Merry Christmas

This one's being sent post-Christmas lunch this year.

Christmas this year is at our house with pretty much just Lynette, Allan and me, with the very welcome addition of Lynette's Dad and her 5 y.o niece. The little one has been a delight and a terror. Bossing everyone around, sulking, starving, not eating, getting full, having room for dessert, and that was breakfast.

The dessert department fell down slightly when it mis-timed the jelly (jello) preparation, but they rallied well with root beer floats. As I'm a part-time member of the dessert department through being slated to make a pumpkin pie with the ingredients Laura Rucker sent over I also have to take a hit on that one. I didn't realise it was served cold and thought I could get away with baking it in the oven with the turkey. The turkey, which is my department, was a success, although rather large for the number of people we have here.

We watched 4 hours of highlights from the Johnny Cash show, technically a present from us to Lynette's dad, but I suspect a backup copy may be taken before he travels back home. I used to watch the show with my parents when I was a kid and they loved it, so it has happy associations. And it was fun to put faces to the Country and Western songs we've all heard forever.

My present from Lynette arrives in February when a new mobile phone running the Android Open Source OS makes its way from Australia to here. Android on a phone earns me Geek Points and the fancy phone means I can keep in touch with administering and posting on the BrandX forum without having to get home to get online. We go shopping for a portable HD for her in the post-Christmas sales. In the meantime we got each other DVDs (Wonder Woman for her, The Long Kiss Goodnight for me) and snacks. Semi-zone in both cases in that they contain nuts, but the chocolate coating or honey roasting kind of negate that. And we won't discuss the peanut-butter M&Ms or peanut brittle or chocolate chip biscuits. The last 3 supplied by international sugar dealer LauraR. We did a few shipments of NZ candy back the other way so we're not entirely guiltless in that area ourselves

This year we had a wonderful trip together to the States and Brand X and we met some of the best people in the world, most of whom live in or around Ramona. I got to go to 2 certs and finally get some of my form on track. Unfortunately training at a proper CF gym has spoiled me and I'm no longer satisfied to put up with pull-ups on a rafter, so a freestanding pull-up bar will be assembled in the new year. It and squat racks were supposed to be my Christmas project except I hadn't checked when my staff card to the building supplies yard expired and I'll have to get a new one when work opens up again to make it affordable. I'll sneak in to CF New Zealand whenever they let me and use theirs so I don't totally lose the kip Jeff beat into me.

Have a great Christmas.