This evening as my wife prepared to go back to work after the holiday, I remarked that this has been a better Christmas for us than last year. “The last two,” she replied. And it’s true. We were sitting in our new basement rec room, surveying the “media wall” I had built, with the new Wii plugged in to the home theatre, complete with brand-new KEF center channel speaker purchased at a Boxing Day sale this morning. We’re looking forward to family time in the space, which has been a lot of work. Just three weeks ago, it was a mess of bare walls, exposed 2×4 framed walls, and an assortment of boxes of excess miscellany overflowed from the storage room. There was more than one night in the last week that I worked until 3:00AM, and my wife got started at 6:00AM the following morning to sand or paint. We were both burning the candle at both ends, actually. We kept telling ourselves it would be worth it, and the end of the project was very satisfying.

Last year was a low point for us that led to daily medication for me that’s made all the difference. The year before was marked with too many conversations with lawyers to recount. A lot of stress in the past, and we are grateful that this holiday season was void of such revisitations. Unfortunately the renovation project left me quite tired, and I didn’t get much reading done as I’d hoped. The kids are still off school for another week, and we’ve got some get-togethers with friends and family still to come so we aren’t quite done holiday-ing yet. And for those that need reminding, the Christmastide (or Yuletide) season runs until Epiphany on January 6^th… so party on. I’m hoping to find some time yet for some further relaxation despite having to get back at some work that’s been piling up in my inbox. Still, the holiday has been good for us this year despite the traffic ticket and the dead battery on Christmas eve that kept us from getting out to the service at St. Ben’s. This year we learned that since your options are rather limited, no matter what the price, you’re happy when CAA shows up in your driveway on Christmas morning to replace your car battery for you.