It seems like Thanksgiving was maybe a week ago, but here we sit, everything Christmasing around us. This is the first Christmas that Kid No. 1 has been out of school, and she and her beau decided to split the holidays— Thanksgiving here and Christmas at his parents’. If it was my choice, I’d have chosen to have it the other way around, but I guess I didn’t get a vote. Anyway, we had (a) Christmas here on Saturday. To quote the Man In Black, “I don’t like it, but I guess things happen that way.” We had scads of non-traditional foods and exchanged gifts and all that. And it was nice to be with family in front of a warm wood stove. Dr. Evil and I decided that our big gift to each other would be a fancy new water heater, so as you can see, the romance between us remains en fuego.

But now it’s actually Christmas and . . . well, nothing. No stockings, no making of the merry. Even our egg nog turned out to be “spice” nog. It’s not bad, but it’s not egg nog. Our favorite Chinese restaurant isn’t open today, so we can’t even do a Jewish Christmas.

I suppose this, or some variation of this is how it’s going to be from here on, so I’d better just get used to it.

Kid No. 2 will be staying with us, presumably through New Years, so that’s pretty nice. She came bearing all of her laundry, So I guess I’ll have to buy more detergent soon, and give the septic some time off. So. Many. Clothes.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas, and I really, really hope for a better 2019 for our country.