We Wish You a Merry Christmas

The big news here in Orange County is that it's finally raining. Not just a few drops but a nice drenching rain. It's been a glorious weekend. Friday we went to Chuck E. Cheese with our best friends. By the time the kids are grown, I will be a Skeeball Master. Saturday we went to our friends' house for dinner and The Dark Knight while the kids watched Tinkerbell. Is it just me or are movies getting more violent? Even if the actual scene is not shown, just the thought of something like a knife cutting through a face is so grotesque, I had to hide my eyes. I don't know if it's because the Joker was so overhyped or what, but I didn't really find his performance that amazing, just extremely murderous. Disturbing characters are a regular feature of popular fiction books (who wants to read about the average Joe?), which is one reason I stopped reading them (the other being no time), but I'm not used to them on the big screen. Really, I'm not used to anything on the big screen except Disney characters and Pixar animation.

To top off our weekend, we went Christmas caroling last night with our neighbors. We all gathered at someone's house with a bunch of cookies, fortified ourselves with cookies and cocoa, then went around the neighborhood knocking on people's doors. The kids had a lot of fun singing and running around with their neighborhood friends. The baby, who really did not know the lyrics, basically went for an evening stroll, jumping on fallen leaves and lagging behind whenever possible. Caroling around the neighborhood made me feel like we stepped into an Andy Griffith show or something. I can now honestly say, ah the good ole days.

Afterward, we went back to the same house and played some Guitar Hero. Then we collected our share of cookies and hiked on home.This week promises to be even better: helping out with school parties, hitting Toys R Us, sending out a bunch of cards to people we'll probably never see again, giving final exams and grades, and finally starting on gift shopping. Oh Joy!