Well, now that this semester is thoroughly underway, I'll give a report on my Christmas. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to reading Wuthering Heights. I did read Dante's Inferno, Purgatorio, and got partway into Paradiso, but my time ran out. I also finished five books that I had begun earlier and never got a chance to finish, and read David McCullough's 1776.

I didn't just read, though. I had a really good time with my family.

Here I am with my sister sitting in our parents' living room. Behind us it the Christmas tree.


Here we are sitting down to Christmas Eve dinner. That's the back of my head you're looking at, and my sister is taking the picture. Our custom is to turn off all the lights except the Christmas tree lights and some lights on the mantel, then light two dozen or so candles and have dinner. (This year we had three dozen candles!) We break out the good china and have a really good, traditional Southern meal - of fried chicken!

The next night, Christmas night, my Uncle Larry, Aunt Kathy, cousins Brad and Tralee came for dinner. (They're my mom's side of the family.)

Brad didn't make it into this shot.

After Christmas, we went to stay with my sister and visit my dad's side of the family in Alabama. A number of us took a hike out in the Alabama backwoods.
Here's my dad. (In the background you can see my sister's German shepherd, Kajsa.)

A couple of days later, I went rock climbing with two of my cousins, Dan and David.
It was a good way to close out the visit before we returned to Georgia.