Hey, Peter:

And a Merry Christmas to you, too. And all the regulars and irregulars who drop by for a cupa.

I've spent much of the last two days digging out from under about 10" of snow. I mean, it's very picturesque and all. I suppose that I should have been cheerily singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" while I was breaking my back and freezing my buns. Actually, there's something very beautiful and refreshing about the first major snowfall of the year. We forget what the landscape looks like all draped in cystaline, sparkling white.

This year we vowed to get an early jump on Christmas, and it paid off. Despite the usual quota of unexpected disruptions and problems, our presents are purchased and wrapper, our cards are in the mail, all of our decorations are up and because we haven't been forced to spend the last two weeks shopping in malls, we aren't overdosed on Christmas music. (Anyone want to break into a verse or two of Jingle Bell Rock?)

I have a wonderful CD I picked up somewhere a few years ago titled A Mandolin Christmas that is in heavy rotation around the house. It's an acoustic album of top Nashville session musicians and is delightfully inventive and surprising. Not at all like those generic CDs of folk music favorites played on authentic Appalachian instruments by musicians who wish to remain unknown. I also put together a CD of R & B Christmas songs with the likes of the Temptations, Gladys Knight and the over-present Pips, Lou Rawls, Jackie Wilson, Nat King Cole (alright, they're stretching the definition of R & B a little) and the Drifters among others. It's refreshing because it doesn't include a single song you'd ever hear in a mall (with the possible exception of the Nat King Cole track.)

Despite all the turmoil around the world this year, I still see many reasons for feeling blessed, kitchen tables and friends gathered around being one of them.

Jerry