Merry Christmas everyone… we are really looking forward to the big day, especially seeing our kid’s eyes on Christmas morning.  I still get a kick out of that every year!  Today the festivities begin with my brother-in-law coming from Nevada (my mother-in-law arrives tomorrow), some Christmas shopping, another Christmas movie tonight, and more present wrapping.  And even with everyone being sick lately, looks like everyone will be well this Christmas, except for maybe a few coughs here and there.

Recently we all took up some dance lessons at the North Pole, and well, here’s a preview of how we’re doing.  Not bad, eh?

You can Elf Yourself too!

Well, it’s here again… in full swing.

I get it every year, somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, usually closer to Christmas. This year no exception. It’s like clockwork, too… major head cold. First few days starts out with the scratchy throat, then it moves to severe congestion for a day, then straight to a massive sore throat for 3-4 days, combined with the *awesome* congestion. I’m currently going through a box of tissues per hour (or so it seems). It’s just lovely to be around me.

Thankfully last year I stumbled upon a new discovery, the Robitussin cough gels. My annual coughing head cold is so bad that before this discovery no over the counter drug would help. I tried the sprays, cough drops, liquids, and nothing worked. I even had a cough medicine prescribed to me by a doc that had codeine in it. That didn’t really work either. My last barely-working remedy before the gels was a shot or two of Jack Daniels before bed (sleeping is the worst time of course). Not a bad remedy, either, as it put me out quick too. But now the gels are all I need… so if you have a nasty cough, pick some up. You’ll thank me later!

Merry Christmacough!

Update 12/31/08 - The cough is nearly gone, but with this cold the CoughGels didn’t seem to stop my cold as well as they did last time.

Apple’s home page today features a different kind of Mac vs. PC commercial… featuring ol’ St. Nick in classic stop animation like the old classic Christmas shows we’ve come to know and love from Rankin-Bass.

To view the high resolution version, visit the Apple Get a Mac page.

It’s that time of year again, and Mel and I will be spending the next two weekends putting up lights outside our house. If you haven’t visited my GriswoldHome.com website in a while, it’s worth checking out. Traffic to it is dead during 10 months of the year. Magically, during November and December, traffic flourishes!

One thing that always gets me in the holiday lighting mood is to watch the video of when Mel and I were on the local news. Our homeowner’s association sent us a nastygram, telling us to take down some of our lights.

Between that, eggnog latte’s from Starbucks, and watching Christmas movies like “Christmas Vacation” and Tim Allen’s “Santa Clause” series, it’s all I need to get in the mood.