The Many Expectations of Xmas

This week past has - not unexpectedly - seen many an Xmas related activity.

As expected the final meeting of the inner cabal at the library had a tinge of the Xmas about it, with several goodbyes for the year and a meal shared by all.

As expected the councils Xmas lunch for the hard-working staff, as exemplified by yours-truly, signalled the end to the working year as it demolished any chance of productivity in the remaining hours of the afternoon before the Xmas break. Even partaking at the level of moderation one is famous for could not produce an iota of work after that sumptuous feast.

As expected Salsa Girl and I made our now customary annual trip slightly North to Xmas with the maternal side of her heritage. Some terrific Turkey was had in both firsts and seconds for the day as well as a traditional Aussie pav as a dessert.

As could reasonably be expected - given Xmas's past - our zoom back to the city to catch one's relatives in the early evening was delayed by the ferocity of a typical Melbourne Xmas storm.
Our final arrival at the famous Aunties had us almost missing the desserts and, in fact, further worry occurred as Salsa Girl insisted on us having mains before we could touch the dessert pavlova - I was concerned as it had been so long since I had had pav for dessert.
In any case the evening progressed with the tail end of the storm providing a lovely lightning show and Legion4 putting on an encore performance of his famous Very Messy Xmas of '08. During the evening one was also surprised to see that Cousin Dave, down from Sydney, had his eldest offspring toddling around everywhere -  I mean she didn't even exist when last we caught up and one could hardly expect that much change in a scant few years.

As expected all those Xmas Day shenanigans were followed by the Boxing Day of Extreme Lassitude. I believe one may have ventured outside once just for the thrill of it but cannot recall.


Quite unexpectedly the next day became a day of gaming after Gavman unexpectedly demanded his birthday dues.
You see we have a tradition in one's corner of the gaming world that any gaming on a birthday involves the birthdayee choosing the game to be played.
We all believed ourselves to be safe from the proclivities of Gavman's gaming appetites as he shared his birthday with a rather well known messiah.
However Legion2, Elfboy and myself where all caught in his insidious web as he invoked yesterday's shifted Xmas holiday to put us at the mercy of his gaming desires.

As expected he chose Magic the Gathering (with variants) and it was a tortuous half-day playing one of my top ten games.
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