I’m getting congested and my throat’s a little scratchy. I must have caught the cold Matt’s had for the last few days. And it’s gloomy and cloudy and cold out, and it was flurrying earlier.

My holiday’s been nice so far. On Christmas Eve, I went over to Mike’s mom’s place for a Benedetto Christmas Eve buffet, while Matt stayed home and nursed his cold. (Don’t worry, I did lots of nursing before I left.) All of Mike’s friends at the party — me, Russ, Steve, Marc, and Jenn — were Jewish, and we all ate ham that night.

Yesterday, Christmas Day, Matt and I saw “Phantom of the Opera, the movie. I didn’t dislike it as much as I’d expected to, but only because I’d expected to hate it. I did think Patrick Wilson and Emmy Rossum were miscast, though. I hadn’t heard the music in years, and there were some songs I’d completely forgotten until I heard them again in the movie. As much as I dislike Andrew Lloyd Weber’s music, “Phantom” does have some wonderful melodies in it.

After the show, we had Chinese food — the traditional Jewish Christmas dinner.

We also watched The Christmas Special Christmas Special yesterday on Bravo, a terrific examination of how Christmas on TV has influenced popular culture over the years. And in the evening, we watched “The Sound of Music” on ABC. I hate to say this, but I’d never seen it before. I have the Broadway cast album, and so many of the songs are embedded in our culture, but I’d never seen the actual show.

I also looked up the origin of Santa Claus yesterday.

At night, I went to the Phoenix to meet up with Andy, Steve, and Marc, all fellow Jews (while Matt continued to rest). Between last night, Christmas Eve, and Thursday night, the Jew Crew seems to be reconstituting itself. (Ask Andy, one of the members of the original Jew Crew, for an explanation.) It’s so strange — this is something that just seems to have popped up in the last week or so, possibly aided by the arrival of Christmas.

And now I’m trying to decide what I want from my parents for my birthday. I keep thinking I want an iPod, but Matt thinks I should get an iPod mini, and I’m wondering if I even need an iPod at all. Matt says I could use his, because he never uses it anymore, but there’s something about having one of my own. Anyway, this is a major dilemma for me for some reason, but I guess it’s not a bad sort of dilemma to have.

Anyway, tomorrow’s the big day.

Hooray… I love this time of year.