merry merry.

This has been a bit of an odd Christmas, as my name came up on the  newsroom’s holiday list to work today. It’s not the end of the world — this is my first Christmas shift in eight years here, and the extra holiday pay makes it worthwhile — but it has put a twist on our usual holiday schedules and routines.

In that light, I have a kind of different Christmas offering for you:

Years ago I came across a bootleg Tom Waits CD, recorded in Australia sometime in the late 1970s. Despite the fact that the show was performed in May, we’ve always referred to it as the Christmas record, because of the inclusion of “Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis.” It’s one of our more offbeat traditions, but it’s a tradition nonetheless.

And don’t worry about me. I’m planning on having Chinese for Christmas dinner tonight — because A Christmas Story has been on the TV at home pretty much non-stop since the marathon started last night, and because the Chinese restaurant here is open — and I get presents and a more traditional Christmas dinner when I’m off tomorrow.

I hope you’ve had happy times today and tonight — giving and getting great gifts, eating too much because it’s so good you can’t stop and, most of all, spending the day with people you care about.

Merry Christmas, everyone.