Closed for the Holiday

It seems I've put this up every year at Christmas since 2006. This is how traditions are born.

My iPod has just about cycled through all its 881 Christmas songs -- I've been determined to get through it all once this season without a reset. (I'll add some new tunes after.) I've even heard the Barking Dogs' version of "Jingle Bells." That's the one, when it comes up in the shuffle at home, sends my wife over to the computer to kill the program immediately.

I'm at the Undisclosed Location this morning, hoping to catch up on time sheets and resolve a lien on a PI case that is otherwise settled. I have my envelopes for the security guards and the cleaning lady. And there's a credit card bill that I have to pay by tomorrow. I'll probably pay it today because I'm not sure I'll be in tomorrow. Our Noche Buena dinner is at noon. That's what Abuela wants; that's what we'll do.

Almost all the Curmudgeon family will be gathered tomorrow at my mother-in-law's. Oldest Son's fiance is hoping to fly out tonight to her parents' home in San Antonio. The National Weather Service forecast suggests she may have some difficulties. We are expected to have every form of precipitation known to man in the next 24 hours or so, culminating in a steady rain on Christmas Eve. The airlines are so worried that they're waiving fees for rescheduling flights: If you want to get out of Chicago, they're telling us, better do so quick. So we'll see if Oldest Son's fiance makes it out. Oldest Son is supposed to join her Friday. That's another one we'll have to see.

We're hoping not to have Older Daughter with us tomorrow.

That sounds wrong, doesn't it?

But she'd be driving up from Indianapolis tomorrow in the terrible weather -- alone. Her husband is an architect -- and also a singer. He's been hired to sing at Christmas Eve services at his church. We're talking money here. Older Daughter doesn't want to sit around her apartment by herself on Christmas Eve. Even if she goes to the services, she can only watch. She has friends and acquaintances among the congregation -- but they'll be with their families. Older Daughter will be alone wherever she is if she stays in Indianapolis. So she wants to join us. But Long Suffering Spouse are trying to persuade her that it is better to wait in a boring (but warm) apartment than in a ditch somewhere along I-65. Safer, too.

After our early dinner Thursday, we'll probably get to the 8:00pm Mass at our parish church. They have a children's Mass at 4:30 or so and the traditional midnight Mass. There was a time when our parish offered midnight Mass at 10:00pm. I could stay awake for that, then. I'm going to have trouble making it through 8:00 Mass now.

In the next couple of days we'll watch movies and play with our gadgets (we're getting a PS3 at our house, but don't tell the kids) and eat too many cookies. And I'll remember my parents. The Ghosts of Christmas Past are never far away.

I hope you'll have a Merry Christmas, too -- and, if Christmas isn't your thing, I hope you'll enjoy the day off anyway. And Happy Winter Solstice, or Festivus, or Kwanzaa... or anything else you prefer.