The Night Before the Night Before

It's Christmas Eve Eve and things are hopping here at Santa's Workshop. At least, things are hopping for Mrs. Santa, who is helping our eldest granddaughter make Christmas gifts for her mom and dad. We have football on the TV (the eldest granddaughter is a big football fan, especially since she is entered in a neighborhood football pool involving all 34 bowl games) and the fireplace is glowing and Mrs. Claus is giving orders for the proper construction of eldest granddaughter's dad's gift; mom's gift was completed earlier today. Ahh, there's nothing like pushing things right down to the wire. It must be a family trait. That was why I went into the newspaper business; it took a gun pointed at my head, that is a deadline, to force me finish anything. If it weren't for deadlines, I'd probably still be working on that first headline, trying to fine tune it a little, give it a little more polish, just a little tweak here and there.....