It's Christmas Eve, although it's hardly the late evening at 6:27 am, but still, saying “Christmas Eve” just rolls off the tongue whereas “the day before Christmas” just kind of lies there like the fruit cake that's been in the family for generations; it's 6:27 am, and I'm stuck in line at the local Wal★Mart [1].
The Kids are in a Christmas pagent at church later today and Spring [2] thought it migh tbe nice to video tape their performance (The Younger is one of the Three Kings, whereas The Older is playing a donkey, but he gets to narrate the proceedings at the crowded manger). She dug out the camcorder, found the power cord needed fixing (it had been crushed), and all that took was some wire cutters and a soldering iron.
There were a few tapes in the bag with the camera, but upon checking earlier this morning (say, around 3:00 am) it was evident that they were not empty of content. So suffice to say that procuring some fresh video tapes for the camcorder was in order.
And that's how I found myself at the local Wal★Mart at 6:27 am on Christmas Eve, stuck in line at the register. Any later in the day and it would have been worse.