2004 was the year I met FAQ Girl. All other events in my life pale in significance.

AW! Loving the love. Happy holidays to you both, please send my best wishes to her.

Thanks Nora, and everyone. I will.

Thank you to my secret santa!! I got a package in the mail. I haven't opened anything yet because I'm trying to hold out until Christmas day.

But it arrived safe and sound. Thanks!!

Unlike Kat, I found another box from my sekrit santa (thank you, Laura!) awaiting when I got home. And I nearly cried when I started opening it. The first thing I unwrapped was a darling little tea cup in a pale green with a green leaf pattern around the rim. It so perfectly matches my living room set it's unbelievable. I immediately went and put it on the end table with the Tiffany lamp and carnival glass compote. I have to say, Laura must have a memory like a steel trap. I know my database survey says nothing about key lime, but I got key (west) lime jelly beans, and a jar of key lime marmalade, so she must have picked up on that when I was visiting San Francisco. I do remember having discussions about the perfect key lime pie while I was out there. Also, I now have a bottle of Chocolate Temptation, which I am dying to try. I'm trying to decide if I should just sip it, or figure out how to use it to make chocolate martinis. Last, but not least, I got three lovely hand-crafted glass ornaments for the tree that look like pieces of wrapped hard candy. I'm a real sucker for glass things. Thank you so much, Laura, this package was perfect.

Whee! I was just checking in to see if it arrived. I had already selected the other things when I saw the t-shirt that I couldn't resist. Enjoy! It was great fun to be your Santa!

::hopes her sesa stuff arrives soon::

I was just checking in to see if it arrived.

Don't ask me how the FedEx dude did it, either. I found a note on the downstairs security door from UPS for some stuff I ordered for Christmas from Lush. I expected to see a FedEx note too and was a little dissappointed when there wasn't one. Imagine my surprise when I got upstairs and saw a package sitting in front of my door! The FedEx man is magic around here, I guess.

Where can you see Santa? Only in Lapland!

I've been enjoying an early Christmas present -- DVDs of one of my favorite TV shows -- and thought I'd take a break from rolling around on the floor laughing to share this little gem:

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I wonder if I might crave your momentary indulgence in order to discharge a by no means disagreeable obligation which has, over the years, become more or less established practice as we approach the terminal period of the year -- calendar, of course, not financial -- in fact, not to put too fine a point on it, Week Fifty-One -- and submit to you, with all appropriate deference, for your consideration at a convenient juncture, a sincere and sanguine expectation -- indeed confidence -- indeed one might go so far as to say hope -- that the aforementioned period may be, at the end of the day, when all relevant factors have been taken into consideration, susceptible to being deemed to be such as to merit a final verdict of having been by no means unsatisfactory in its overall outcome and, in the final analysis, to give grounds for being judged, on mature reflection, to have been conducive to generating a degree of gratification which will be seen in retrospect to have been significantly higher than the general average.

In other words: "Happy Christmas!"

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From the BBC series "Yes, Minister" written by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn