The Christmas Presents were all wrapped this year...

This was a very different year. Many, many things went differently this year. And so as not to make this a big whiney story that will bore you away from this journal forever, I’m just hitting a few things. I’m not calling them highlights because there weren’t high or low aspects just changes that hurt as a parent that has to let go, inevitably, of things that are precious.
We had a very good Christmas. The kids, and this has never, ever ceased to amaze me, were great about what they got. Every year my wife and I do the, “Is that it? Is that the best we can do?” And every year the kids come through. When my son was 4 years old and started really grasping the whole ‘Santa’ concept, he got a small plastic tool belt from Santa that, and I can still see the look on his face, I think will always be like the greatest thing he’s ever gotten. There is a kind of joy you share vicariously through kids that is part of the Christmas experience.
My kids are teenagers now, so in recent years Santa has been more of a figurehead, but this year was the very first year that everything was wrapped under the tree. The kids slept in and there was no running to see what was under the tree because it would be gotten to in due time.
It was a very good Christmas, but it made me a little sad too, because we had moved on.

I took a little sabbatical this week and lurked a little bit but largely was off the computer and spending time with actual family. I’m distressed that folks can’t hear the audio post because I have high hopes to become even lazier and go that way, with audio entries, especially when I need to warn people with Tivo, in a loud tone, to avoid crap that others might call ‘regular programming’.
Jerry Orbach is gone. He was the quintessential TV New York cop. Think about it. He was on for 12 out of the past 14 years of Law & Order. A show that runs in syndication 3 to 4 times a day. Jerry Orbach has to be the most seen actor (or on an incredibly short list) in TV history. Jerry, you always delivered. Thanks.

I mentioned earlier that this was a very strange year. With the exception of renting Santa Clause I and II the day after Thanksgiving (veg day on the couch) and Elf a week or so before Christmas, did not see or hear one Christmas special or even a Christmas episode of any TV show until the Christmas Story (one of my all-time favorites) marathon on TBS on Christmas Eve. Very strange year. Not even a glimpse of It’s a Wonderful Life or any incarnation of A Christmas Carol. A special side note here: Only the Christmas Carol’s with either Alistair Sim, or Mr. Magoo are the true versions, kinda like Sean Connery is really the only James Bond.