The wonderful holiday season! The air gets crisp and cold (...but not in Florida - we had 65f / 18c to 85f / 29c...), snow falls (in pictures of other places, just not here...), and families gather (...the closest one to us only had to travel 865 mi / 1393 km, the other had to travel 2159 mi / 3475 km...) to share each other's company and eat a lot of good food.

Jonathan arrived first, coming in early Monday morning after catching a red-eye flight from San Diego via Atlanta, GA. I think he said he slept the whole way, including landings and take-offs... I wonder how he made it off one plane and onto the other?? We had an enjoyable day together, where we did some errands, had several Chicago style hotdogs, and spent most of the day talking. It was great!

Amanda arrived in the evening having taken a direct flight from the cold, wintery Pennsylvania. After recovering from the shock of how warm Orlando was, she wasted no time telling me all about everything going on. Then we got home, and she started telling everything all over again!

With our first meal as a reunited family (it's been a year since we were all together...), we celebrated with a little Champagne and toasted a congratulations to Jonathan for his recent graduation from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

On Christmas eve, we ate a traditional Swedish Christmas dinner - herring, marinated salmon, Johnson's Temptation (the best potato dish ever!), authentic swedish meatballs, honey-baked ham, beets, crisp bread, cheese, and Absolut (ice-chilled) vodka and beer. Everyone helped the master chef Ann, except me, who took pictures...

As is tradition in Sweden for Christmas Eve, first you enjoy a great meal, then after a little relaxing, you exchange gifts - one-at-a-time - everyone taking a turn to be Santa... even Oscar!

Don't ask how it came about, but later in the evening, Amanda and her mom wound up wearing Jonathan's shorts - at the same time!

Time for the family picture - Christmas 2008... Ann, Amanda, Jonathan, and me!

A week later, while much of the country was still digging themselves out of a particularly bad winter storm, Ann and I enjoyed the last few daylight hours on Cocoa Beach.

We want to take this moment to send our warmest wishes to all of you who read this, that the new year will bring a better situation to you and your family. Remember that probably everyone is facing some difficulty this year, so be a little more understanding and helpful.

Happy New Year everyone!