Christmas Eve, 2024

Today is Tuesday, December 24th, the day of Christmas Eve, when millions of people across the nation and the world frantically await the arrival of the elves from FedEx and UPS and Amazon with gifts bought online that were "guaranteed" to arrive by Christmas. Tonight, children will set out milk and cookies for Santa and desperately try to stay up late in hopes of seeing him, parents will grow ulcers as they try to deal with the toy for which "some assembly (is) required*," and stores will sell out of the batteries they didn't realize they needed for that toy they had to assemble.

The tradition of gift-giving at Christmas goes back to the biblical story of the Three Wise Men, who followed a star to the address at which they were to leave their packages, after drawing a charcoal sketch of the package in place to prove delivery ...

Of course, were The Three Wise Men to seek their goal nowadays, things might be a bit different ...

They might even resort to staying home and figuring out whether gold, frankincense, and myrrh qualify for overnight free delivery to Bethlehem. 

Ah, the holidays!

Tomorrow is Christmas Day, and there'll be a guest post to mark the occasion. I'll just warn you to be careful if you plan to go out today - not just because the stores will all be madhouses (despite online shopping), parking lots will look like the beaches of 1944 Normandy, and drivers will be more distracted than usual, but because all too many of your fellow Christmas shoppers will arrogantly and petulantly engage in behavior** that will mean some families next Christmas will have fewer people around the tree and the table.

And I want to see you all safe and happy tomorrow.

Have a good day. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

* It helps to have a degree in mechanical engineering.

** For example, refusal to vaccinate, strident and unyielding political views, and insistence on packing maximum iron at all times.