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The girls both woke up around 5AM this morning. I got them back to bed for another hour but I'm sure they probably just sat there waiting it out. Abby is usually in denial that she needs a nap but this is the second time this month that she's fallen asleep in the middle of the afternoon. After waking up so early, I can't imagine what would make her fall asleep at the keyboard. I'll admit the if I have a big lunch at work, I often wish I could do this when I get back to my desk.

It's been a bit busy at work. Not only are our own engineers working hard to get things finished before the holiday break, many of the customers that I support are also in a similar work crunch.

Claire is finished with school until early next year. She's got two weeks of vacation ahead of her.

We've recently received a bunch of Christmas packages in the mail. Packages from Stu & Paula, Chris & Katie, Suzy, the Gerrits, Maria, Gina and the Tarpey family. When I got home today and went to put my laptop down in the study, I was hard pressed to find a spot to put it. Warm thanks to all the friends and family. The girls are getting so excited. I've enjoyed the Christmas cards too. Many have included nice family pictures.

We had a nice holiday office party this past week. Michelle joined me for the evening at the local Boston Billiard club. We played a few rounds of pool with co-workers.

I'm very relieved that Trent Lott has resigned. He would have dragged down the work of Congress for the next year. The left would have spent the year bringing up his alleged racism and he would spend the year trying to prove that he isn't by proposing more and more government programs. I don't think it's exactly fair the way the media hounded him, but nevertheless I'm hoping this puts the issue behind us. Why do I think the media was unfair? Take this case as an example. In this story from a couple of days ago Jesse Jackson dodges why he overlooked being critical of a Democrat Senator who was much more overtly racist.

I'm watching Its A Wonderful Life with Claire. As the various scenes occur, I'm trying to explain to her what's going on so that she can follow along and better understand. I'm hoping that it can be as special a movie to her as it is to me.

This weekend is the annual Christmas party for my mom's side of the family. It's usually a huge gathering and I'm sad I'm going to miss it. I was thinking back to 14 years ago at this time. I was home during my senior college year. I got a dozen roses from Michelle indicating that she was coming back to the midwest and would continue seeing me. I was so excited at the time because I had inklings that she could be "the one". That night my brother Chris noted that I didn't get anything at the annual Christmas party (an oversight) but I was so excited by what the flowers meant that I didn't care. My dad joked that the flowers were really from "all the guys back at the dorm".

A week later Michelle flew back to the midwest to spend another semester at St. Mary of the Woods college. I had promised her that if she came back, I would buy her a nice dress coat to keep her warm. As a girl raised in southern California, the only warm coat she had was her dad's Navy P-coat. I took her to a local store (Burlington Coat Factory, I believe) and bought her a nice long black dress coat which she still often wears to this day. A month later I proposed and she accepted. She's been warmed with my love ever since. When I'm away at work, she's surrounded by the love of Claire, Abby, Michael and Daniel. Love begets love.