Tomorrow will be the fourth Christmas I've spent in the company of you good people at JU and around the world, and it's shaping up to be the best one yet, I think.

Last year, everyone got the same thing: PSP's.  We all loved them, we all still have them and we all use them.  This year, though, we decided that rather than dictate to the kids what they were getting (we didn't strong-arm them into getting PSP's; they loved them anyway)we'd ask them to create lists of what they wanted for Christmas and give them to us by Thanksgiving.

They did so.  And, each of them is getting exactly what they asked for it.  They don't know it yet (and that's been a really difficult thing to do) but when they wake up tomorrow morning when they wake up, Shea will have a Canon digital camera waiting for her, Davey will have a silver iPod Nano 4 gig and Jacob will have a Panasonic portable DVD player with a swivel screen that orients the photo whichever way you turn it.  They're all getting cell phones, too - not contract phones, but Go Phones.  I'm not THAT stupid; they'd have all my rollover minutes burned up in a week if I got them contract phones!

Apparently, I am going to be the recipient of a gift or two myself.  I didn't go all out for Dave this year, my not working made it impossible for the plans I'd made to come to fruition, so I had to go a wee bit smaller than I had originally planned.  Besides, it's the thought that counts, not the gift, right?  I'd rather have a small gift that someone obviously put a lot of effort into than a ridiculously expensive whatever that someone just picked up along the way.

Ok, I'm beat.  I'm going to go take a nap.  I hope that all of you have a very Happy Christmas, and that you spend it in the company of people you truly love!

Marry Christmas, JU!