De File

Skylar has seen the light. She realizes, not only that she is too under the weather to deal with the frenzy that always accompanies our holiday party, but that it would be unfair to risk getting other people sick before Christmas. She may not be contagious, but there's always that chance. We're tenatively rescheduling for January 7th, where will celebrate as they do in Latin America and Russia, only one day late.

We had to postpone our holiday party. Skylar is pretty under the weather. And I either have the flu or pneumonia, but the symptoms all point to the latter. For all that, though, today was a good day. It's nice to have to slow down for family time. Particularly when the house is already clean. The cats are certainly appreciative. Here they are sharing the front room with their favorite humans while Kim reads a chapter in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol:

To me, this photo is like those ads I remember from my childhood, where a lone cabin, surrounded by snow turned blue by the approach of night, glows with holiday cheer. If I remember correctly, those ads were for a brand of scotch, which is hardly a source of cheer for anyone with relatives who drink too much. But since no one in my immediate family had that sort of problem -- most of the liquor bottles in my parents' cabinet last a decade or two -- I filtered out the reason for the ad and just focused on the iconic setting. I could project myself into that isolated but warm space and then bring a little of its perfection back into the real world when I returned. This image of my family this evening can serve the same purpose. Because it's real, though, the divide between fantasy and reality has been shortened to the slimmest of defiles. I think I'll go stare at it some more.