Speaking of traditions, I'm really excited to bring back one that we haven't been able to do for a long time now.

My family always got real trees for our Christmas tree, and at the end of the season we would cut off all the branches but save the trunk in our garage all year. Then on Christmas Eve we would use that trunk in our fireplace as our yule log. Well, my father passed away and we didn't really feel like getting a tree for a couple Christmases, then my mother moved to a townhome without a wood-burning fireplace and my wife and I lived in a condo, so neither party had a place to use it.

This year we moved to a house and we now have a real wood-burning fireplace. My mother actually kept the trunk of the last tree we had, and instead of Christmas Eve I think I'm going to use it for Christmas morning.

That said, I still need to cut it up before bed, so I'll go get to that I've been doing my usual "I waited far too long to wrap the presents" thing so I'm up too late