Most of us have made it. Holy night if only for that. Shawn Phiilips sends us a picture of himself and his bride Juliet and their baby boy Liam. Shawn proposed to Jewel right in our driveway once when he was on tour. That's a great Christmas present. Cinderella is baking Christmas bread and the kids and the dogs are all on the couch watching A Christmas Story. It's cold and getting colder. We're all hoping the chance of a white Christmas comes through tonight. Chayo has actually pitched a small princess tent in Megan's bedroom, and they'll camp out, waiting for Santa. Eric and I have our colds, so we're cranky. Holy, holy night. Too many funerals and burials and tears this year in our families. And too much fame, believe it or not! Too much of everything. And here we are. Nobody shooting at us. Nobody bombing us. Nobody trying our doors in the night. Nobody sick here, or afraid, or hungry. My biggest problem these last few days is how to get through Part I of House of Broken Angels. (I got there today, by the way. 72 pages. I don't know what you're going to think about it, I really don't. But, like everything I write, I'm hoping it will change the world. It's rated R, no question. Pretty adult stuff. And in spite of the juicy sex and the bad words and the horrors of it, it is all about Grace.) Right here, in Naperville, we are at peace. Just think, after the last snow, the big FBI agent from down the street came over to snow-blow our sidewalks and driveways. How 1955 is that! So...thank you. Thank you, constant reader, for your support and friendship, though I probably don't know you. I hope to create three books in 2007: Broken Angels, Hummingbird II, and a new book (finally) of poems. Think I can do it? You have been kind to me this year, and for the few hundred of my new intimate friends I met on the long road--I hope this night is warm and kind for you. My oldest friends, the loves I lost and left, the homeboys I sat up all night laughing beside, the missionaries I lost track of, the ones I disappointed, the ones whose hearts I accidentally broke, and the ones who broke mine--good night. Merry Christmas. I think of you all, and I'm writing these awesome new books for you. I'll check in with you one last time for a New Year recap and report. Pax--L

# posted by Luis @ 10:25 PM