The big news is that I heard from my friend the Duchess of Palma last night, after writing to you – Archie’s and my Cooking Day with her is all set for January 4, deposit paid and received. Next we must book a street food walking tour – I don’t think that’s urgent, but we ought to get it done before we leave.

That’ll still leave three days for culture.

I think it may be possible to hear Mass in the Cappella Palatina on Sunday -- “Palermo’s top tourist attraction”, according to Lonely Planet. I mean to try. I sometimes think about how, in the Bad Old Days, people who lived in appalling squalor and poverty could and did experience great art – including music – by going to church. I think there are still a couple of Titians in churches in Venice, but such things are a good deal rarer than they were.

Nigella Lawson says in one of my magazines that the first thing to do if you want to survive Christmas is to keep a notebook in the kitchen, and make lists. She may be right. I got several important items crossed off mine today,  including facing up to the Elephant in the Room and writing the first five Christmas cards. I wonder if the Internet will make that practice redundant soon – it’s awfully time-consuming and awfully expensive.

The round-robin letter printed with minimal smudging, perfectly legible.

Time-consuming or not, I also got some knitting done, and have at last rounded the final corner with that baby-shawl edging and started the gallop down the home stretch. I’ll do some Soutache before I go to bed.

And tomorrow – a new Fruity Knitting! I must make the best of it. I presume that things will slow down over the hols.