Finally I get to relax a little. All the shopping is done, all the presents are wrapped. I still had to go out like three times today to ASDA (hallelujah!) to get stuff. But finally I'm feeling in a festive mood.

While I spent at least all morning getting stuff and most of the afternoon preparing food, we had a slap up feed, Finnish style, in the evening. We had the gravadlax we prepared yesterday, and boy was it good, but there was a buttload of it, so we're going to have to freeze a lot of it. It was wonderful. We had the whole salmon, which we covered in salt and dill and pepper on Friday, and we had beet salad, little salad potatoes, pickled herrings, fish eggs, and ham. Then we had a two hour break while we opened a few presents. Being a Finnish and English household we open a a few main presents on Chrismas Eve, but the kids insist we save some for Christmas Day to follow our English tradition. Well, Hattie wanted to save a few pressies for Christmas Day, Ted was all for opening them all on Christmas Eve, but then he's a boy so a bit more loot oriented. Then we had fillet steak medallions in a red wince sauce. Oh man, that's the best steak I've ever had. The kids loved it, even though neither of them was at all hungry on account of all the fish.

I got a really nice retro watch and a copy of the movie "Sneakers" on DVD from Mia, a cushion and a Texas Hold 'Em Poker Set from Hattie, and Ted got me a mini Foozball table. The kids got Sims 2 and Sly 3 video games, and a USB 128Mb pen drive ech, plus a lot of other stuff.

We went to bed late, watching about the first half hour of "Dogma" before we all crashed out. Looking forward to Christmas Day and the Doctor Who Christmas Special which is on at about 7pm. Wonderful. I wonder if there's a Bond movie on this year?

Got up at dawn to drop Mia in for her last day of work, and while the kids were sleeping I did a quick run into Bristol to collect a few pressies I forgot and swing by IKEA to visit the Swedish food shop to get a few essential items for our Finnish style Christmas dinner.

Bought a huge expensive chunk of fillet steak for our dinner. Pricey but looks REALLY good.

Bought a few last minute gifts and made it home for lunch with the kids. Then Hattie and I nipped into town leaving Ted playing Runescape to get a few more last minute items. I think I need to go into town tomorrow to get a few more things without anyone watching. :)

Spent the day cleaning and tidying for Christmas, and also had time to play a little "From Russia With Love" on the PS2. It's a good game, with lots of flavour of the original movie. Okay so I don't usually approve of people dicking around with classic movies, but hey you get to be Sean Connery's Bond and drive The Car, so it's all good.

Collected Mia from work and did a little food shopping. Christmas is just about in the bag.

Had to bring the kids into school today as I had a bunch of things to do still. At least we had a chance to go to Forbidden Planet. FP has moved from the centre of Bristol to within walking distance of the school, which pleases me no end. If you don;t what FP is it's the premier UK comics and action figure store, and having it closer means I can spend more time in there.

Good for research into Hammer Horror movies for starters.

Kids and I spend a happy hour in there before we had to charge home. Told my boss I don't want to come in Thursday or Friday because the kids are around, and he said fine have a Merry Christmas. Ain't life sweet?

Had to bring the kids into school today as I had a bunch of things to do still. At least we had a chance to go to Forbidden Planet. FP has moved from the centre of Bristol to within walking distance of the school, which pleases me no end. If you don;t what FP is it's the premier UK comics and action figure store, and having it closer means I can spend more time in there.

Good for research into Hammer Horror movies for starters.

Kids and I spend a happy hour in there before we had to charge home. Told my boss I don't want to come in Thursday or Friday because the kids are around, and he said fine have a Merry Christmas. Ain't life sweet?

Man, I had to build a computer practically from scratch. The computer which was shutting itslef down had a dicky power supply, meaning the fans weren't powering up. I bought a new supply and fitted it, and it worked but then shut down again.

Turns out the motherboard wasn't supplying power to the fan. Plus the back fan, the big one, wasn't even plugged in.No wonder it was the quietest one we had. Luckily we had another machine just like it so I was able to change the fans and hard drive over from one to the other. Now the accounts machine has the full compliment of fans and the spare is running just on the back one.

Got away a little later than the 12 noon I was hoping for, but returned in time for the kids.

Okay teethwise it's been swell but the swelling's gone down.

Treatment with TCP, Corsodyl etc. has paid dividends and now I can eat again. Phew touch and go there for a bit.

Everyone in a party mood at the School today. Lots of meetings and stuff, and I've just got to finish up lots of things before I go away. The kids are off tomorrow from about 12 so I got to make sure I can be home.

Despite my best efforts all kinds of shit hit all kinds of fans. One of the accounts computers started shutting itself down randomly and I can't get to the bottom of it.It might need a new fan. I'll get one tomorrow from PC World.

(Nasty medical detail warning... squeamish folks should avert their eyes)

Then in the night the swelling burst, releasing the pressure and about two quarts of yellow goop. Ugh. Really cool but nasty. Now today my gums are still a little swollen but healing nicely. It's like I have the urge to bite down on the tooth the whole time. About 7am this morning I was enjoying being pain free for the first time in about 48 hours. I can't resist pressing the bump to see if anything else will come out, but basically I need to leave it the hell alone to heal up.

(Okay you can look back now.)

I got up this morning, and cleaned out the wound again. Swilled with more salt water and Corsodyl and it was throbbing again but in a really nice way.

Yesterday between dosages of high power pain killers, we grabbed the rushes from Mia's brother Mefi's wedding, which we are editing into a DVD for her to take home this Christmas. Today I'm assemble editing them into something like a music video.

I'm looking forward to the first couple of days next week. I'll be going in to work, but as the school is basically closed as of next Friday, I'm going to be keeping my own hours now. I got a few things to do, but basically it's going to be a pretty easy week.

I said to myself I don't want much for Christmas this year, just an old fashioned worry free holiday season with lots of food and drink, family stuff, and did I mention worry free? Seems like I might get that, which pleases me. I mean, like I say, I love Christmas and I always find a way to enjoy myself no matter what. But I want it to be easy to enjoy it, and I have a shot at that.

Roll on the new year. I'm just twiddling my thumbs to get writing the screenplay now.

Laters.