Christmas is all around us, and so the feeling groooooooooooooooooooows...!

I can't decide whether I love that song, or loathe it completely. Maybe both.

It's December here in Naruto, and while the weather is definitely cool we're nowhere near the snow-and-ice of Wisconsin. The downside is that our apartment and all of my schools lack a.)insulation and b.) central heating. The sight of teachers conducting classes in parkas never fails to amuse me. In our apartment, Lissette spends pretty much every waking moment bunkered down in our kotatsu (a kind of low table with a heating element, and blankets along the sides to keep the heat in). She's turned it into kind of a lair; once spring comes I'll send a team of tiny adventurers in to clear out any wandering monsters and gather up whatever treasure has accumulated.

Japan gets into Christmas in a big way. It's completely secular here (take THAT, War On Christmas!), which appeals to me greatly. We went Christmas shopping at the local mall today, and everywhere we looked there were gift-wrapping counters, Santas, reinder, the whole shebang... and not a plastic Baby Jesus to be seen. It warms my heretical heart, it does.

I've got some time off coming up around New Years, and I'm not sure how I want to spend it. Now that we have a car, we may take a small trip or two around Shikoku or to nearby spots on Honshu. I'm sure there will also be plenty of video games. Lissette's mom shipped our Wii to us as a Christmas gift, so maybe I'll spend some time getting back into Smash Brothers fighting-shape. I'd hate to let my skills atrophy.