Had my first “Christmas” of the year this weekend. My dad and I went up to my grandmother’s place to do Christmas with the whole family (my stepmother had pinched a nerve in her back and couldn’t come up, unfortunately). Why so early, you may ask? It’s really the only time in December that everybody can get together, since we all have other Christmases to do with our own families.

We do a variant of the Yankee Swap. I ended up with a bottle of Chardonnay, but the important thing to remember is that the gift you end up with is not at all important. Our family is absolutely ruthless, which makes the game an absolute riot. It’s definitely my favorite part of the whole Christmas season. It’s also interesting to see what kinds of gifts will get traded out more (that is to say, which ones are more popular). This year the top picks were a million-candlepower flashlight and, oddly, the gift that I brought, which was a telescoping-handled car ice scraper. Funny thing about that was that I really wanted that scraper, and even though I had the second-best position for the game, my aunt, who had the best position, took it from me.

I was glad to be able to do something like this at this time during the month… It’s going to be quite busy at work this month, so it was good to get a relaxing day with the family before it gets crazier.