Merry Christmas ...

... good post, good times. Dickens would be proud, even if there was a Dublin man there ... hehe.

Well, out of the 3 potential big gatherings I could have been at - my mother's in Mississippi, my Dad's in Illinois & Titus's (I doubt he'd turn me away at the door) in NEPA, I was unable to attend any. However, as a recently divorced father I did take GREAT pleasure in knowing that my sons are in my custody and thus I will always be able to celebrate with them - and boy did we. We spent Christmas Eve watching "Enemy At The Gates", with a pre-film dissertation of Stalingrad, pointer & map in hand. And as luck would have it one of the video games my oldest opened the next day from good ol' Dad - "Call to Duty, World At War" (a WWII genre) - featured the exact scene of Vasilly in the fountain pretending to be dead, then sniping German officers. The entire Stalingrad level was played from that first person Soviet sniper perspective and my boy was hooked on the game instantly. A perfect history lesson. So we played football, video games, and football video games; built many an Indiana Jones & Star Wars Lego set; they donned their new Roethlisberger & Peyton jerseys, and though they begged to go eat dinner at Hooters (true story), I chose for us to instead cap off the night at the movies seeing Sherlock Holmes. It was quite good. Directed by Guy Ritchie (of "Snatch" fame). Downey was a fine Holmes and Jude Law was a great Watson. We then rushed home and once again repelled the Huns from their unholy invasion of the Motherland ... fascist dogs!

Good stuff ...

PS> in the game, and it IS a great game, you are allowed to upgrade weaponry upon earning enough points (money). And when as the Russian you complete the upgrade he quips in a heavy, jovial Ruskie accent, "Ooooh, I feel like a dirty capitalist." That cracked me up.