What is going on here is family. After spending a great Thanksgiving in Boston visiting one daughter, we shared an early Christmas with the other daughter in Springfield, Illinois. Here’s the whole gang including all three grandkids and their spouse/SO, with me and Marleen hunkered down in the middle. We talked, ate, drank, laughed, cried ,and spent precious hours together just being a family.

So let me just say this; on earth there is no greater gift than family. I love my wife, without whom there would be no family. I love my children and grandchildren and son-in-law. I love thinking about the lives they are leading now, and about where their lives might take them in the years ahead. I won’t get to see all that, but I cherish every moment that I have been blessed to see so far.