First: I am surprised that in the UK they actually still call it Christmas – proudly. In North America it has slowly but surely been whittled down to a generic holiday where everyone says ‘Happy Holiday’ and are almost ashamed to say ‘Merry Christmas’. I say respect the religious views of others and express Happy Holidays, Merry Chanukah and happy Kwanzaa, and let us all say our respective greeting without judgement.

Second: I love this quote from Andy Rooney:

“one of the most glories messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day, don’t clean it up too quickly”

Third: I have blogged on my favorite Christmas albums before – click here to see the list. But Barenaked for the Holidays remains my No.1 album followed closely by Bruce Cockburn – nice to see Bruce signing wonderful Christmas songs and not about rocket launchers. If you hang around the house, you will also hear the boys and I singing 12 days of Christmas the Bob and Doug Mackenzie way .. that is just the way we roll. 

Fourth: What do I want for Christmas? Not much really (Heck, we have no room!). I know what the boys want … Mario Galaxy being top on the list, Star Wars Lego a close second. For me, time to learn a new language. I am exploring Rosetta Stone. A friend told me that in his language research that the common thought that adults are not wired for learning a new language like children is actually wrong. The truth is that children learn faster because they are not afraid of making mistakes, adults are. Over come that phobia and you can learn just as fast. For me, French .. then Spanish.

Last: We will be heading to Belgium for a few days between Christmas and New Year and are booked to see the Terra Cotta army. More on that in January. Egypt is booked for spring break. The adventure continues.

Holiday time, here we come! To all, a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Happy Kwanzaa and great NEW YEAR.