Grumbles lay on the couch and watched with bemused bewilderment as her mother tore through the house, emptying drawers, checking under beds and upturning boxes, all the while muttering feverishly to herself.
"I can't believe it's gone!" she wailed, looking into a rather large box marked "Completed Projects That Need To Be Photographed For Blog", before shoving it away and sticking her head in the cupboards of the buffet.
"What is it, Mum?" queried Grumbles, as Jorth frantically dug through another box labelled "Blog Fodder - Warning: May Be Covered In Dust And Cobwebs." Jorth, however, ignored her, as she was too busy muttering "Seriously! Where the heck could it have got to? It simply HAS to be around here somewhere!"
"MUUUUUUUM!" brayed Grumbles in that particular vocal tone that can usually, without fail, slice it's unattractive way through any parent's inattentive daze, "What have you lost?"
Jorth snapped her head around and said "Ahah! It's not hiding under that quilt top that needs to be sandwiched, is it?" Poking her head under the fabric, she exclaimed "Damn! Not here either!", and with that slumped onto the floor in defeat.
"Just tell me what you're looking for!" pleaded Grumbles. Jorth looked up into her hopeful face with despair, and said "It's the year! I can't find it anywhere. Last time I checked it was, what, August and now it's the 23rd of December. Tell me, oh dearest offspring, how can that be?"
"That's just the way it goes, Mum" offered Grumbles philosophically. "Besides, since we're making an actual appearance on the blog, don't you think we should wish all your readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year?"
"Whaa?" said Jorth, her eyes sweeping distractedly under the table in the hope that a few stray months might be found lurking under there. "Oh yeah, Happy New.... hang on! That's it! The New Year!" Clutching at her daughter's hand, Jorth said excitedly "D'ye suppose that I can cram all of the stuff I was meant to finish/blog/document this year into next year? I could update every day, and become one of those bloggers that you can rely on to always be posting something exciting! Whaddya think, tiger?"
Privately Grumbles thought that we'd all heard that song before, but she was loath to crush the optimistic spirit in her mother's eyes, so she just squeezed the hand back and said "As you always say to me, you can do and be anything you want - you've just got to set your mind to it."
"I concur completely!" said Jorth, finally catching a little of that merry festive spirit. "Bring on 2011! I've got big plans for you. Big plans!"
