StanleyWheeler

Yesterday I divested the curtilage of Christmas cheer and yuletide delight. In other words, I de-lighted the exterior of the grounds with a sortie to take down some enemy combatants the Christmas lights. Wife and daughter flew close air support. Wife gathered each strand as I defused it, one by one. Daughter a seek and destroy rescue mission on the strands around the deck.

For Christmas itself, we had sickness in a plain brown wrapper. Law Student and his lovely family came Christmas Eve. The little Manette girl already had something, and shared with our couch some of the things she had eaten earlier. Law Student felt as if he wanted to engage in similar sharing but avoided such ostentatious displays. Nevertheless, the Ice Queen and Thor declined to bring the Corsican Brothers to such an environment. The next day, after the joyous morn, with breakfast for some, Law Student et al abandoned us to our own sad company--like process servers who had fulfilled their commission.

That evening, the Ice Queen and Thor did bring the Corsican Brothers for a nice dinner starring an old, dead, piece of pig -- which was quite tasty. Wife cooked it in the crock pot so I had the holiday off from the usual (and time consuming) application of heat and smoke to raw meat products. We contended with one another via a couple new games. The Jumanji Jungle game and Monopoly for Millennials. Thor prevailed in Jumani, while daughter got us all in an early headlock in Monopoly and eventually forced us all into submission for the win.

By way of entertainment, I treated myself to a re-watch of The Incredibles 2 on Netflix. The overblown trumpet blast attacks are the best. I'm sure I mentioned that the first time I talked about the movie. Yes, I did--at least a little. I'm happy to report much fun in the re-watch.

Today I substituted for the teacher in Sunday School as we discussed the last half of the book of Revelation. I thought it went a lot like this:

Except maybe the train didn't get quite so far on to the bridge before it all collapsed. Nevertheless, there was a point during the lesson when I grasped a great truth--that made it all worth it for me.

***

With the new year approaching like a wrecking ball, it's time for resolutions. For me, I know that I will go back to writing a minimum word count on weekdays. I've simply been writing without worrying about how much I write. I'm going to want to complete books 3 and 4 next year in the Tomahawk and Dragon Fire series -- and books 1 and 2 are only 99 cents each until the 31st. I'm currently on chapter 6 of Book 3.

Of course, there is more to self improvement than augmenting the word count. While I was looking for a Christmas picture to add after the first paragraph, I came across the picture below from a quiz I had taken a couple years ago.

I'm not sure if I should resolve to go from moderate to high, or from moderate to mild.