Merry Christmas to All, And To All a Good Night . . . .

Great Christmas, Great Christmas. Ariane, Julian, and I had a nice night snacking away on buffalo wings, garlic bread, and various munchies with a very nice bottle of Merlot to wash it down. Opened present at midnight, and everyone got exactly what they wanted. (We had deliberately limited our purchases to one or two per person and not too extravagant -- so we had to get quality rather than quantity.) Filled the stockings with chocolates and little knick-nacky things, so it was quite memorable all in all.

Woke up this morning about quarter to ten, which is unusually late for me -- and very pleasant. Spent the day talking with Ariane's relatives in Belgium where the family had gathered. We're expecting another visit from Oriane this summer, who is 14 now and getting that teenage girl groove on -- so it should be fun. Didn't hear from my side of the family this year -- mainly because I'm almost always the one making the calls, and I thought I'd wait to see if anyone called me for a change. (Well, theory confirmed -- so much for that experiment.)

In our newest tradition (about 5 years old so far) we went to see a movie Christmas afternoon, and we went to see Ariane's pick Munich by Steven Spielberg. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but came away from the movie glad I'd seen it. Spielberg's point of view really doesn't come out until the very last shot of the file, when you see the Mossad agent walking away from his job and the camera focuses on . . . . .


. . . . The World Trade Center. Meaning, if you don't take care of a problem now, it'll come back to haunt you. Even the lovely and gracious Miss Mommy came out of the movie feeling very hawkish on terrorism.

The movie moved surprisingly quickly for an almost 3-hour flick -- faster than any in recent memory. Don't know if I'll buy this one, but I suspect we will; and may even see it twice -- it was that good. The movie may be a career-maker for Eric Bana, most recently known for the title role in last summer's The Incredible Hulk; and the last five minutes may put you off sex for a month. (You'll understand when you see it.)

And the weather? Well, I've got the porch doors open and the cats are all out on the balcony in beautiful 58 degree weather -- down from a high of 82 lovely degrees today. And gasoline hit $1.96 today -- down 3 cents from just yesterday.

Life is truly good; far better than I deserve.

~~JD~~