Notes on Christmas Eve

"How insignificant this will appear a twelve-month hence."

The clock has just turned. Of all the specific dates in the year, this perhaps the most reflective of all, symbolic and full of memories and nostalgia and... Mom above, returning from up the street, still cleaning up further to make the place spotless for the arrivals; the girls gone to get them, the traditional spats over with, running slightly behind and yet so content in their reunions; Dad asleep after a frustrating day of forgettable football from a weakened league, but satisfied with the lobster and roast and stories of last May amidst the jokes; and you... Alone on the couch made up for you, with an atlas and book of quotes.

"Gone yesterday... Two golden hours... No reward is offered, for they are gone forever."

This old Carnegie book, gifted to Granddad, put back in your hands tonight as you wait, with all its emphasis on time, and happiness. Eery to see the handwritten page notations on the back and try to guess the focus. Page 100, in particular: "Into the closed mind, the fly does not get." And the insistence on creating a philosophy of life, above exercise and kindness and hobbies and order and nature and beauty (but those too).

A few hours sleep, and then a few gifts, and then the annual hour of silence at church, and into the comfort of the traditional party. The same questions, and various misdirected answers. And ever the thought - perhaps this year, truly, the last.

So much happens in a year. Think of London and the 12 days, the games, the plays, and Ireland, the Connemara hiking, SE Asia, quitting, Indy, South America, really learning to sail, a place of your own, two massive files, St. John's, and assorted randomness. It was eventful, and the next holds plenty more.

But the core is the same. I guess that is a question that gets asked each time, what fundamentally has changed. And again there comes no answer. More to chew on, as the year yields to its non-apocalyptic conclusion, but anticipating whether this next one might hold that is worth a lengthier symposium...