Birds in a tree

It's December, which means it's time for the Christmas tree to come out!

( The usual bird-bedecked extravaganza )

And here's an early Christmas present:



It's a backpack for my skates and skating stuff. A bit frivolous, yes, and something I probably wouldn't have bought for myself, but it sure is more convenient than the reusable shopping bag I was using before. It's nice not to have to dump everything out to put my skates, the heaviest items, on the bottom when I'm packing up, and now my clothes aren't stuffed precariously on top of all the other crap in an open-topped bag, ready to fall out at any moment.

Speaking of skating, one of the girls at the rink is skating to the Aussie version of "Jingle Bells" for the show, and now it's stuck in my head. It's been alternating with the earwormy and annoying "Sisters" from White Christmas, which is part of my group's music. The two guys in our number are going to do that part in drag, because we're classy like that.

We added some nifty choreography yesterday, actually. We're doing this thing where we weave in and out between each other in a circle, and have been promised a pinwheel formation of some kind next week. While doing this, we're apparently going to be holding big snowflakes on fishing poles dangling by a string from a wand, which we simulated at rehearsal by holding skate guards. It was very Dada.

I am, unfortunately, stuck doing a two-foot spin again. At least I've been practicing and it's better than it was. At least I don't have to jump! My waltz jump is still unreliable, and I haven't really gotten anything else off the ground, so that would be...less than good, yes.