Merry Christmas, perhaps a little late

December 27, 2007

Sorry about not getting the Christmas wishes out earlier. If I was a better blogger I would have written my Christmas post in July and scheduled it to run months ago, but I’m not a better blogger. Anyway, I hope you’ve had, or are having, a most excellent winter festival of your choice. I am not one to turn down an opportunity to hang out or eat food, so we celebrate as many of them as we can in our own, quiet, cake-eating way.

Cory’s first Christmas was a lot of fun. We have video footage of him going through his first Christmas stocking — something that went over better than I expected it would. He loves almost all of his new toys, except for one we had to get rid of because it smelled strange and the paint felt tacky. (Mom, Dad: sorry about the toy snail. It was cute but probably made of pure lead.)

Because of Cory’s age we kept things even more low-key than usual, not even going out to see a movie. Instead, we watched National Treasure (the first one) and were suitably appalled to our general delight. Elf would like to remind you that the admonition to “keep your powder dry” still applies when water is in its solid form, and anyway two-century-old gunpowder isn’t flammable. So that’s two reasons the shipwrecked revolution-era craft Charlotte should not have exploded in the first bit of the movie. Also, Elf would like to point out that writers of the time commonly capitalized nouns — not just proper ones — so having common words capitalized as part of a cipher is something of an anachronism. (Actually, I think what she said was “they capitalized all the nouns then, you idiot,” such direct and expressive language being a significant reason we’re not inclined to try to shield Cory from violence.)

We still have the new year to go, and then things can return more or less to normal. And I can settle down to experiencing my first Blacksburg winter in eleven years secure in the knowledge that, even as the mercury dips, the days are getting longer. The Winter Solstice this year was on the 22nd. So that, at the very least, is something to be cheerful about. Unless you’re south of the equator ( Pstonie). In which case, my sympathies.

Posted in Daddyblog, Diary