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Now that our 2025 Christmas Cards have gone out via snail mail, I'm happy to share it here. The waterfall is Shamokin Falls in Wintergreen Virginia, and it appears that some excited hikers (or elves) have added a Christmas tree. The card's interior message is "Rejoice, rejoice, believers, and let your lights appear!," which is technically from an Advent hymn. However, I figure that sending out Christmas cards is an Advent season activity, so I throw myself upon the mercy of the court.  

Like many people, we include holiday letters with our cards. I won't attach the whole thing, but I will share that in November Crystal and I attended our nephew's wedding in San Diego. It was lovely. Our flight home, though, was preceded by an event offering insight into the foibles of the human condition, which I am happy to summarize here as a pubic service.

Prior to the wedding, there had been some drama – well, worry - because the government shutdown rendered airline consistency even worse than normal, threatening our scheduled flights. Then a slight reprieve when the Feds reopened less than a week before our travel. More drama when we both came down with severe head colds just before flying to San Diego. Unnecessary drama when I lost my credit card at the San Diego Zoo. Lovely drama in the form of a delightful wedding, and meeting our newest grand-niece Annie (who is an absolute doll). All of which was topped off with silly drama on the way home. We were patiently sitting in the boarding area for our flight when painfully loud alarms in the terminal preceded a robot klaxon voice informing folks THERE IS A FIRE EMERGENCY IN THE TERMINAL - PLEASE LEAVE THE TERMINAL USING THE NEAREST EXIT. Over and over again. Seeing and smelling neither fire nor smoke, and wanting to make sure we caught our flights, most people just sat and looked around to see how others would respond to the unending 100 decibel doomsday proclamation. Some people did exactly what the voice of impending doom said to do and opened an emergency door to go out to mingle amongst the Boeings and Airbuses. These wise and cautious folks were immediately yanked back inside because that was simply not allowed.

A few minutes or so later, the alarms and messages stopped, with no follow-up information given.

The take home messages:  

1. People are sheep. Scream FIRE in a crowded airport and they’ll just sit with open mouths waiting for somebody else to initiate a response.

2. The Transportation Security Administration is perfectly willing to barbecue human beings provided that the aircraft remain secure. 

And on that encouraging note, I wish you - dear reader - a Merry Christmas, and happy all other holidays of your choosing.