Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure when it happened, but he became an old man a while back. He became an old man when he suddenly couldn’t sleep in or stay up really late. He hasn’t started to eat dinner yet at 4:30 in the afternoon; but it is bound to happen soon.

So here it is New Year’s Eve and it is only about 8:20pm (Eastern Standard Time) and he is already contemplating sleep. Since it is already after midnight in London (GMT of course) he considers it to be New Year’s Day already. Then again, from the point of view of Catholic liturgical practice, it was New Year’s Day at sundown. Speaking of the Roman Catholic Church, your Maximum Leader must be at church in the morning at 7am. That is another reason to get to bed…

Anyhoo…

Happy New Year to you all.

Carry on.

Follow your Maximum Leader on Twitter @maximumleader.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader bids you peace this Christmas.

Your Maximum Leader has just returned from going to Christmas Eve service with family at the Presbyterian Church in town. It was their children’s service. We have gone for many years, since the kids were very little in fact. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure we’ll be going to this particular service for much longer, as the kids -for whom the service is tailored - are growing.

There will be some last minute prep for Christmas tomorrow. Gifts to be wrapped and food to be prepped. Then it will be off to bed. Your Maximum Leader is scheduled to be a Lector at his Catholic Church tomorrow at 7 am. When Mass is finished, it will be home for breakfast and gift opening. Then your Maximum Leader’s mother, father, sister and sister’s family will come down for dinner. Dinner is, as always thanks to Mrs Villain and her slavish devotion to Christmas tradition, roast beef, yorkshire pudding, and an assortment of sides. One year your Maximum Leader would like to cook a goose. Or at least a ham… But he fears it is not to be. He can change up meals at all sorts of holidays, but Thanksgiving and Christmas are sacrosanct.

As is traditional here, your Maximum Leader will leave you with “The Adoration” by El Greco and a passage from the Gospel of Luke.

And the angel said to them: Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people:
For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David.
And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army, praising God, and saying:
Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace to men of good will.

Peace and good will to you all.

Carry on.

Follow your Maximum Leader on Twitter @maximumleader