Thursday was the Winter Solstice—the shortest day of the year in the worst year in American history. I don’t celebrate Christmas anymore. Well, not officially. We’ll still say “Merry Christmas” and all that because we try to be nice people. And because Mazy still believes in Santa Claws.

In the morning after Crunch Berries and coffee, Steven helped me install the rear RETROpod speakers. They look and sound great!

This was no easy task, in part because the rear shelves and ceiling panel T7 had to be removed. And then one of the mounting bracket’s threads were malformed. So we had to do what Engineers do: Improvise.

We also had to move my mounting holes in four inches because I failed to allow space for the shelves. But no worries, I’ll dress them up later. Then I introduced Steven to the joys of low-voltage wiring.

The kids spent the rest of the day playing with new toys. With Steven on his new mini keyboard, the All-Shannon Girls Choir on vocals, and Collectible Batman conducting with his Batarang.

After some HoneyBaked Ham, punkin’ pie and whipped cream, Mazy got drunk on egg nog and stumbled to bed with visions of defenseless baby mice dancing in her head. The holidays can be so exhausting…