quiet. which is the way I like it.

Good but tired. Eating someone else's cookies is a lot of work.

I also saw Santa drunk at a local bar, ~~and it was at that moment I realized I was going to have to do the gifts myself.~~

Pretty good. We had a smaller spread than usual because we’re trying to watch what we eat now, so just a simple christmas ham and sushi bake that we made ourselves. Then pecan pie for dessert. We also eat earlier in the evening now instead of waiting for midnight (our own tradition).

The Christmas Eve candlelight service was wonderful. It was scary to come home and now I have a long empty day with no food or presents or anything, and probably peppered with random violent outbursts. Things aren't very good for me right now.

It was good! We had steamboat with lots of nice meats and veggies.

The last part of the evening was spent wrapping up presents, which was fun in its own way :)
This year I wanted to try the Japanese cloth wrapping (furoshiki) as an alternative to paper.
Unwrapping was a big hit with the kids, and the wrapping was fun to do for me.

Low key, but enough tradition to feel like an occasion. We had some ethnic food at my mother in law's and went to the village green to look at the decorations. Small group for dinner, that's good (for me) actually. The decorations are mostly for kids, and our child is in their 20s now, but still nice.

Immediate family all met at my sister's house for spaghetti, as is our tradition. The cookies she made were amazing.

Not as bad as the 23rd. Fewer customers; still a ton, but the checkout line didn't wrap around the front end of the store anymore, and customers accepted defeat when stuff was out of stock.

Fantastic. I ate prime rib at a friend's place.

I started on the cheese and crackers early. Today is going well too, have made good progress on the pretzels and dip.