I don’t know what it is, but it just hasn’t felt much like Christmas this year. I feel like I haven’t had the time to keep up with it–plus, year after year Shawna does more and more of it. Maybe that’s it. I haven’t even done my half of the Christmas card list yet–sorry to those of you out there who’ll get a late card!

We’ve also already opened half of our gifts–Super Mario Galaxy for Shawna, a toaster oven for me (we have been suffering from a dearth of toast for nearly year), and a book for Shawna. Graem’s also opened countless gifts, but at least she has a ton more. We got her the Playmobil Advent calendar, which has been helpful as the morning tooth-brushing bribe. My only issue with this particular calendar is that there are too many birds: I estimate that 9 of the 24 boxes were filled with tiny (read: perfect nostril-stuffing size) birds. We will choose more wisely next year.

We went to my work’s Xmas party last night. It was a lot of fun–there are a ton of us now, 10 employees + families adds up to quite a bit. There have been some years where we’d just do a lunch, and there’d be 5 or 6 of us around the table. I think it’s so much more fun with the families and the kids. There were 5 other kids there last night, aged 5 through 8, plus Graem. They were all rough-housing together, and Graem was in the corner (right next to them!) coloring. Shawna commented to my boss that Graem was just like me!

I am looking forward to a few days off and some hangout time with the family. Work next week should be fairly quiet too.