about members of the House.

Dan left this afternoon, but not before having to listen to me leave the following message on countless answerphones in the Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York areas: "hello, I was just wondering if you perform the casting out of evil spirits from possessed members of your congregation and, if so, whether you would be interested in participating in a documentary we are making". What a job!

Turns out that the priestess I found is too 'far out' for the programme, so I have to keep looking. In no way do I perceive conflict between needing to find a) someone who's possessed but isn't mentally ill or on drugs and b) an exorcist who's interesting to watch, willing to take part in a documentary, but isn't 'far out'. Hmph.

Dan also very nearly didn't leave at all, because the SuperShuttle I booked for him never arrived! I felt particularly bad, because I'd taken the mickey out of how early he wanted to get to the airport and how cautious a traveller he is. Turns out he's very sensible, as there was time enough for me to call SuperShuttle, establish that I'd booked the van for tomorrow, not today (I think because I called after midnight last night and asked for a bus 'tomorrow'), and get another one sent over sharpish.

I'm really sad that Dan's gone, because I didn't get to spend enough time with him and it was really fun to have him here a bit like a flatmate. What stinky timing.

I arranged to only work half a day today, so I could go and meet Kate from her NYC train at Union Station. Yippeee! And on my way there, I posted all our Christmas cards - wooohooooo!!!

It was so wonderful to see Kate and within about 5 minutes, it felt totally natural that she should be here. We hung out this afternoon and then went to supper at Madam's Organ, up the road, where we were unfortunately treated to some of the most terrible live music I've ever heard. Still, it was fun to be with Kate and the onion rings were lishy.

DAN, CARDS & EXORCISTS

The past couple of days have pretty much been the same: hanging with Dan, doing this ridiculous work I've been given and stressing over the Christmas cards (left!).

Dan arrived just after we woke up yesterday and actually it was really great to see him. It was really nice of him to come this way and I'm only sad I've had to work the whole time, as I'd love to've been able to hang out with him all the time.

Fortunately Dan is a fan of doing day-to-day things when he's in a new city, so the mundane trip to the post office was actually fun for him, which is just as well! I then put him on a tourist bus that goes all over the city, as I figured that'd be the best way for him to find his way around without me.

Then I got down to this hideous exorcism work, which proved really difficult - how do you sell someone on the idea of doing an exorcism to order on telly while someone - who is possessed and yet in no way mental - is injected with radioactive serum?!

In the first instance, it's been quite hard finding any pentecostal ministers who actually do exorcisms and those that I've spoken to have really freaked me out and worried me that I'm committing some terrible act of blasphemy while indulging the notion of casting out bad spirits. Or at least that they can put some kind of curse on me over the phone if they detect I think they're loony.

Poor Dan - I felt terrible because after a day of wandering the city by himself, he came home to the Christmas card factory! He just sat on the sofa watching telly (which he professed to be very happy doing), while Max and I struggled with the nightmare of sticky spindly snowflakes.

Today was the same again - Dan went on his bus, I left a bajillion messages for exorcists and then we continued working on the Christmas cards tonight.

We were meant to go to the Dr Dog gig at the 9.30 Club that we got tickets for ages ago tonight, but Emily didn't get tickets in the end and we've really got to get the cards finished in time to make it worth sending them.

I got rid of the tickets in my first ever forray onto Craigs List. We lost quite a bit of money on them and I had to send Max to meet a random man who bought them off us, but at least we got a bit of the money back.

And I had a breakthrough with both work and the cards! I managed to find a priestess who's very keen to be involved in the exorcism doc and is a big character, like what the company are looking for, so hopefully I'll be able to set something up with her. And I've found a cunning way of getting the goo off the spindly snowflakes without taking hours over each card! Huzzah.

BAD DAY

Ugh. I had a hideous day today.

I missed yoga this morning because I was on the phone and online, trying to re-mortgage our flat, now that our initial two year fixed rate period is coming to an end. It's all so confusing and really makes me not like being a grown-up.

During this woeful few hours, I got a call from an indie back home who want me to do a week's work for them, which would be great, were it not for the fact that our friend Kate arrives for a week this Thursday. The other thing that makes the work less than great is that the assignment is to find an exorcist who would perform an exorcism on someone on camera, while that person is injected with radioactive fluid to monitor brain activity. Oh, and that person must have no history of mental illness or substance abuse. And it all has to happen at the University of Pennsylvania next Wednesday. Greeaaat!!

I obviously took the job, because I need the money, but I'm not looking forward to those calls I'll have to make tomorrow...

Meanwhile my friend Dan, who's been in LA for a week and who we didn't manage to meet up with while we were there, got in touch to say he's found cheap flights to DC and can he come and stay with us. Tomorrow! As lovely as it is that he's coming all this way, he's due to leave a couple of hours before Kate arrives, and all the while I have to find exorcists... Eeek!

I thought a quick trip to Ikea with Anne this afternoon would help cheer me up and clear my head of the day's woes, but unfortunately that was awful, too! Anne was getting supplies for her new flat and I needed to pick up a couple of things, but Anne took aaaaages and was really resistant to actually buying anything, taking ages to decide. And then it took us forever to get back into DC in her car, because it was rush hour and she steadfastly stayed in the slow lane of every road we were on, sitting behind buses that were stopping and starting, letting people pull out in front of her and missing opportunities to get back remotely quickly.

I totally freaked out. I know I'm a control freak and a bad passenger, but getting stuck in traffic when a) we didn't need to be, b) I could do nothing about it and c) had masses to do at home drove me crazy and I had to shut my eyes and take deep breaths just to get through it!

Things didn't improve when I got home and Max and I moved on to the next phase of the Christmas card saga. We were sticking spindly snowflakes onto the cards, using one of the magic toys I got from PaperSource, which is a machine that you can feed things through to make them adhesive - so they come out like a sticker at the other end. So I thought it'd be really easy to stick 4-5 snowflakes onto each card using this machine, without all the mess and fuss of Pritt stick.

Unfortunately the magic machine o' joy created this halo of stickiness around the spindly snowflake, which I then had to rub off each one once it was stuck down, but the stickiness wouldn't come off, and then joined up with other stickiness and each card was taking me about 15 minutes and making me want to cry.

Once more, fie on you, PaperSource!

GETTING CHRISTMASSY

We went to our second roller derby yesterday, but unfortunately it was not as fun as the first. It was absolutely packed - which was weird, as there had been hardly anyone there the first time we went - so the atmosphere was good, but we discovered that the fun of the bout depends entirely on the quality of the MC.

Without a fast-talking, funny person on the microphone, keeping things exciting and whipping the crowd into a frenzy, the roller derby is a kind of lame spectacle of girls whizzing around a track on roller skates.

There were small mercies for which to be grateful for, though - this time we didn't see David and boring Jackie. But we did have to move seats because a kid was having great fun kicking my back incessantly. Aaahh.

There were two bouts - one with a visiting team from Philadelphia(?) - but we left halfway through the second one, in time to see 'Four Christmasses' in Chinatown. We'd been really looking forward to the movie - Witherspoon! Vaughn! Favreau! Chenoweth! - but unfortunately it was a little disappointing. Put it this way - it ain't no 'Role Models'. I wonder if anything ever could be...

I helped out at Sunday School this morning and was then grumpy to find that the church service marking the beginning of Advent was in the Taizé style. I don't much enjoy kooky ways of worshipping, but this ended up being a revelation. The mode of worship takes its name from a region of France where the tradition first started and is the most beautiful combination of stunningly simple chants and silence that is very moving and conducive to reflection. The form of worship evolved in WWII, as a way of bridging the divides between faiths and uniting religious people with a simple, lowest-common-denomiator kind of approach. It was a really amazing service.

I spent most of this afternoon toiling away on our Christmas cards, suddenly feeling an affinity with small children forced to do fiddly manual labour that is seemingly endless. Fie on you, PaperSource!

The memory of 'Four Christmasses' was roundly dispelled this evening, when we watched the wonderful 'Sabrina', which I've never seen before but absolutely loved. I'd never 'got' Humphrey Bogart before, having only seen him in 'Casablanca', but he was so great in this movie! And obviously Audrey Hepburn is incredible. It's a very close-run race for my favourite director ever: Frank Capra or Billy Wilder...

PHOTOS: THANKSGIVING

Click HERE for photos of our week in LA

THANKSGIVING

I'm not really sure we're meant to celebrate Thanksgiving - aren't people giving thanks for finally escaping from tyrannical British rule, back in the day?

Ah well, as a big fan of all things American, the offer to experience a proper family Thanksgiving was too good to pass up, so after I made some sticky parsnips this morning and then locked Tom's keys in the boot of his car, along with the many other dishes and gifts Bambi has been slaving over (whoops), we headed to Orange County - the OC! - to spend the day with the husband of Bambi's deceased aunt.

Turns out - and to be fair, I had been warned - that Orange County is nothing like the fancypants paradise depicted in 'The OC' on TV. The area we went to was kind of weird and suburban and we got lost in a maze of streets for quite some time.

Eventually we found the house and were very warmly welcomed by the masses of Bam's relatives who were there. Bambi had warned us that most people there would be pretty right wing and that we'd probably be better off avoiding politics as a subject and she wasn't wrong!

Most of the people were very conservative and Bam's uncle-by-marriage converted to Mormonism after the death of his wife and his family are very religious, with one of his daughters heading off to be a missionary in Florida for two years.

There were a couple of cute kids running around and a bunch of old people I didn't really talk to. It was nice to see Bambi's family and to chat to her Dad and brother and her Mum even joined me, jumping up and down on the huge trampoline we spotted in the back garden!

Everyone was terribly friendly and we felt very welcome as we worked our way down the seemingly endless line of dishes of meat, yams (yeay!), creamed corn (euch) and other Thanksgiving staples. Conversation did meander into politics over lunch, which revealed some interesting points of view, but it was all very amicable.

I didn't much warm to the husband of Bam's cousin, who repossesses cars for a living and likes it, or the husband of another of her cousins who asked us what we're going to do about the Muslim problem in London, referred to DC as 'a very dark city' and proudly talked about his love of guns and cars. But hey, it was all part of the experience!

Max and I had a nice time - probably more in an anthropological way than anything else - but I think Bam and Tom were relieved to leave. We watched the awesome 'Johnny Guitar' (top of their list of movies we should see) when we got home and then watched another film, too, but I fell asleep, as befits one who's gorged themselves on festive food all day.

This morning, we cruised down the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) to a lovely beach called Paradise Cove, stopping off at Malibu Pier on the way. It was far too cold to lounge about at the beach, so we wandered up and down for a while and then had a deliciously enormous lunch that would keep Max and me going on the flight home. *sniff*

One consolation for leaving our fun friends/family was that 'Wall-E' was shown on the plane, once more managing to reduce Max and me to tears, despite being on one of those tiny communal screens (it's SO good!). And we also watched 'Journey To The Centre Of The Earth' which was in no way good, though we did chuckle when Brendan Fraser said, "Ladies and gentlemen [there are only two other people with him], I give you... the centre of the earth".

It was really late by the time we landed and the SuperShuttle ride home took FOREVER, adding insult to the injury of our fun (but cold) holiday being over.