It's taken several days to get the necessary things ready in order to set up the Value Added Tax or VAT in the EU going, plus setting up the payment platforms with the U.S. individual state taxes.

But, it's finally done, sort of. I submitted the VAT registration to Ireland today so all I can do is wait until after the holidays to see if they will accept it.

In other news, I had a long conversation with my youngest son about adding his poetry books to the online store here and he was enthusiastic about it, so that will be coming soon. He needs to give me the stuff I need to set it up and as soon as I have it, I'll add it to the store. He has two short poetry books out and he's working on another so that should be good for the future.

As for everything else in the world, I'm hoping things will settle down a wee bit for the holidays but as Trump and company keep going after oil tankers in the Caribbean and stealing the oil, I don't think the poor sailors are going to get much of a holiday this year. I feel bad as I've been there. For these poor folks, they're so close to home down in the Gulf of Mexico, yet to far to be home with their families.

I'm posting this week's podcast tomorrow rather than on Christmas Eve this year out of respect for the majority Christians who may listen to it normally. My seasonal holiday was last Sunday when I welcomed the return of the sun at the Winter Solstice. I myself don't celebrate Christian holidays but I respect those who do.

We don't have any family to go visit or coming to visit us this year so I'm trying to do my best to keep up some semblance of holiday spirit despite all that's going on everywhere. It's a bit depressing at times though.

I've been trying to be on my behaviour by watching romantic Christmas movies with my wife and I'm going to be making holiday cookies, and a small Christmas feast for ourselves on Christmas day.

We are rather ambivalent about giving each other gifts for Christmas because of our different religious backgrounds. Some years we'll give each other something special, and some years we don't. This year, we decided to spend money on Amazon gift cards for the grandchildren instead of ourselves this year. We have spent a lot of money on ourselves already this year so we figured it was time to spend a little bit on the rest of the immediate family.

We don't set up a Christmas tree either unless the grandkids come to visit. Our holiday decorations this year consist of one Frosty the Snowman lite up figure on the front porch and a evergreen garland with decorations and lights for the fireplace mantel. A very low key season for us.

The biggest joy my wife gets from this time of year are the Christmas lights that people set up around the area. She asked me to take her out to see some until I explained that the particular house she asked me to take her to, was nearly an hour drive away. She decided it wasn't worth the drive after all. I offered to take her to see some closer to home but she declined. Oh well.

I hope everyone who reads this has a very merry Christmas, or as we say in Irish, Nollaig Shona Dhuit.

Give a listen to this week's podcast that will be out, hopefully, by tomorrow afternoon. Once again, I've found some interesting news articles to talk about as we close out the Roman calendar year. 2025 was a wild year and 2026 is shaping up to be even more chaotic. Something I'll save up for next week. Sláinte