Gelukkig Kerstfeest!

Christmas was fun, but I waited too long to write this post. I ate too much turkey and drank too much beer, and now it’s 9 o’clock and I’m groggy. LMJ cleaned up as far as Christmas loot goes. Three local grandparents will do that. My parents showed up at around 1:30 this afternoon with a case of Heineken, and Christmas has been merry ever since. They were accosted in my front yard by one of my neighbors, she is a server at one of their favorite restaurants, and loves my mom and dad. It’s a little bit weird, but she’s very nice. MJ suggested that it wouldn’t be prudent for me to finish the beer before the night was over, and in a display of my personal growth and maturity, I didn’t take her suggestion as an affront to my manhood. That doesn’t mean that I won’t drink them all, it just means that I didn’t feel challenged. I just opened another one but I’m not even close to being done with the first twelve pack. Maybe I should feel challenged. Unfortunately, I don’t. I’m just old. I turn thirty-nine in a week. Back in the day I would be getting ready to go out partying; now I can’t wait to get into bed and hope I get to sleep in until 7:30 tomorrow morning. The best part of my day today – and last night for that matter – was watching LMJ play with the cool stuff she scored from Santa. She got a kitchen, an amusement park, and a train set that each occupied large chunks of her time. I love watching her imagination run wild. She gets completely caught up in what she’s doing and forgets the rest of the world around her. I wish I could be part of her little fantasy worlds every once in a while. This is the first Christmas that I really felt like a dad. It was friggin’ awesome.