Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Seasons Greeting! Especially to regular readers and commenters here and their loved ones.

This year’s Christmas has been a sort of peculiar one for us. No tree. We didn’t send cards. No presents. We did have a nice Christmas dinner, though. I made coq au vin for the first time in many years. I use an adaptation of Julia Child’s recipe, which I think is the best. For example, I use pancetta rather than the bacon the recipe calls for on the grounds that I suspect pancetta is more like the French bacon that would have been used in the recipe than American bacon would be. It turned out beautifully. I served it with parsleyed potatoes and green peas.

We reached out to family members during the day.

As you may recall today is my birthday. It has been a difficult year for me—the first year I’ve actually felt old. That despite walking five to seven miles a day every day seven days a week, something I suspect not too many men my age would or even could do.

With courage, love, and God’s grace may we all have better years next year than this.