Sitting here in a very quiet office, in a very quiet building, in a very quiet part of town. We're still in the middle of Winter Break in the University District, and everything is just kinda mellow. In one sense, it's a good thing, and gives me a chance to catch up and get a lot of work done. In another sense, it's a little eerie, and motivation isn't automatic. I need to get some music going here pretty soon - that'll help.

My apologies to those of you who may have come here over the past few days to see a warm Christmas greeting from my heart. I had pretty limited time to go online. Here's a super quick (hopefully non-boring) recap of my holiday.

Friday - got up a little ahead of 4am to print boarding passes, finish packing, grab Michelle and get out the door to fly to San Diego. Landed in SoCal at about 9:30am, where my parents grabbed us and took us to breakfast at The Sea Lodge (pictured here) - mmmmmm. Lots of surfers out in the water trying to catch the perfect Christmas wave. Then on to my parents' house for a while, and then to do a little shopping, then Michelle's parents house for a while, then to meet some friends for dinner. It felt kind of like four days by the time that one day was over.

Christmas Eve - breakfast with my folks at home, and then to Michelle's folks' place for the rest of the day. Big open house Christmas Eve party there every year. We saw good friends we hadn't seen for a long time, and hung out until well after midnight.

Christmas Day - woke up early to gather some final thoughts and words, then to my parents' church for worship. I was asked to give the talk, so I spoke about the Kingdom come, in the form of a baby. At the risk of bringing a somber note to Christmas day, I talked about how the birth of this miraculous baby brought about the death of other children and disruption (I think I was more aware of this aspect of the story after reading Anne Rice's book). And then I talked about how Jesus didn't ask his followers to remember his birth at all - but that we should remember his death. And so we, the Christmas worshippers of Jesus, gathered ourselves around the Lord's table for a mysterious and beautiful meal in remembrance of that death. We had a family time that evening at my sister's house with kids running around us.

Monday - hanging out with both sets of parents, some last minute squeezes for our nephews and neice and then off to the airport to fly home. Got home late and in bed at about midnight.

The weekend was good, but hard, too. We were trying hard to be available to multiple sides of our families.