It has become my custom in the last half-decade or so to buy myself books after Christmas.  Based on end-of-the-year best-of lists and recommendations from friends, I buy a few books at Full Circle Books (I'm still collecting and filling up the cards that turned in give you a $30 value; I filled another one up this week, so will look forward to cashing it in, though it will be months from now).  This year I selected The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  This annual tradition is one of my favourite things to do during Christmastide and was one of the highlights of the third day of Christmas this year.  And we ran into Kristen McCarty at Full Circle.

Driving over to Full Circle, we went through the medical campus to see the new OMRF building and then down to see the new I-40 pedestrian bridge and back through downtown.  After Full Circle we made a much needed visit to Big Truck Tacos and lunch with Rob Howard and Tarae McDonald.  If you have still not eaten at Big Truck despite all my many writings about it, then you are missing out.  And this even goes for those of you who don't live in or around OKC.

In the afternoon I met up with Mekado Murphy (in visiting from New York City) and Doug Bradley at Sara Sara Cupcakes.  I had an unused gift card to use there.  When I handed it to the checker she said, "This is old."  My favourite thing about Sara Sara is the milk bar.  You get a frosted mug and have all-you-can-drink white, chocolate, and strawberry milk.  Oh, I had a coconut cream cupcake.

Mekado brought us up-to-date on films and told about his interview with Steven Spielberg.  We discussed politics and religion and our views of the future.  Doug asked me what I was most concerned about in 2012, and I said that we would continue to settle for mediocrity.  I also informed them that despite always being an optimist, I am not optimistic anymore and think that life will get more difficult than it has been or that I've planned for it to be.  At the same time, I said that this is an exciting and adventurous time to be in parish ministry, pastoring through all the cultural challenges.

After dinner Michael and I walked around the Myriad Gardens at night enjoying all the new lights.

We spent the rest of the evening with his parents, and I finished the Julian Barnes novel I had purchased that morning!