Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I hope everyone's Christmas is as wonderful and enjoyable as possible and Santa brought you everything on your list!

And I want to give a special shout out and thank you to Hoya for the wine glasses! I can't wait to use them. As a reward for all the hard work I've done in his counting house this past year, Ebenezer Station gave me a $25 gift card from Albertson's for Christmas, so I'm seeing a bottle of Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fouisse in my near future.

I'm waking up today after a long night of seeing just what kind of people spend Christmas Eve in a casino, and realizing how fortunate I am that I'm not wired like that. Yes, it's my job and I had to spend the night in the casino, but I'd have gladly given a day's pay to have been anywhere else. Last year, I was kind of curious to find out exactly what type of person would spend Christmas Eve grinding away at a blackjack table, but now that I know, I really want no part of it.

It's Christmas Eve, people. Go somewhere else. Go to church, go home and be with your family, or if you have no family, go home, get blind stinking drunk and watch the 'Christmas Story' marathon on TBS. Go back to your hotel room and get freaky with the one you love. Just don't spend the whole damn night in the casino. I can understand starting the evening in the casino, maybe going out to dinner, having a drink or two, hanging out with friends and family, celebrating the end of the hustle and bustle and just taking some time to relax doing adult-centric activites. But at some point you've got to call it a night and go do something else. Something more important.

As a casino 'professional' and a shareholder, I realize that it's bordering on blaspemy to feel this way, but I just can't help it. Christmas is important. It's important enough to me that I don't want anything to do with casinos or the people that would be there on Christmas Eve. Yep, the first part of the evening was very festive and Christmasy--everyone was in a great mood, the holiday music was playing, and it was a truly enjoyable time to be at work. I was surrounded by friends who were stuck in the same boat as I was, but there was lots of laughter and good cheer. But after midnight, I felt like the party should've ended and it was time for everyone to go home and do something truly worthwhile.

After 2:00 am, I found my mood changing considerably, from festive to Good Lord, people, get a frickin life, and the only word I could come up with to describe the way I felt about the people still parked at the tables was contempt. Absolute and utter contempt for every person sitting in that casino early this morning. I'm almost ashamed to admit it--I had my game face on, and was smiling and friendly--but underneath I thought the worst of everyone who sat down, or was still sitting down and refused to leave.

I realize that some people out there don't celebrate Christmas at all, and I'm cool with that, but even though I'm about the least religious person on the planet, I couldn't help but feel like I was doing something wrong with a capital W. And I felt pity for a couple of regular players who told me "Well, we don't have anywhere else to go or anything to do in the morning, so we thought we'd come down here and keep you company." Gee thanks. I guess the thought never occured to them that the rest of us might have somewhere else we'd rather be.

I guess the silver lining in all of this is that it reinforced my absolute commitment that next year I won't be found anywhere near a casino on Christmas Eve. Because of all the things one should feel on that night, I'm fairly certain that contempt is pretty far down the list. And it also made me realize how truly blessed I am. I have a great family who I cherish, a large circle of friends who I couldn't do without, and that one special person who constantly reminds me just how great life can be. Next year will be spent with them, whatever it takes. Thoughts like that were the only thing keeping me going last night, keeping me from unmasking my contempt, and I found myself smiling to myself because I realized just how much better I had it than all of those faceless drones who just had no place else to go, and nobody to go there with.

Bono said it best, in the creepiest lyric ever written into a Christmas song, when he said Tonight thank God it's them instead of you...

But the night wasn't without it's share of good times, either. Like the guy in the wheelchair who refused to tip even after I tripled him up, so as he rolled away I called out God bless us, everyone! and I thought one of the ladies at my table was going to pee her pants laughing. Or another guy, who turned a hundred bucks into six hundred, but was a complete asshole the entire time and when he left, he gave me a fifty-cent piece as a tip. I left it on the table until he was long out of earshot, and then when it was safe, I tapped it loudly on the rack, dropped it in the toke box, and in my best London-orphan accent, I called out Thank you and God bless you, Mr. Scrooge!, which gave the floorperson standing behind me a chuckle.

And it was Christmas Eve, after all, so most people were in a very good mood and early on the time just flew. And there was plenty of Chinese food available for dinner in the employee dining room, so in homage to one of the greatest Christmas dinners ever captured on film, I had some fried rice, egg rolls, and sweet & sour pork. But when 4 am rolled around, nobody was more ready to get out of there than I was.

I got home to a wonderful Christmas message that melted away all bitterness I was feeling, and put a smile on my face that's been there ever since. I got some much needed sleep and woke up this morning in a much better mood.

I'm spending my day polishing off the last of the holiday treats--the truffles, the peanut butter balls, the rum balls, and all of the cookies have all pretty much disappeared. I've got a quart of eggnog left, and a bottle of vanilla rum in the freezer to cut it with. And I'm going to burn up my cellphone minutes later this afternoon when the rest of the family gets together for Christmas dinner at my sister Cyndi's house and the phone gets passed around.

I truly wish I could be there attending the celebration in person, surrounded by the people I love the most. But I've got less important things to do tonight, like doing all I can to take money from the faceless drones...

So tonight thank God it's them, instead of you!

Merry Christmas, everyone. As you wrap up your holiday celebrations tonight, take a brief moment and give thanks for your Wonderful Life. Mine is pretty damn good, and I can't wait to see what 2007 brings.

Mikey