A belated Merry Christmas!

Sorry for being away for so long, but just as luck would have it work piles on during the most exciting time of the year.

Above is a shot taken on the way home from Christmas dinner at my aunt's place in Newbury, MA.

Many people decorate their house with lights during Christmas and it's also common for each town to make some display as well. Some towns, like our town Woburn, setup a nativity scene. This can be controversial because many people believe it violates the separation between church and state.

We ate a lot of great food, including a lobster casserole. And then after dinner we had the yankee swap, which is game of sorts where everyone brings a small gift and people take turns opening a new gift or taking someone else's gift. It's the ability to take someone else's gift that really turns it into an interesting time, filled with arguments about the rules and hiding of the good gifts in order to hold on to them until the end. 

One other tradition for many folks is to watch at least a snippet of the most well known (or perhaps best?) Christmas movie in the U.S. -  A Christmas Story.