'Tis been the season of home-made, gluten-free and cow-dairy-free goodies like kashkaval and manouri cheese pizza, vegetarian lasagna with chevre, virgin mojitos, soy nog, pumpkin cake with vanilla buttercream frosting and chocolate sprinkle butter cookies.

'Tis been the season of 10 hours straight of Halo, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2, Happy Gilmore followed by Monster House, a round of Life game a-la Pirates of the Caribbean, new digital cameras, a scooter, Bionicles, felt reindeers and my son learning how to knit with needles.

'Tis been the season for the guys first shopping experience for me wherein they wisely chose a "Hello Kitty" bathrobe because I'd look cute in it (and they know I like all things Hello Kitty).

'Tis been also the season of explaning to the kids why we enjoy so much the mythology of Jesus even though we don't believe in the christian concept of god.

All in all, 'tis been a good, calm, quiet season (but for Tara's story, crickey).

I guess it helps that I've given my kids the biggest gift of all ... mommy without a computer on her lap for more than 48 hours ... and home-made goodies.