“My country, ’tis of thee”, Aretha Franklin. Image by DianthusMoon at flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0I remember that Christmas was such an exciting time for me as a kid. There was such anticipation. I was thrilled to be getting something I really, really, realllly wanted. I couldn’t wait to get started with the gift-unwrapping early on Christmas morning.

The adults didn’t seem to be nearly as eager to get up and get going. And later in life, I recognised that, when I was more eager to sleep in than to open gifts on Christmas morning, it was another sign I was no longer a child.

US President Obama (wow, let’s say that again, President Obama) was inaugurated today. The east coast got to watch it at a comfortable mid-day hour, but here on the west coast they started the show at 8:30 am (ugh). And since we lack a television at home, we had to get up even earlier in order get to the Rio cinema, which hosted a public viewing of the TV coverage on their big screen. So my beloved spouse and I grimaced as we set the alarm for the pre-dawn Tuesday hour.

It was the darndest thing. We both woke up a full 30 minutes before the alarm went off.  There was such anticipation. We were thrilled to be getting something we really, really, realllly wanted. We couldn’t wait to get started with the Obama era, and be rid of the W. Bush era.

Merry Christmas.