Joyous

Maybe we're not always as happy as this, but may the New Year bring you joy in some small shape or another.

Nicknames

The Little Elf (La Jolla, CA)

It seems as if we're constantly being asked what we're going to call J, as if he's never going to survive his full name. The full name is too much of a mouthful for some it seems, but we like it. But in case you can't manage the entire Scandinavian verbiage, here are some of the names he has that are officially approved by one or both of his parents:

1. The Viking or El Vikingo (for his hairyness at birth) (h/t to Kahl for the link)
2. The Brave, usually used as a title (J the Brave)
3. George (used when he's being funny)
4. Jimmy (in case you don't like George)
5. The Monkey (because he crawls all over you when you try and burp him)
6. The lineman (for his manly grunts)

Just as long as he isn't your average Joe.

What endures...

"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."  -William James

(Eureka, UT July 2009)

My family is buried here, in a town which grows still smaller in the mountains of southern Utah.  The mines have dried up, and people have moved on with a few exceptions and even the town was officially disincorporated.  There's nothing left of the physical home they created except a few now wild roses which my great-grandmother planted. 

Yet as I look at this picture again, remembering the miserable heat, and the pestering flies that day, it is not the disappearance of the family home or the community, but rather the figures that walk around the places where their ancestors tread that stand out.  While the saloon my great-grandfather ran is gone, along with his house and farm, that family is what remains. 

My great-grandparents shaped both the town they lived in and the children they had but it is the latter that carries the stronger evidence of that influence.  While our professions and communal responsibilities are important, it is our families that will continue to bear our influence beyond our own time.

Looking for Dolphins

Winter comes in May in San Diego (La Jolla, CA)

My Syster

If you know her, she'd love a Christmas letter (Lund, Sweden)