'Twas the week after Christmas...

It's only been a few days since my last post, but it feels much longer. I suppose that's because, as important as Van Helsing was to the holiday, I haven't really reported on "official" Christmas information. So here goes, and sorry if this seems a bit of a list.

Kerry had six days off, her longest Christmas break since starting residency. Her parents were here for those six days, having left just this morning. Scott and Carlie were here for about 48 hours around Christmas. I'm sorry they had to make such a short trip, but it was great to have them here. While the rest of the US experienced extreme winter weather and nasty travel delays, we had moderately cold, moderately cloudy weather, with four of the easiest trips through BWI on record.

It was a Tyler Christmas dinner. Kerry's parents again sent us a smoked Greenberg turkey, Papa B made his cornbread stuffing, and Scott made silky gravy. In fact, there are lots of all three left over, so feel free to drop by The Holler for a Thanksgiving sandwich. (In all the excitement of Christmas Day, we forgot to make both the cranberry sauce and the Indian pudding. If you give us a little notice, you can have both, fresh.)

Lots of game playing during the visit: DDR, Quiddler, Alhambra (will those Germans ever stop making cunning tile-board games?), and RoboRally. We even tried to take a trip down memory lane with Crash Team Racing, but one of our PlayStation controllers seems to have died.

I helped direct parking traffic at the 5:00 Christmas Eve service. It was kind of fun, though I think we added little value; people parked themselves just fine, thanks. (On Christmas Day, I discovered that I had had more fun than I'd thought; my bum shoulder gave me gifts of needle-like pain.) The whole family returned for the 8:00 service, the largest of the year, with about 1,000 in attendance. We also went to the Christmas morning service, a smaller affair where everybody brings a bell and rings through many of the carols. It's a fun, joyful service.

We may not have Tivo, but our ability to watch good TV at any time increased on Christmas Day, as we now own the complete series of The Critic and The Office. (The latter was a gift from Scott and Carlie. Coincidentally, Kerry and I gave them the same thing.)

Kerry also added to our collection of Sandman books. As if you needed more reasons to read good comics, in doing so you might learn about Joshua Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.

The thing I'm struck with today, alone at home for the first time in a week, is that Christmas is so all-encompassing. It's not just decorations. It's not just gifts. It's decorations and gifts, and travel, and music, and food, and church services, and parties, and cards... Any one of those things is wonderful. All of them together are wonderful, too, but when it ends, the whole thing is left a bit of a blur. And there's hardly anything left for the other holidays. I mean, really, if we wore some costumes and set off fireworks, Christmas would pretty much sweep the board for celebratory techniques. I'm not complaining; it's just the musings of someone coming down off the holidays.

Believe the hype:

1. The Incredibles is a good movie.
2. The International Spy Museum is a good museum. (Our advice: buy tickets ahead of time, and get there early. We spent five hours inside.)

Kerry put the birdfeeder back into service for the first time since May. It's just sitting on the deck rail, as opposed to hanging from a hook. Interestingly, though the idea of the hook was to limit feeder access to flying critters, I've seen but one squirrel at the feeder in its new location. Go figure.