Shirley's list: ADOBE DREAMER ADONIRAM ADONIS ADORABELLA ADORABLE ADORABLE ONE ADORABLE YOU ADORATION ADORED BY ALL ADOREE ADOREOUS ADORN ADRIAN ADRIEL AEGEAN AEGEAN ART AEGEAN MAID AERIAL AEROLITE AFFIE AFFIRMATION AFFIRMED AFIRE AFLAME AFRAID AFTER ALL AGAMEMNAN AGARITA AGATA AGE TO AGE AGGIE AGILE MAIDEN AGNES AGNES AMERSON AGNES ROSE AGRA AIDA AIDEN AIEA AIMEMOI AIRBALL AL ABEL AL MELIN ALABASTER ALABASTER GLEAM ALABASTER LADY ALABASTER MOON ALADDIN ALAMEDA ALAMEIN ALAN ABUNDANT RUFFLES AD INFINITUM ADA BEYER ADA ROSE ADA SARI ADAGIO ADAIR ADAM ADAM EATON ADAM MARTIN ADAMS RIB ADAMAS ADDIE SUGGS ADEIRA ADELA ADELIA A DAY OF REST A FOGGY DAY A FRIEND TO ALL A FUTURE FOUND A GO GO A GUY NAMED GUY A LA MODE A MIA FOOTE AARON BOY AARON BOYLAN AARONS ROD ADELAIDE ADELINE ADENA ADIOS AMIGO ADMIRABLE ADMIRAL ADMIRAL NELSON ADMIRALS LADY ADMIRATION ABOSLUTION ABSYDER ABUNDANT ABUNDANT LIFE ABALONE ABALONE ANGEL ABALONE ISLAND ABEDNEGO ABEL ABENDSTEIN ABIDING ANGEL ABIGALE ABILENE NAN ABINADI ABRIDGEMENT ABSALON DOUBLE MELODY LADY GEORGIA DUNEDIN ARIADNE BRUTUS BONEY MARONEY DAINTY EYES

I agree with debrak...on not getting hung up on the date. Your kids are young and if it works to celebrate on another date then do it. I realize that its likely your kitchen will not be finished during the Christmas season but when you see your parents in January - CELEBRATE! Have the Christmas feast. Maybe leave a few decorations out. My dh works all different times, shifts, holidays, last minute. He literally was given his work schedule yesterday for the 2 weeks starting THIS SUNDAY through the holidays! Talk about throwing any plans out the window, I actually just don't bother to try to make any. I'd love to say I've gotten used to it after 14 years and that it doesn't get under my skin but I'd be a big fat liar. Some years are better than others and I do not take it out on my dh but I do need to vent here and there. It was very hard when the kids were young and I had this vision of what I thought Christmas morning would be like - vision not reality. Sometimes I think our expectations set us up for failure. When the kids were younger we celebrated whenever my husband wasn't working. Santa came any day that worked for us during Christmas break and it was usually NEVER on the 25th. They are older now so they'd realize the date but then the 'gig' is up anyhow. So I guess my point is - after all of this schedule business and the added stress it causes I have come to cherish the simple togetherness with my immediate family and do not get hung up on the days or what we couldn't do or had to miss. We fit in everything else with extended family when we can. Sometimes it is January. It's just the way it is. That way we space out the big meals and food coma's so I guess that would be a perk! Sending you best wishes for a memorable holiday with your family and with your parents.

I liked Leonie Swann's "Three Bags Full". At least the sheep acted quite naturally which is more than can be said for some of the animal detectives! Being winter and cold, windy, raining etc. (Like the UK Summer this year apparently) I have been curling up under my cheap misprinted Winnie the Pooh blankie and listening to tapes so that I can keep my frozen mitts under wraps. I bought a lot of them from the local library who are selling old and donated, almost new, tapes. I like books I have already read, I find them easier to follow. I also like women readers better as they can deepen their voices for male characters but men don't sound right becoming women! What do other listeners think? I have been trying to get Kate Fenton's two early books from the Australian library system but no luck so far. I enjoyed her books very much and was reminded of her from another thread. Almost Spring, so a lot of my reading will be garden catalogues!

Friedag, thank you for fascinating anecdote about Allingham and du Maurier. I had no idea about their rivalry. I think the two remind me of each other in that Allingham (in my opinion) is trying to write mysteries which can be taken seriously as novels in their own right. In this aspect I think she struggled as a writer, but she did succeed in adding a deeper level to the standard murder mystery. I'm still not sure whether I admire Margery Allingham as a writer, though I loved The Case of the Late Pig. Professionally, she was so eclipsed by Christie and Sayers, that I feel a bit sorry for her. In Dancers in Mourning, for example, her detective Albert Campion finds himself falling in love with the unhappy wife of a man who is a suspect in several murders. Campion agonizes about how to proceed with his investigation, and the reader is meant to sympathize with his personal unhappiness, and his professional scruples. I was reminded of My Cousin Rachel, in that the narrator's shifting perceptions of Rachel shape whether the reader perceives Rachel as a murdering fortune-hunter, or merely as a victim of jealous paranoia. With the exception of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (published at the beginning of her phenomenal career) Christie would not have added such a complex layer of characterization to an already successful formula. What amazes me about Christie is how she was able to churn out 3-4 novels a year for decades without going bonkers at the sameness of what she was writing. (To be fair, Christie was very pressured by her publishers not to stray from her set formula.) I hope to start Sayers in the fall. I have never read Georgette Heyer, but she is on my list of writers to try. Heyer's reputation has improved considerably in the last few years. She is an interesting example of the ebb and flow of a writer's respect among critics and readers. I know someone who helps choose the titles for a local book club made up mostly of career women in their 40s and early 50s. I suggested My Cousin Rachel as a possible title. She crinkled her nose in polite disdain, and made some dismissive comment about Daphne du Maurier's books. It was this incident that made me think she had become "old hat" to contemporary readers. Heyer suffered this same fate for years.