Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Kings' Day!

In spite of all the best of intentions, New Year's resolutions and everything else, SD has lately been a casualty to nothing other than sheer unadulterated fainéance.  While it is true that many things were happening at once, or very quickly, from Thanksgiving to mid-December, it is also true that since then there have been excellent opportunities to sit down and share something with anyone who may still have any interest in reading about them. It is also true that several seasonal moments were experienced and captured on film expressly for the purpose of including them here.  Alas, none made it, at least not yet.  They may yet appear, with appropriate mention of tardiness.

For the time being, I am happy to report that we are well and happy, that our family members are thriving and that, while there are occasional small glitches and blips in this journey we call life, they are not the stuff of nightmares.  And thank all the Powers That Be for that!  We did lose some good friends and family members in 2011, more reminders of our own mortality.  Such losses perennially raise questions about the apparent whimsy of selecting certain good human beings - needed on this earth more than ever these days - for the Journey to the Great Beyond while others remain here to do more than mischief.  Those questions can never be answered satisfactorily, especially for the loved ones who are left behind.  But we have learned that acceptance can occur once the grieving is over, even though there will always be holes that will never be filled.

So please do not give up on SD just yet.  Right now, I'm on the West Side of The Pond, preparing to spend a few days assisting with the care of my young grandsons while their Sweet Momma is on a required business trip to the West Coast.  There may thus be a few more "spotty" attempts at writing.  Later this month, however, I hope to return to a more consistent routine.

So, HWMBO and I send our belated warmest wishes for the Christmas, New Year and Kings' Day holidays and hope that it takes much less time for all to remember to write "2012" than it did to remember "2011."