Return to Close to Normal

The Christmas/holiday weekend ended way too fast and soon, and while I'd love to take a day off, certain reasons preclude that and I will be joining most of you kind readers in returning to work today.
The Christmas functions hosted by Val and my families went very well, with plenty of family, talk, food, gifts and fun, as did the annual house party hosted by Marty Boratin and Susan Tanner. Val and I even, hold your breath, hit an after-Christmas sale at Kohl's, but we had very specific reasons that had to be addressed that day, and we also did some birthday shopping for our nephew, Jack Dossinger. Walker Evans was happy because he got a can of dog food for his Christmas dinner instead of dry food.
I have family connections to several holiday birthdays; besides Jack, my niece Kristina Keenan and my sister-in-law, Janet Hosey, also have birthdays between Christmas and New Year's Day.