Christmas has never been quite the same for Dorin Carlan and Octavian Gheorghiu since they executed Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife on December 25, 1989. But flashbacks to the day they pumped bullets into Romania's first couple disturb them less than bitterness about their own fate. Many Romanians feel the same. Their revolution was hijacked by second-tier communists, and for much of society the standard of living has barely improved. The national mood is a wistful melancholic shrug.