It was a quiet Christmas this year.
It was just me, the Wife, and TechnoBoy.
Sister Here and the Bro-In-Law are in CA, visiting their kids and friends for the Holidays.
The phone calls were made to Sister There and the DAGU who was at the Fiance's home turf for Christmas.
So it was just us.
The gifts were casually opened by late morning, about the "third pot of Elixir" time.
TechnoBoy got us some interesting gadgets. He tried off-and-on all day to get them to work but the Bluetooth wouldn't bite.
He was kinda bummed.
The Wife got me a book.
It works just fine.
And we got a "bean" card game that looks like a cross between Monopoly, Pit, and a seed catalogue.
A quiet restful day, yesterday.
Now it's the day after Christmas.
The Elixir is gurgling in the kitchen as I type. The Christmas Tree is lit but it looks a little different.
Oh yeah. That's it.
It's like looking at your ticket stub before you go into the movie, then looking at it when you clean out your pockets at home.
Expectation and remembrance.
Both good. Just different.
All those après-Christmas things will start today.
The Christmas Ham will begin its annual morphing into different dishes.
I think Calvin of "Calvin & Hobbes" called it "transmogrification".
We've always called it "leftovers".
The routine of work restarts in about two hours, calling for an all-out sprint toward the end of the calendar and fiscal years.
The routine of a regular house will slowly begin today and culminate on New Year's Day with the Christmas things hibernating another year, stacked and stuffed in the hall closet.
But The Reason For The Season continues, new and fresh.
Every day there's anticipation and every night remembrance.
Gifts and mercies new each morning.
Every day is a Holiday.
A pull on the Elixir erodes a song. And it's not a Christmas song.
Huh.
Yeah. Makes sense.
You know, Disney missed it in "Mary Poppins".
They had a good song, just the wrong person.
"Oh, it's a jolly holiday with Jesus -
No wonder that it's Jesus that we love!"
Happy Holidays, eh?