Looks like Portland will be welcoming its first big snowstorm tonight and tomorrow: the giant mess that's forecast to sock the mid-Atlantic and southern New England states is now supposed to clip southern Maine too. We're forecast to get up to 10 inches and a blustery gale, and I do hope Tom won't have to drive to work in it and the three of us can stay home together and enjoy the view.

This morning I'll undergo my abs class, and then I'll get started on my new editing project. Paul will be doing some Christmas baking, and I'm going to try not to get too anxious about the various responsibilities that are looming in early 2021 . . . that Zoom talk for the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, a collaboration with a Florida painter, a new class for the Frost Place, online visits with Maine school kids . . . all wonderful and exciting and exactly what I like doing, but there's so much planning involved and I start to doubt myself.

Anyway, I'm going to try to let Christmas keep me calm. No traveling in terrible weather. No twelve-person feasts to produce. Just the three of us, and a cat, and a Christmas hedge.

Tonight, for dinner: Leftover chicken stir-fried with bok choi; marinated eggs; udon; garlic broth. Homemade eggnog ice cream with a slice of Emily Dickinson's black cake.