I have survived Christmas. I think everything went well -- the boys were very happy with their presents from everyone. They barely noticed the huge telescope that Santa Clause dropped off. I am hoping that they will be more impressed with the telescope next week when it is clear and sunny again. Right now, it is cloudy and rainy and grey. It has been that way for about 4 days now and it is beginning to get to me. I have taken a nap two days in a row.

We went to 4pm Mass on Christmas Eve this year, just as we do every year. Every year, I go early so that we can have seats, and Ron joins me about 10 minutes before Mass begins. At least this is the plan. It hasn't worked out yet, in the three years we have been going to Corpus Christi. The first year, I was waiting for Ron to show up and the usher kept coming over and telling me that he was going to release the seats I had saved. I said no. He came over again and said the same thing. I said no. He complained to the other ushers. Finally he came over again and said the same thing, and I told him that I was sorry he was under pressure from those people who only darkened the church door on Christmas and Easter, but I had planned to come early and had showed up in time to save seats for my family and I was going to keep those seats. He stood there for a moment with his mouth open and then walked away. The pressure brought to bear was almost unbelievable. It seemed like everyone in the church was staring at me and my 5 saved seats. However, I didn't buckle, and Ron showed up at 4pm on the nose. It turned out that James had pooped out of his diaper and everything just as they were leaving for the church and that was why he was late.

Here is what I don't understand. All of these people come out of the woodwork twice a year to go to church. They know that the church is going to be packed to the rafters, and yet they show up 5 minutes before Mass and expect a seat??? What is the deal with that? Worse, they expect ME to give up the seats I have saved for my family just because my family is not there 15 minutes before Mass is scheduled to begin?? Seriously???

Last year, Ron made it a couple minutes before 4pm, but it wasn't quite as bad since I had Brigid there to back me up. It got very tense and the atmosphere was very heavy, but we held on and kept our seats.

This year, I told Ron that he had to be there by 3:45pm. I went in at 3pm, saved our seats and settled in to wait. The pressure from the ushers started at 3:30pm. I held on. Again and again I turned people away from the seats. The Grand Knight came up and said he had to release the seats because Fr. Richard said so. I said no, and that I would certainly talk to Fr. Richard about it personally. The Grand Knight said he would give me two more minutes. At this point, I have borrowed a cell phone from a teenager behind me and called Ron. It is 3:52 and he wasn't there and he didn't answer his cell phone. Again, the PTCs (part time catholics) were getting very restless and the pressure was almost overwhelming. Ron showed up at 3:59pm. I could have killed him. He doesn't have any idea how much pressure I am under when I save those seats. It totally blows any attempt at a good mood -- and it takes me a long time to recover from that kind of pressure. This year, he was late because he couldn't find Elias anywhere. It turned out that Elias had been efficient and had hopped into the car without telling anyone so that he would be ready to go. He promptly fell asleep and no one could find him.

I am now the proud owner of an iPod nano -- very cool. Now I have to figure out how to get everything onto the damn thing so I can use it. I think I might have to wait until the guys go back to school to work on that so that I am not interrupted. Ron gave me a totally great radio that attaches under the kitchen cabinets so I finally have music options for the kitchen. This is very important to me -- music is a good thing to have when cooking.

The guys were subjected to extraordinary generosity this year. Several of my aunts and even friends thought to send presents to my boys. They all seemed to be focused on one thing: Wii games! The guys are beyond thrilled. They were given Circus, Family Game Night, Pitfall, and Da Blob! Right at this moment, Da Blob is the obsession, but I am sure that soon, they will be moving on to other games. Andy was given a huge Hershey's kiss -- an excellent choice, as you can see from the picture.