As normal, I don’t have the time to write anything significant. Here are some pictures instead. 

I know that I won't have time to get in a full post tomorrow night. Thus, I'm going to write up my recap of the month now--even though I'm already running a bit late. Here are some of the highlights:

-Trevor and I saw Wicked [Part One] in the theater and loved it. I wasn't able to get anyone else to go, but I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with my family when it comes out on Blu-Ray (or one of our streaming services).
-Related to Wicked, Janelle gave me the full set of Oz books for Christmas. I read them decades ago and have fond memories of doing so. I've forgotten quite a bit since then, so I'm looking forward to reading them again.
-We had a turkey (Nicky, whom we are now fairly certain is a male) adopt us.
-We've had a December with no appreciable snow.
-I got to see parts of Grease while running concessions for DDF. I'm continually blown away by the talent at our school.
-Katrina, Peter, and family were gone for the first week.
-I played the guitar at several celebrations of Mass as well as on the last day of the semester.
-Janelle and Katrina have been making loads of cookies. I've been doing my best to match the demand to their supply.
-I celebrated my 51st birthday by watching (and deeply enjoying) the Guardians of the Galaxy movies (and parts in other movies).
-We had a very Merry Christmas.
-We've been playing a wide variety of board games.

Tomorrow (or today, for most of you when you read this), we are spending time with the Jack family for our tenth annual New Year's celebration.

We've left a child behind before ... more than once, even. The time that comes to mind most vividly was when we accidentally left Connor at the church. It was one of those cases of "I thought he was with you" when we were in multiple vehicles. 

For us, the situation was remedied within twenty minutes--even though they felt like forever. Thankfully, people who knew our family kept watch over him and gave us a call--although I was already on my way back by that time. We were reunited with a teary-eyed young boy and were able to head back to the restaurant for lunch.

If those twenty minutes felt like an eternity, I can only imagine what Mary and Joseph must have been going through. They were a day away from Jerusalem when they discovered that Jesus was missing--they seem to have been under the impression that He was with some of His cousins. I assume that it was another day's worth of travel to return to Jerusalem. Luke's Gospel then says it took three days of searching the city before they finally found Jesus in the Temple. 

I think about all of those families whose children have gone missing. Jesus' story (and Connor's) had happy resolutions, but I know that there are others that have not. My heart goes out to those families, and I pray that they might have a positive conclusion to what has been sometimes years of torture. 

As I was driving into town in the fog yesterday, I couldn't help but think about how strange our weather has been this December. We got the heavy amounts of snow in October and especially November--to the point that I thought we would be plowing and shoveling throughout this snow season. Instead, most of December was spent above freezing and a large amount of our snowpack disappeared. 

This week, it dipped back down to the twenties and even the teens (in Fahrenheit), but it did so without any accompanying snow. It reminds me of our first winter in this area nine years ago. Then, too, we had so little snow that I had been concerned that we weren't even going to have a white Christmas. As I recall (although I could be wrong), we only got an inch or so just on Christmas Eve. 

In comparison, the past few years have really spoiled those of us who enjoy the snow. I can't say that I'm liking the weather without it. At least with the cold temperatures and the fog, we've had a nice frost coating on the trees these past few days. 

With people available to stay up later, we've have more opportunity to play some board games this past week. Since we will likely be playing a lot of Settlers of Catan when the Jack family comes down for our annual New Year's festivities, we've been trying out different games. Some are tried and true, and some might become new favorites.

7 Wonders falls into the tried and true category and plays like a simplified board game version of Civilization. Each player is in charge of their own civilization that is building one of the ancient wonders of the world. There are multiple pathways to success and limited options as one tries to dominate through technology, economics, military might, or grand buildings. One of my favorite aspects is that the game upscales well to include up to seven players without increasing the overall time it takes to play. 

Codenames is a fun team-style party game that we've played multiple times. A grid of words is placed on the table, and each team needs to figure out which words belong to their side before the other team identifies theirs. Each team has a codemaster who gives one word clues guiding their team to the correct choices while avoiding the words that belong to the other team.

Wingspan is relatively new to us and is a favorite of Katrina's (who purchased it). This is a game about building flocks of birds so that you have the most impressive flock out of the other players by the fourth season. Different birds confer different rewards on their players either when they are originally placed or when certain conditions are met.

Parks is another fairly new game that also has seasons as a part of it, but is built on the idea of controlling hikers who collect resources on their journeys. These resources allow them to buy equipment, visit national parks, and take pictures. All of this gains the players points so that one can claim to be the most experienced hiker by the end.

Tokaido, which we've only played once, is similar to Parks in that it deals with a single journey where the players are trying to have the best travel experience. It differs in that it is set in Tokugawa era Japan and that it includes food, souvenirs, companions, and hot springs to the concept of seeing beautiful vistas. Each player also chooses a character with different abilities to go on the trip, making me draw comparisons with Geoffrey Chaucer's epic The Canterbury Tales.

Everdell is a fantasy game that we've only played once. In it, players build a city for anthropomorphic animals within four seasons. Players collect resources and citizens to help build the most magnificent city within the timeframe. 

Stone Age is yet another game that we've only played once (just today). It is similar to Everdell in that the players are collecting resources to upgrade their village, but the play structure was a little more open-ended. It also seemed to be the most complicated of the games--with Parks being a close second.

All of the games are worth playing again. Still, we have our favorites such as the aforementioned Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride (we prefer the Europe map) that are where we usually spend our game time. We will see if any of the above make it into a more regular rotation.

It's nice to have some sustained downtime. This last semester was not particularly stressful--in fact, it was less so than the past several fall semesters that I've had (pretty much since COVID). However, there were still a large number of demands on my time and energy that made it feel like I was continually trying to catch my breath.

Having almost nothing on my schedule has been quite nice. I'm even making a concerted effort to catch up on the sleep that I've missed. Unfortunately, my bladder has been really well trained to the regular weekday wakeup schedule, and my shoulders and hips do not seem to like my mattress as much as they used to. Still, it's nice to have the choice as to whether I want to cover back up for a little while or not.

I don't have any major goals for this vacation. I wouldn't mind watching some more movies, building some LEGO sets, and finishing a video game or two, but I don't have an overarching purpose other than to enjoy the time that I have with my family. Considering the level of insanity that the end of January and all of February are going to have, I need to soak this contentment in while I have it.

I was surprised that we were allowed to sleep in for a while today. Coffee and rolls (both sweet and savory) were our breakfast as we unwrapped and opened our presents. I was entertained just watching as the grandchildren kept unwrapping their new favorite item. The presents ranged from entertaining to educational and useful to decorative. 

Dinner was, of course, amazing. The desserts that followed were also incredible. While I know the actual reason for the 12 days of Christmas (to Epiphany ... and beyond!), I couldn't help but wonder if it might be a reference to the leftovers from today's feast. We certainly have some great meals ahead of us in the Christmas season.

Trevor, Katrina, Peter, Janelle, and I played a new game: Tokaido. It's a game that is reflects an old tourist journey along the East Sea Road that connected Kyoto to Edo (now called Tokyo). The goal is for your tourist to take part in the most tourist activities (eating food, buying souvenirs, visiting temples, bathing in hot springs, enjoying vistas, and meeting people) over the course of the journey. I'd be willing to play it again even though I think that I prefer the game Parks (which has a similar premise) more. It was a fun way to spend this first full day of our Christmas season.

For us, today does not mark the end of Christmas, but the beginning of its season. Our Christmas lights stay up until Candlemas (February 2nd this year) as part of our celebration of the ultimate Light coming into our world. Today, I made sure that the lights stayed on the entire day rather than their normal schedule. 

I feel that, current screams of my grandchildren notwithstanding, we had a very merry Christmas.

It's late, and I'm relatively certain that grandchildren will want us to get up early tomorrow, so I'll keep it to a couple small moments from a very pleasant day and a completely unrelated picture without comment. The both moments came during the 5 PM mass for which I was playing guitar and singing. I apologize that I'm not certain of the chronological order of them.

The first was during communion. We were singing through Silent Night for the second time when I chose to stop playing the guitar for the third verse and just have the congregation to sing acapella. About halfway through the verse, our pastor was ready to give the choir communion, so I had us drop off entirely and listened as the congregation finished the verse together without the choir. It was a beautiful moment. 

The second was, I believe, earlier. There was a quiet moment in the Mass. Suddenly, I heard my youngest grandchild start belting out the Imperial March (Darth Vader's song) from Star Wars. That kid can project. I'm glad that he wanted to participate, but we might want to work on his musical choices and his timing.

​I hope that everyone has a merry Christmas!

One could say that I've turned 17 for the third time--which probably fits my mental age fairly well. To be clear, I don't have any hang-ups about turning 51--or even having younger people call me "old." I like how Drax responded to Star-Lord's comment that he was "like an old woman" to which Drax replied, "Because I'm wise?" Certainly, the warranty seems to be expiring on a portions of my body, but I generally like my current self better than my past self--which is really saying something as most of you know how much I was in love with myself in the past.

I had a great birthday! I have to say that a Guardians of the Galaxy movie marathon was a wonderful way to spend yesterday and today. I'm particularly impressed with the arcs of Rocket's and Nebula's stories. All of the characters make great journeys, even if I am saddened by how Gamora and Quill's relationship ended. I don't know how I will feel about any continuation of their stories without James Gunn at the helm, but I would likely watch them one way or the other. 

I was happy that those who chose to join me had a good time. Being with other people who are enjoying shows/games that I a like certainly brings me happiness. That happiness was certainly a great gift to have on my birthday.

I admit to being distracted again during mass. I would like to say that it was for positive reasons such as enjoying having Alex back with the family or watching the antics of my grandchildren--which, I suppose, were positive distractions. Unfortunately, the larger issue was that I was playing guitar with a finger that was pealing away from its nail as I was strumming and getting progressively more painful through the mass.

I had clipped my nails a week before last week's first guitar performance at mass in the hope that I would have just the right length of nail that allowed me to use them to help me strum and properly press the strings for my chords. If my nails are too long, they get caught and crack. If they are too short, my fingers are too soft on my chord hand to get higher quality chords while my strumming hand can have the problems that I had today--as I do not use a pick. 

I noticed on Friday that the nail on my left index finger had some indentations from playing throughout the school day. Yesterday, one of those indentations decided to split, leading me to cut it and my other nails last night. Thus, my right index finger had the too short strum problem that I've already described.

I offered this mild suffering up to God, and I think that the music was acceptable despite my issues. 

As I anticipated, today's short day went by incredibly quickly. We just arrived home and unpacked from picking up Alex from the Anchorage airport and our trip to Costco. Much of the drive was terrible as it was pouring rain with some high winds in the pass followed by some slushy-slick roads on our way out of the mountains. 

Considering how late it is, I think that I will leave this short post with just a mention about the first part of my two-day birthday movie marathon. Tomorrow, we will watch Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Avengers: Infinity War. Our trip from Costco means that there are plenty of snacks and sandwich fixings for the event.

The solstice hits tonight, making it our longest night of the year. Not surprisingly, the day went by almost extraordinarily quickly. Granted, a lot of my time was spent singing.

Today was the last day of my extra-duty before and after school. This year, I had the privilege of Commons duty, which means being in the Commons area (also our cafeteria) before and after school as one of the multiple adult presences there. One of the major perks is that I got to great the wide majority of students every day as they arrived at school. Today, that meant that I was serenading them with Christmas and holiday songs while playing my guitar.

As usual for the last day before winter break, I continued this playing during the passing periods between classes. A couple of years ago, a student made a make-shift "tips" container. Last year, I crossed out the word "tips" and wrote instead "DDF fundraising." Usually, students throw in random change; today, I made well over $50 (which I handed to our financial secretary at the end of school) with someone dropping in a $20 bill.

During class, I sang and played "The Kidnapping of Santa Claus" to many students' astonishment. I also sang the single worthwhile verse from my "Up the Hilltop" version of "Up on the Rooftops" which some students said that they preferred--I think it's the "Out of ammunition, click, click, click ..." that is their favorite part. Finally, we used the rest of the shortened period to play the party game "Psychiatrist." Most of the students seemed to really get into the game; although, my AP U.S. History class was a bit too good at it since they remembered it from last year. 

The school day ended with our annual winter assembly. On paper, the event seemed longer than previous years, but the assembly itself seemed to move smoothly and rocket by. Despite a severely diminished student body (even Connor had elected to stay home today), the students seemed largely invested in the activities and performances. We had multiple students show off their impressive talents, and I'm again in awe of just how amazing our students can be.

There's a stomach/intestinal bug that has gone through our house recently. Julian seemed to be the first victim with Katrina and Connor getting lesser versions of it. Irene spent a day and night throwing up earlier this week, but I thought that everything seemed to settle down. However, last night, I heard Rowen retching at about 3 AM. I did not get much sleep after that. The poor guy still hasn't been able to hold anything down as of this evening.

I am again hoping that this is the end of it. We've been disinfecting everything as well as the standard practice of washing our hands. I certainly don't want to catch this, nor have the contagion around, right now. I'm concerned about our trip to Anchorage on Saturday to pick up Alex, about getting Alex sick, about needing to cancel (or significantly alter) my birthday marathon, or even still dealing with it around Christmas. 

The good news is that this seems to be a 24 hour bug. Julian, Katrina, Connor, and Irene also seemed much better after a day of rest. Still, I would be happiest if I didn't have to deal with it at all. 

It's the time for Christmas cookies. Yesterday, our departments revealed their "gingerbread houses" to be voted on by people who attended the Christmas concert as well as students and staff. I will admit that my only contribution was a suggestion that wasn't practical for the cardboard house that we received: I had advocated for a working gingerbread guillotine to represent the social studies department. I will say that I was mightily impressed by the houses that were on display--my pick going to the career and technical education department who truly showed off their construction skills.

Today, our dress-up day theme was Christmas characters. While I wore a Santa hat with a red Hawaiian shirt and a green t-shirt (ironically a Saint Patrick's Day shirt) underneath, my classroom neighbor went full out by wearing a Gingerbread Man costume (from Shrek). It was amazing and added a great deal of fun in our hallway.

Meanwhile, Janelle and Katrina made even more delicious Christmas cookies today. I think that my favorite are still the molasses cookies Janelle made this weekend, but today's chocolate-peppermint and wedge-shaped butter-cookies are both fantastic! I'm certain that there will be more on the way as well.

With the tree decorated and fresh cookies in our home, it's certainly clear that Christmas is only a week away.