Happy Holidays!

So Christmas eve 08 has arrived at last. Jen and I are not as festive as we have been in the past but we're still holding up our end of the good cheer.

Jen's happy that she has not one but two days off work, today and tomorrow. And she tells me she has a "jeans day" pass for Friday. To her mind, if she can get out of wearing slacks then it doesn't count as real day of work. Jeans are like the next best thing to vacation.

There's no tree. Not this year. Our beloved neighbors got a real one and their place smells like fresh pine. We were just too lazy to put up our fake tree. We decided to decorate the apartment with a new tv instead. It's a lot like our usual x-mas tree. It takes up a lot of space in the living room. It's pretty. It lights up. It's made of plastic. It serves as an idol of worship. And you can put whatever you feel like on it. So take that all you x-mas critics who think the holiday is just about consumption. Maybe I'll even top our tv with a nice star.

For tomorrow's dinner, I've got a nice selection of holiday cookies from Trader Joes. My favorite are the Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Peppermint Joe Joes. Three Joes in that title, nice. Pair them with a cup of coffee and you've Joe's Joe Joes with Joe. Four Joes! That beats even Major Major Major. The box describes them as "bathed in an all natural ocean of deep, rich chocolate... These chocolatey, minty sensations dissapear as fast as they appear and won't return until next year!"

And the gingerbread cookies I got, well the package says it best when it describes them as "any time sweet treats." Sometimes, I think the writers forget that they're describing cookies.

We'll also be attending a midnight mass tonight at Madison's Anglican church. We're going to support a friend of ours (one of the the neighbors I spoke of above) who will be carrying the thurible (the thing that releases the incense). I've very excited at the prospect of a little pageantry, a little ceremony, this evening. It's a little strange though too, seeing as I haven't been to church in, oh, say, 12 years. This was back when the father of a friend, Rashad, would literally make me go after sleeping over at his place. Not for religious reasons, but because it was the only time he ever had the house to himself.

Anyway, hope everyone else is having as much fun as we are. So have a merry... er... happy holiday!