Highlights from today:

Gorgeous day. Morning worship service at the Washington National Cathedral. Seeing Frederick Hart's nihilo sculpture over the doors. The bells ring in loud celebration as we depart.

Lunch in Georgetown at the Sequoia restaurant on the Potomac. (I sit about 100 yards from where my dad taught me to paddle a canoe and I look out on the sparkling water. Down the street the Watergate Hotel, where I stayed two years ago when here for a reunion, overlooks Roosevelt Island. As an elementary or junior high school student I went to Roosevelt Island to study nature.)

Sitting around a full dinner table with ten people we love. (The oven stopped working yesterday, but neighbors shared theirs, so we somehow managed to get the ham, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and pies all made.)

Watching the kids make s'mores, then open their matching jammies. We take pictures at bedtime.

Laughing as the four of us grown-ups do the Santa thing and tease my sister-in-law for buying way more than she remembers purchasing.

Singing "Silent Night" with my daughter and niece at tuck-in time.

"Jesus, Lord at Thy birth..." Merry Christmas!