Merry Christmas Eve^364 !

The title may require a bit of explanation. As you may know, Christmas is by far Sandi's favorite time of the year -- yes, even ahead of Flag Day. She wished me a merry Christmas Eve Eve on Tuesday, which led to my greeting today.

The holiday has come and gone, and Sandi and I enjoyed the chance to be together for a whole day. Unlike folks with children, we got started at about 9:30 in the morning (if you beat the sun to verticality, my heart goes out to you) with our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls. We had gathered our gifts from family during the trip home last weekend, and our next order of business was opening everything under the tree. Some of the highlights are a new fantasy novel from my mother, DVD's of the Chronicles of Narnia movies from Sandi's mom, and a set of hole saws which I will never use (like I know how). Sandi got me two new video games, and I returned the favor for her, along with an extender for her screwdriver. As an aside, I have finally reached the point of considering tools viable gifts -- for others. Note that only one person in our home could find a use for objects such as this.

The babies were not forgotten. In keeping with convention, Peaches and Samus received a stocking of toys each, and Ranger had a stocking as well. I am proud to announce that fully one of the toys for Ranger has lasted to see tomorrow. A tennis ball with Santa extremities was decapitated within minutes, while a knobby rope toy was deknobbed in the name of the treat stuffed within. The lot of us spent the rest of the day relaxing, snacking on ham and Moravian Lovefeast rolls, and playing with our new gadgets. I stayed up much later than I should have, primarily to see a really good episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation on the Sci-Fi Channel. Who could have seen that coming?

Sandi had to return to work today; apparently, federal law requires banks to be closed for no more than three consecutive days (how this plays into BB&T's Saturday hours, I cannot say). She also has to work tomorrow morning, whereas I will return to the office on Monday. In my time at the house today, I washed up the dishes from yesterday's foodstuffs and retrieved an end table from the basement. I have resisted the urge to spend the whole day watching Highlander reruns, but the struggle has not been an easy one.

I hope your holiday was as pleasant as ours. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!