It turns out that, due to scheduling confusion, I actually have Xmas Eve off work (instead of New Year's Eve, which I don't mind working, as I can't get drunk until after the baby goes to sleep anyway). Which means this is my last day at the day job before a glorious four-day-weekend of food, wine, spirits, and family. And I can do some cooking in advance, which always helps. Our responsibilities are turkey, potatoes (mashed garlic and sweet), and pie. Mmm delicious pie.

I like Christmas day, though my circumstances are rather stress-free: we just go up to my sister-in-law's place in the hills, eat, open gifts, drink, and hang out. No huge travel involving snowbound airports or icy roads or any other sorts of hassles. And for whatever reason I don't get too stressed out about getting people gifts, usually. (The existence of online wish lists is a great boon to the latter problem, as is the fact that we're too broke to get stuff for anyone other than close family and friends -- and even some of them have to make do with cards and baked goods alone this year.)

Plus, at 2-and-a-bit, our son is old enough to have some clue what's going on this year. He looooves opening presents, and shouts "Birthday!" when he encounters gifts. The nuances of the holiday can wait. (We're about as secular as you can get anyway; it's just about food, family, hot beverages, presents, and defying the winter for us.) It'll be his third Christmas, but the first one where he has some clue what's going on. Having a kid really does add a whole new level of fun to the holiday.

Writing continues, as it must, because deadlines care not for your mortal holidays. Yesterday I got some freelance reviewing done, and then jumped back into the work-for-hire novel. The second section is FUN, if a bit logistically and structurally tricky.

I should hit a quarter of a million words of writing for the year by the time all is said and done (and that's just fiction and freelance non-fiction -- who knows how much writing for work, blogging, tweeting, etc. I've done on top of that). A pretty good year.