Happy holidays to you all! We are still in St. Paul after enjoying a quiet Christmas at my mother's house. It's been a white Christmas, with fresh snow almost every day. A great deal of eating has taken place, too, as well as a wide selection of boardgames. Pictured above is the gingerbread house made for me by my daughter (eventual global hegemon in our Christmas Eve game of Risk); we're going to demolish and consume it later today.

We'll be driving back down to Chicago in a day or two. Old friends from Japan will arrive a few days after that to share New Years with us. Then it will be on to 2009, a year that I hope will bring us and you joy, peace, and health.