Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all from the Den! It's been a great day. I, once again, woke up at 5AM. When did I turn into an 70-plus year old man? If I turn up at the nearest buffet restaurant at 430PM soon, please help me to end it all! However, getting up that early today did allow me to finish the Christmas breakfast that I like to make - it's a whole overnight production. It did taste delicious though. The sun came up here in Chicago and brought some Christmas warmth with it. The snow that was on the lawn is now gone. Nice little gift from Mother Nature!

Parker was raring to go by 7AM but we held him off until just after 8AM. Shari and I led the kids downstairs to tackle their stockings around the tree. Now that our three children are all essentially teen-agers, Christmas morning has a different pace. Everyone seemed pleased with what was awaiting them under the tree. Shari was clever to put "The Simpsons" movie in my stocking, making it the first thing I opened. I could not have been more pleased! It was a lot of fun to laugh with the kids this morning as we looked at everyone's new clothes and to watch reactions to gifts.

The rest of the day has been one of phone calls to relatives and doing puzzles, watching new DVD's, etc. Parker was gone a little after 9AM in order to get to a friend's to try out their new Wii. As a result, we have a new obsession at the Den. By mid-day, I had to head over to the only open market, the Super-H Mart, for some stuff. This is a Korean-owned supermarket and let's just say it knows its key demographic very well. It was hysterical to watch folks streaming in looking for that last-minute yam or box of stuffing, only to discover that unless they were prepared to use live eel as stuffing, recipe needs were going to have to change.

The day is still not done. We will be warming up the tamales and enchiladas de pronto. I can't wait to try these hand-made tamales that I found in Aurora over the weekend. We'll watch another movie or two, I'm sure. Tomorrow brings Courtney's birthday and another day of celebration. It's a fun time for our family.