[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

One thing I didn’t mention previously is that my wife and I are diabetic, the adult-onset kind, so we are both adjusting to that reality (which sucks a55, if you are wondering).  So we were both Christmas shopping at Potomac Mills last Sunday (locals know what a madhouse that place was), when I snuck off to find something for her (in addition to what I had already gotten her).  I went to the mall’s candy shop and tried to find her sugar-free candy canes.  Well, those had been sold out like a month ago, but I found candy called “Sugar Free Assorted Fruit Flavored Slices” as well as Jelly Beans made with Spenda.

So as the day went on we got a few books at Books-A-Million, and got one of their discount cards, which comes with a free (cheap-looking) tote.  So we put everything in the tote and I carried it out of the mall as that finally wrapped up all the gift giving.

When I got home I took the tote aside and tried to get the sugar-free candy out of there so she wouldn’t see.  So I pull open the bag and all there is, is the fruit slices.  And I think to myself, “where it the Jelly Beans?”  So I look further in the bag and I find the jelly beans in another bag…  with the fruit slices.

That is right, both me and my wife snuck off and bought the same stocking stuffer for each other, much to our amusement when I pointed this out to her.

Merry Christmas.

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By the way, I should warn you that you should be very careful about whom you give books to, as this pair of videos shows.  This appears to be from last Christmas:

And one year later, same kid, apparently from this morning:

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here]

One of my favorite Christmas carols is “O Holy Night,” especially when sung simply (for instance, I tend to dislike operatic renditions).  But truthfully, I don’t think in my whole life I had more than the first verse.  At midnight mass at my wife’s church (she is Catholic, I am not), they sang the third stanza, which has these startling words:

Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;

And in His name all oppression shall cease.

And a quick lookup on Wikipedia reveals that this was carol adapted from a French song, with essentially similar lyrics, written in French in 1847, and released in English in 1855—just five years before the American Civil War.  It’s unclear how much this song was embraced in America prior to the Civil War, but certainly the goal of the writers was to condemn slavery, to their eternal credit.

Merry Christmas, ya’ll.  From my family and assuredly the Patterico Family as well.

Update: From “AD” in the comments, Celtic Woman sing the carol:

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]