Post Christmas thoughts

A very Merry Christmas was had by all the celebrants at Casa Monzeglio.   Most of us took vicarious pleasure at the sight of 3 year olds tearing open multiple wrapped packages with rapacious delight.  They will start to actually enjoy said gifts in the coming days, but they have probably not come down from the sugar high of Christmas.   My usual quibble with the holiday; it is a monetized celebration of consumerism was muted in the face of the enjoyment had by Ben, Hannah, Erica and even one year old Wyatt.  So what if a significant portion of our national GDP is dependent on a one day extravaganza of gifting!  Meanwhile, climate change deniers will point to the weather in the Northeast and Midwest as proof there is no warming going on.  By Thursday, our highs here on the NCR will hover in the single digits and lows will be 15-20 below.  We haven't seen temps like this in several years.  But I am told by longtime residents that as late as the 70s and 80s, this was considered normal weather.  Cold snaps included temps in the -40 degree range, so break out the flip-flops, it's downright tropical.