Well CC, it's hell getting old.  But there's a trick to having a
good Christmas.  It requires some good friends or family,
a bottle of Jack Daniels or your favorite equivalent from down
under, some fresh baked Christmas goodies and, here in the
frozen north at least, a nice fire in the fireplace helps.

After a few glasses and some tasty goodies, it's time to start
singing the songs.  Backs and knees fade away and, for a time
at least, the world is right again.

Regards,

   Alan

My wife went had total knee replacement on November 15.  She had no pain
while in the hospital.  On the 17th, she walked, with a walker, from the 8th
floor of the hospital to the 9th, just to prove to me that she could.  That
was 20 steps.  She was discharged on the 18th.  When she got home, she
tossed aside the walker and grabbed a cane.  I took her to her first out
patient physical therapy on the 20th.  She did well.  I took her to her 2nd
on the 21st and the therapist told her to chuck the cane, that it wasn't
doing anything for her.  Yesterday, we had a football party (every Sunday at
the Kramer Estate).  She was the hostess just as much as ever, often
traversing the 15 steps to our lower level, albeit one step at a time.  She
is absolutely pain free for the first time in years and already itching to
get back and have the other one done.

Here's the kicker.  My wife is not an athlete, by any stretch of the
imagination.  She is 15 inches shorter than me....  hmmmmmm....  you have
the metric system....  that's about a cubit.  And she weighs almost as much
as me....  and I'm obese by every recognized standard.

Based on that, I'd say you can arrange to be unavailable for all the
pre-Christmas crap and still have a great time on the actual Day.