Best of the Season to You and Yours (Patreon)

First of all, holiday card update: All of the requests from U.S. addresses have been fulfilled and mailed (and I know some were already received). Requests from international addresses have all been completed, but only the very earliest ones have been mailed; I ran into a snag with customs because of a small "surprise" I wanted to include and I've had to leave it out and repackage things, which is taking more time I don't have.

Maybe I'm just an old man, but I seem to remember a time when it wasn't that difficult to mail things to, say, Canada. But I'm dealing with it as time allows.

Meanwhile I was grading all through this past weekend and the season more or less crept up on me in a way it never would have as a child (I can remember when there was a momentous wonder to the 10 days leading up to Christmas). In an attempt to get a little of that cheer back I composed a little ditty of a kind I think would have made me laugh as a child, a vision of Santa and his elves having a rodeo on the roof of a house. I posted it today on Youtube in perhaps the least Old Norse-related update I've ever made, but I thought it might give someone a little holiday cheer.

If you wonder about the phrase "Powder River, let 'er buck!" at the end, the only explanation I can give you is it's just something Wyoming people say. Years ago I was at a taping of Jeopardy and there was a contestant from one of my favorite towns, Sheridan. I could tell he didn't have any family or friends with him in the audience, but I shouted "Powder River, let 'er buck!" and you could see right away from the look his face that he knew he had one "family" member there. As I recall, he went on to win two games.

Anyway, I'm wishing you that kind of good will and good cheer as the days get a little longer and the old year gives way to the new.