OH OH OH WOE WOE WOE HO HO HO

 CHRISTMAS IS WONDERFUL,  SO IS SURVIVING!
 
I looked around at a trial run for the Christmas dinner and thought to my amazement that we all were well, especially Mary who was standing and supervising and running to the kitchen rather than eating which is typical behaviour for women who have just cooked a fine meal.
I wouldn't rule out the last few years as being totally the winters of my discontent but let's just say there have been far too many hospitals and ERs and operations and rumours of operations and friends being inflicted similarly.
But things have been going swimmingly, thank you very much, and our luck seems to have improved. We actually have reduced the number of times we have to sit around waiting rooms mentally sticking skewers into the sensitive anatomies of tardy doctors.
When I say my luck has improved, I really mean it. Now if the turkey or ham skids to the kitchen floor without anyone noticing as I carve it, I can plunk it back on the platter without feeling too guilty. Why Brett came over quietly the other night and put up my Christmas lights, and when he and his family came over for the dinner rehearsal, only one string was out. Now that's success.
So I got my grandson Matthew to take a picture of Mary and me actually standing beside the tree which, believe it or not, was not always possible in recent years.  And we may actually send out a few cards, although email, the Internet, Skype, and LD package deals make it a lot easier to actually talk to people instead of trying to decipher the signatures on a Season's Greetings card.
So it's bah humbug to the grinches who would gut Christmas and God bless you to all of us who love everything about Christmas, even to lights that don't work and hams that skid off the table