Christmas went well. I won't bore you with too much detail. Gifts were exchanged. Good food was eaten. Nobody got sick or injured. Large groups of people converged on each other. Our house has mostly recovered from the chaos, but boy is there a lot of stuff to recycle and throw out now.

It's raining outside, with more on the way. The streets are slick. That makes me think of all the poor people in Asia who just got hammered by tsunamis spawned by a 9.0 earthquake. 22,500 dead at last count. We should all be thankful for each day we spend on this Earth. There's no telling when it will end.

Here at home we've just started the last week of the year, a week during which very little seems to happen. It has always been a time to step away from the routine and reflect. It's a time to take a deep breath before plunging into the new year.

Don't forget to occasionally come up for air.

I spent a few hours at the museum today, doing the last bit of paid work for the year. Now that I'm an ex-employee, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm getting paid a lot more for my services. It's rewarding in and of itself of course. The kids just love getting up close to the reptiles and arachnids. I even saw a couple of co-workers from my newest job there.
The only down side to the afternoon was when the python bit me. He's getting less predictable these days. Since I was in front of an audience when it happened, I turned the whole experience into a demonstration of how snakes constrict their prey, using my hand and arm as a stand-in for the python's accustomed meal.

This is the first year that I've had any substantial time off around the holidays since I started working. I kind of like it.