Hope everyone had a Happy Christmahannukwansakah, Merry New Year, and a Joyous Festivus. Now that we're almost a week into the new year of 2006, and the Chinese year of the cock is slowly drawing to a close, things are getting back to normal again. Not that things around here were ever all that far off from normal. I only had one extra day off the day after Christmas and that was about it. But I was certainly partying quite a bit more than usual with all the family events (5 during Christmas weekend) and with all the out of town buddies coming back in, not to mention new years eve and major sporting events to boot.

Christmas was purty good this year, although I wasn't feeling very well and I had three family functions to attend that day. Started in the morning at my parents house, then Karyn's family in the early afternoon, then over to my maternal grandparents house in the evening. I was stuffed and tired by that point so I was pretty low key there and ended up going home early.

Got some pretty keen presents for the holiday. Some good Cd's (Mars Volta, My Morning Jacket, Paul McCartney) and DVDs (Field of Dreams, Oceans 12, Crash) of course, a 500 count WSOP chip set, a Texas Hold'em table top, 512 MB of RAM for my 'puter, an Ipod listening station, a bunch of cool books (RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Money-ball, Three Nights in August, Busch Stadium Memories), new clothes, and some gift cards and such.

Went back to work on Tuesday after visiting relatives out of town on my only weekday off. Kept busy at work that week prepping for our big New Years Eve production at Harrah's Casino and our slightly less big and less profitable New Years Eve production at the Majestic. My evenings were spend visiting with friends from out of town like the L-Train, C-Naffs, B-Sharpe, the Offermans. (Bryan, Jess and my bro are all trying to get me to play "World of Warcraft" now.)

The week passed quickly and on Friday evening, a bunch of the guys met at the Maji to start setting up for the NYE party and to play a little poker as well. By 12 AM I was tuckered out and passed out on a bar bench for a quick nap. I left soon after that passing up the opportunity to have my revenge and take my shot at another poker game. At least I got some good sleep though.

NYE began with me making sure I got plenty of good food and water in my belly to prepare for the coming party. I then spent most of the rest of the day burning party mix Cd's with various "jam's" so we could all shake our tail-feathers later that evening. Trust me, attempting to please 80 different music tastes is not an easy task. But I think I succeeded. After getting some clothes together I headed down to the Maji for a quick "fluff and buff" of our setup and then over to the hotel to do the "Three S's".

The party went off almost flawlessly and was better than years past. New faces in the crowd. Live music (thanks to Flicker, Todd's band). An almost flawless DJ mix (courtesy of my bro and I). Better lighting and decor (compliments of Production Support Services, Liam, Chris, Georgia, Frenchie, and myself). An ice sculpture shot luge (Thanks to Paradis and Dan). And of course a great overall job all around by Pete, Megan, and the rest of Majestic. Twas a glorious evening. Lot's of drinking and dancing and loving. I love New Years Eve.

Anyway, after cleaning up the next day and then sleeping the rest of the weekend. Things are finally starting to get back into full swing. Although there's still a bit of holiday spirit lingering around. At least until the Christmas Tree comes down and I spend all my gift cards.

- these thoughts flowed through Jeff's fingers @ 1:24 PM