The Christmas Eudemon

Whew! The smoke clears. A whirlwind 48-tour of Detroit, where I received a lot of neat gifts, including a hand-carved chess set that had to set my generous in-laws back a few bucks. The kids received an avalanche of gifts while there, as well. We came home on Saturday, attended an early Mass (4:00), then came home and celebrated the Birth, starting with a reading from St. Augustine while we put baby Jesus in the manger scene. We then played games until 8:30, then made another trip--next door to my brother's, where we socialized for a few hours, until bringing six wound-up kids back at 10:30, telling them to go to sleep. By 11:30, we were convinced they were asleep, and Marie and I got to work. Up at 6:30, we ate breakfast. As we started opening presents, I drank a Mountain Dew Amp, an energy drink, in hopes of making it through morning. The rest of the day was devoted to clearing away the debris and sleeping, until 5:00, at which time we made a two-block trek to my parents', where we stayed until 10:00.

All-in-all, a very good couple of days, but--as always--it's nice to return to normalcy (as normal as life gets with seven little kids), though we do hold back ten little presents for the twelve days of Christmas (C. Eve + Christmas + ten days), so the kids don't have a big let down.

Regular blogging will resume today, though the postings will be a little lighter than normal.

I hope everyone has--and is having--a Merry Christmas.