After Christmas and several days in Louisville, Brayden and I are back in St. Louis after running into some snow on the trip.  Goldman took me and got here promptly at 9 A.M. on Christmas morning but, by the time we got to Louisville, Santa had already come and gone.  Remember though, Brayden knows there's no Santa because he googled Santa last year, deciding that Santa is really Dad.   He's 8 now, soon to be 9.

We get to keep Brayden until next week Monday (the 2nd).  Jalen wanted to stay home and do lots of teenage stuff with his friends.

I had my weekly visit with Pete and Janet on Saturday.  With the new set up for the blog, it seems we get fewer visitors since readers can update by e-mail automatically.  I think Joe and Dave will go to Kiwanis today since Dave is still on Christmas break.

Shirley's niece, Dena, and great niece, Layla, from Bloomington, Ind., are coming to visit this weekend.  Dena is a musician and teacher, and I'm hoping she can get Brayden to work on playing his electric guitar.  They've met before so perhaps she can further his musical inclination.

The Abbotts had Christmas dinner at Sabrina and Dave's.  I think Margaret spent the night at their house to help with dinner preparation.  I'm not sure what she did with the dog.  Donald and Vita must have been in Plattsburgh because they were leaving for California with their grandkids on the 26th.  Rose and Shirley and I had a lovely dinner, opened gifts, and then watched "The Christmas Story", our all-time favorite holiday flick.