> Christmas this year was terrific.
<<Yay Christmas.

No fair! You get Christmas at least a half a day sooner than I do. Spending a Christmas at the beach is another big plus. I did that in 1948. The air temp was about 70 and the water several degrees warmer. We went swimming.

This morning, we are getting a light, dusty, trace of snow. It's dry powder and if it snows like this for two or three weeks, we might have enough to go sledding. At dawn, I could see some in the cracks between the boards on the deck. But a couple of hours later there is a distinctive white cast to the roof of the garage.

It's rather strange on Christmas morning to have only two people in the house. All of our kids have kids of their own, so they are all around their own tree this morning. This afternoon, most of them will drift in here. Christmas dinner is at 2:00, so you can guess when they will arrive. Sometime this afternoon, presents will be opened.

In many ways, Christmas has changed since I was a child. But in other ways, it has remained very much the same. The two grandchildren in Georgia, ages 5 and 8, have probably been up for hours. That never changes.

I've noticed that the traditions change more from place to place than they do from time to time. I went to California once, about a week before Christmas, and people had put up decorations pretty much as we do. But I saw lights on blooming shrubs, and flower beds under a window with a Chrismas tree inside. I was out walking at sunup. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt, but looking at heavy snow up on the San Gabrial Mountains. I guess that's the best of both worlds.
Howard