So we decided at the last minute to throw a little party on Christmas Eve since we were going to be going out of town and would be missing all the New Year's festivities here with our friends. There wasn't a huge turn out which was to be expected, but we did have a number of good friends come by to spend the evening with us and we ended up having a wonderful time. Christmas has always been a time pretty much reserved for family for me so having a chance to spend part of it with my some of my dearest friends was really wonderful and has made it very easy to put a real smile on my face this morning in spite of my general dislike of this holiday.