Christmas Cheery via Telecom

I had to work today, being 'essential personnel' in an understaffed department... somebody has to make sure that the place is still standing and the cat is fed. It's a low-key day on the job, and it frees me up for some St Stephen's Day drinking, though I'll pass on hunting the wren. Most of the day, though, I was in communication with family and friends, getting updates on everybody's antics- my goddaughter getting up at 4AM because she was so excited, nephews making pastries for holiday parties. It was a day for recounting funny stories about ruthless Christmas tree shopping and weird run-ins with Cajun carnies. Jokes both clean and ribald (one friend, talking about deserving a spanking, set me up to make the punchline: "Can't spell Christmas without S&M!").

Everybody is doing well, as is to be expected. Myself, I hit a Chinese takeout place on the way to work and had a quick lunch before feeding the cat- for Christmas, I gave her some whole milk (she's one of those cats which has had the stuff throughout her life). I've been the recipient of altogether too much Christmas chocolate, and one of our managers, who will be on vacation for two weeks, wrote a note telling me that I was in charge of distributing the leftover snacks in the employees' kitchen, and I have to confess that I took the choicest stuff for myself. In the interest of full disclosure, I've been eating junk all afternoon, as one does on Christmas. My upstairs neighbor texted me to tell me that she had a ton of food, so she'd prepare a plate for me, so breakfast for tomorrow is in the bag. I have a bottle of Bailey's with her name on it, for her Boxing Day coffee.

Here's hoping that everybody has had a lovely Christmas, free from worry and stress. As a Christmas gift, here's a choral group from Trinidad and Tobago singing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah





Watching that, dreaming of a green Christmas seems like a perfectly fine idea, no offense to Irving Berlin.