Hello dear readers,

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season and all the delicious treats it brings! But even better than sugary cookies, pepperminty beverages, warm honey hams, and classic family recipes is the memories we make this time of year. Time off from classes and work combined with holiday cheer should lead to hours of talking, bonding, and laughs with friends and family.

Whether you have a manger scene on your hearth and sing in your church choir, save all year to go all-out on a giant pile of pretty boxes, or choose to ignore the consumerist culture demanding you splurge because baby Jesus was supposedly born, this should be a warm and happy time of year. We all have so many things and people in our lives to be thankful for. A warm bed at night, a meal shared with people you love, reliable transportation, a job or career, a tiny bundle of your genetics, or not-so-little offspring making their own way in the world.

Wherever you are, whatever you do today, whoever you spend your time with, I wish you warm thoughts and happiness.

Merry Christmas!