Short Nerd Chief

Here’s hoping your Hanukkah/Christmas/Festivus/Winter Solstice/Kwanzaa was a happy one (that last one hasn’t happened yet, but you get the idea).  We carried on a family tradition and probably started a new one.  The old tradition, which probably doesn’t have too much time left, was tracking Santa with Norad.  We’ve been doing this since the beginning, and times have changed since it was a few videos accessed via dial-up. This year, we tracked Santa in Google Earth, which was updated every 60 seconds using the Google Earth fly-over animation. This had the added benefit of teaching the kids more world geography and keeping their attention (no more waiting five minutes or more for updates).  The latter being especially important with a five-year-old that really didn’t want to leave presents under the tree for another day.

The new family tradition, which is really an old Richmond tradition, was a trip to the Byrd Park Carillon for the Richmond Community Nativity Pageant.  This half-hour production began on the steps of the State Capitol in 1924, and has been around so long that Douglas Southall Freeman (b. 1886), former editor of the Richmond News-Leader and Pulitzer Prize winning historian, was the original narrator.  This was the 76th production of the pageant, which since 1987 has been sponsored by a non-profit community foundation since the city acknowledged the obvious church-state conflict.  It’s a nice production, complete with orchestra, choir and a cast of about 300.  The weather even held out long enough for the show to go on.

The materialistic side of the holiday was a hit as well.  The eight year old got his Wii, which dutifully reported to us that it was played for eight hours and 55 minutes on Christmas Day.  Wii Sports got the inevitable workout, but Mario Party 8 was a bigger hit. He’s off to the target today to get Madden NFL 08 at the after-Christmas sale.  The five year old was pretty thrilled with everything, but three teddy bears and three new Webkinz were particular favorites.  The Webkinz site was hammered all day, so only one of the Webkinz was actually added to her account successfully.  The Gorilla and the Pig will have to wait.

I got some clothes, which is nice considering that fatblogging has depleted my wardrobe in a good way.  I also have a new Philips digital photo alarm clock that I’m keen to play around with, and will be going to see Ira Glass at the Modlin Center in February.  My big present won’t come until I’ve traded in gift cards and cash, however.  I’m torn between a new laptop and finally going hi-def with an LCD.

I got the wife some jewelry, and she received additional jewelry from family.  Her favorite presents, however, may have been glassware - some Luminarc from her parents and glasses from Anthropologie from me.