My late father's birthday was Dec. 29th. You could never get him to tell you what he wanted for Christmas, which made coming up with two ideas for presents extra hard. Ask him what he wanted and he'd just grumble, "Peace and quiet!". Wherever you are, old guy, I hope you've got it.

My birthday is on the 30th. I find myself wanting less and less for Christmas these days, and more time to actually enjoy and make use of what I have, so that I won't have to consider it overstock. So I don't feel quite as cheated as I did when I was a kid about my birthday, as I'm alone now and busy enough with work and other things and don't even seem to have enough time for myself. As I get older, I actually begin to see where my dad was coming from as I guess I'm getting more and more like him as the years escape too fast and the days too slow. If my daughter and a few friends come through enough to justify me remembering what day it is, that's all I really need.

Yeah, but I DID feel shortchanged for many, many years....