Well - here it is, December 23, and I've finally gotten into the Christmas mood. The reasons for the delay (it usually hits me about the end of the first week of December) are various, but the primary ones are easy.

1. Two people who I care about have had members of their immediate family die recently. In one case, it was a friend's mother. Her death was due to a long-fought illness and was not totally unexpected. That doesn't make it any easier for him.

   The other was a son. He was missing for about 10 days before they found him. He had been beaten to death and buried on a remote farm. The reasons are still unclear and a couple theories are floating around. To be honest, he was involved in some lousy stuff and with some lousy people, and that might have been at the root of it. His mother knew that and realized that you sleep in the bed you make. That doesn't make it any easier for her.

2. We're strapped financially. While that's certainly not the driving force behind the season, it's a tough thing to explain to 2 little girls who still believe in Santa Claus. In order to focus on them in even a scaled back manner, we've basically dropped all unnecessary expenses. (For those of you who would've normally gotten Christmas cards, Merry Christmas!) SWMBO & I are currently working on debt containment and will hopefully begin the reduction phase after the first of the year. We're hardly destitute, but it's a stretch to make it from check to check at the moment.

   All that to this: it's hard to be jolly when you're scrounging the couch for lunch money.

Luckily, all of those concerns go away when I come home and Things 1 & 2 run to me with big hugs. There's not much better than that.

Anyway, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all.