I am on Christmas break for the next 2 weeks! Things wrapped on Friday, and I have enough time off and got things taken care of sufficiently that I'm taking all of the next 2 weeks. My next day at work will be Jan 5, 2026. Seems a long way away. Bet it won't for long.

Tonight was our first Christmas party of the season, possibly our only one. The Zastrows had a gathering for all the worship and technology teams at their house. Lots of food, and the groups kind of split between the upstairs and downstairs, somehow. I was downstairs most of the time. Beth came late, because she was in FW visiting MJ in the hospital after her surgery for the broken leg. I think we were the last ones to leave, like usual. I gifted Todd the "Crap Taxidermy" book I got last year (I think) because I had to see his reaction to some of the pictures. Hilarious.

Monday I had my third, and as it turned out, final tournament match on the Fresh Out of Bed and Head to Head year end tournament of champions. I lost, after knowing the name of the evil archnemesis of the Powerpuff Girls (Mojo Jojo) but not knowing the name of the orangutan leader in the Jungle Book (King Louie) or how many strings on a violin (I guessed 5, which was wrong, then she guessed 4, which was right). So that ended my run. As it turned out, the next day was the final so I came that close to being in it, but I think I probably would have lost anyway, based on hearing the championship game the next day. I didn’t know a couple of the answers, and also as it turned out, this years champion is the same person who won it all by defeating me in the 2020 championship. So she’s a 2-time winner, and I came close again. Oh well.

On Thursday night, Beth's friend MJ fell in her parking lot and broke her leg. The same one that she already had a lot of hardware in from a car crash 20-odd years ago. She called Beth from the parking lot before the paramedics even got there, I could hear her screaming over the phone from across the couch. She wound up being transferred from Warsaw to FW Lutheran, and had surgery a day or so later. Beth and I went over to FW to visit her yesterday and she was doing a little better but still in a lot of pain.