Christmas this year was reasonably good, all things considered.

We opened the season up with the 24: Season 5 marathon at our house on the 23rd. From 8:00a to 1:00a the next morning, Jack Bauer fought terrorism in my living room while Stu, Meaghan, Jenn, my dad, and I sat entranced by the action. Watching it marathon-style really is the only way to go.

Christmas Eve being the next day, we slept in a bit (watching TV that long is actually pretty wearing… sort of counter-intuitive, I know) and finished the last of the package wrapping. That afternoon we headed over to Jenn’s parents’ house to do some gift exchange and chat for a while with them. Jenn brought her Nintendo DS because her mom and niece both got them for Christmas and it was the first time we were able to play with some of the networking abilities. It’s actually a pretty slick deal and we had a lot of fun with it.

After that, we went over to Jenn’s mom’s cousin’s house and visited with some of her extended family. I’d been there once before, several years ago, but while I recognized faces, I’m horrible with names and had to be re-introduced to folks. I’m introduced as “my husband, Travis” now, which is still weird for me to hear.

Christmas Day I had expected to be at my parents’ house early, but they had things to do, so Jenn and I exchanged gifts to each other in the morning and it ended up being a little after noon before we got to my parents’ house. We talked for a bit and I showed my parents some of the gifts Jenn and I had gotten each other, then my grandparents showed up and we ate dinner… at 2:00p… which I guess is what elderly folks expect, but is still something I don’t understand.

We exchanged gifts with folks, Jenn and I cheaping out taking advantage of the wedding this year and giving a lot of wedding photos. I got a few very cool things that I’m enjoying on my vacation, including The Unit: Season 1, Gears of War (and the strategy guide), The Beatles’ Love album, and more energy drinks than I’ve ever seen in one place at one time.

All in all, a good Christmas, but nothing screamingly outstanding or exceptionally notable. Jenn and I have been talking about the fact that Christmas sort of loses its magic more and more the older you get. It becomes less about the wonder of the season and more about trying to arrange schedules, make sure everyone has a gift, get everyone together come-hell-or-high-water… it’s not at all like it was when we were kids, and it’s not like you see in the movies. It used to be, and neither of us are really sure where things went wrong. Maybe it’s the age difference, maybe it’s the turmoil of the year catching up to us, maybe it’s something else, but it’s not the way it used to be - the way it should be. We’re going to have to look at how to change that for next year.