End of the Holidays

Because Christmas fell on a Thursday this time around I got a longer break than usual from work. It has been a good break mostly. I've spent a fair amount of time with the kids and the wife. Money was extremely tight this year, so we didn't go out and do much of anything, but we got along well enough at home.

"Spending time with the kids" involved watching a fair amount of television with them when we weren't playing games, which meant watching their shows, not mine. As such I've developed an intense hatred for most of the Disney/Family Channel programming schedule. At the top of my most despised list would be several of my kids favourite shows: Hannah Montana, Zack and Cody, Corey in the House and so on. The last two are particularly irksome. Those kids have no talent whatsoever. They can't act, they aren't funny- I wonder who their parents have blackmail material on, because that's the only way I can think anyone would give these talentless things their own shows. Their downfall will provide years of tabloid fodder.

At any rate, I have spent time with the kids. Talking and telling them stories when they're in the mood to listen, that sort of thing. We've all gotten along this time around. For myself, this normally isn't my favourite time of year, and hasn't been for some time, but this time I've pulled through pretty well. The black dog, as Churchill used to say, has been barking around me for much of the holidays, but no real bites this year.

And tomorrow it is back to work, where I will be one of the many nameless and faceless people toiling away at a job they hate surrounded by people they can't stand. The most bitter joke of the holidays is this: By this time tomorrow, I will feel as though the holidays never happened. That's always the way when I take some time of, but it feels a bit worse when it is Christmas that has come and gone, and left without a trace.