Christmas

Merry Christmas to all readers. It starts in three minutes here, and though the Coptic Orthodox Christmas is actually on January 7, even the obvious Muslims in Peking restaurant were clearly in the mood for the holiday tonight. And one of my dinner guests, an Iranian, said that Christmas is big in Iran now, even– or at least Santa Claus is big. It was news to me.

I probably won’t be checking in tomorrow here– busy day, as you can imagine.

The best Christmas present I ever received, from my famously insightful parents (who are very good gift givers) was THIS BOOK for the Christmas of age 16. And I still enjoy it very much to this day, and have given it to others of that age and older as a gift as well.

The best Christmas experience was probably the midnight mass at an extremely old church in Italy. Though my background is Protestant rather than Catholic, it was too good an opportunity to miss.