December 25, 2025, Plano- Hana and her parents came through the door at 1:35 p.m., after a long and careful discharge process. She was fast asleep, and stayed that way until it was time for her 3 p.m. feeding (Every three hours is the newborn’s lot). I had pretty much tended to the business of the house for three days, to the relief of exhausted Mom and Dad. They worked out the home routine, while I prepared dinner. Hana slept on and showed signs of dreaming. I wonder what a newborn’s dreams are like.

Although we do not celebrate Christmas, with gifts and such, the Divine saw fit to give us the sweetest gift of all, a young person who already shows glimmerings of personality and tells us when she wants to eat and when she has had enough. I would wager nearly every baby tries to show who s(he) is, and those who pay attention are the best friends a child could ever want. Our little girl simply stops nursing when she is full-smart idea.

To me, the celebration of Christ’s Message at this cusp of Solstice is a celebration of hope, as the Northern Hemisphere slowly regains its light. Nowhere should people be more hopeful than in a new family, settling into a new house, with a new configuration. Nowhere is the well of love greater, than in this home on a cul-de-sac, in a working class neighbourhood in a thriving suburb of Dallas.

Tomorrow I head back to Prescott, finish up clearing out my old apartment and do whatever I need to do to dispose of furniture that no one seems to want back there. Today, though, was Home Base for the holiday.