Last Tuesday (the 17th), Mer and I took advantage of being educators. Being in education has plenty of perks, but sometimes they are very tangible. We were able to head up to Cleveland to Playhouse Square, where we got to attend a lecture/workshop in the play that was being performed that evening, Ten Chimneys. The Playhouse hosts fed us a very good dinner, talked about the history of American Theater in the twentieth century (a theme important to the play), and, wait for it, gave us free tickets to see the play. It is good to be a teacher (and a tech).

Ten Chimneys is a play that looks at a famous acting couple from the mid-twentieth century. The couple, Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, were a husband-and-wife team who worked on making theater more realistic. They are largely credited with developing a way of having actors speak at the same time (as happens in real life), but in such a way that important information was not lost by the audience. They were wildly successful, and they built a summer home in Wisconsin called Ten Chimneys. The play looks (mostly) at one summer where Lunt and Fontanne were studying Chekhov’s The Seagull, in order to put the play on later in the year.

The pre-show lecture focused on how American theater developed from melodrama (think damsel tied to a train track) to more and more realistic portrayals on stage. The shift started with the introduction of Russian acting troupes to the U.S. in the early 1900s, and developed through the 50s, where the American theater schools of thought split into many different methods. Lunt and Fontanne were important in the development of realism in theater.

As an added bonus to the evening, this was the very first performance in the small, but new, Second Stage theater. The Second Stage theater can be arranged in many ways, but for this performance it was set up in the round. We were all looking down onto a patio at Ten Chimneys. The sight-lines were excellent, with the farthest row being only seven rows back. In fact, the first row of seats was actually sitting in the “grass” on the edge of the patio. It was a very intimate setting.

The acting was very strong. All of the actors had done major work in theater and television, and they nailed their parts. The play was often very funny, with very witty lines. The play is mostly serious drama, and is largely the theater looking at itself (a play about people preparing to do a play). The production was well done.

My one problem with the play was the play itself – it never felt as if it went anywhere. It is not surprising that a play about a famous couple who strove to bring realism to the stage was itself very realistic. Real life does not often have climaxes and tidy wrap-ups, and the play was wildly successful in that. Still, I go to theater in part to get away from real life, so the play left me a bit disappointed. I cannot complain, though – it was all free, and we got a meal out of it as well, and I learned some things about American acting that I had not known.

Last Saturday (the 14th) was Mer’s day. She did a great job. She took me to brunch at the Blue Door Restaurant, which looks like a normal mom-and-pop diner, but is run by a former Marine who has since trained as a European pastry chef. They served good breakfast, but the pastries were great, and they served a very rich hot chocolate. Yum. That was a great way to start the day.

After some time at home, Mer then decided we would be out much of the evening, so she decided we should fortify ourselves with a visit to Handel’s ice cream. We both love it that there is an all-year-round ice cream stand in Ohio. The ice cream certainly hit the spot, even in January.

We then headed south to Canton, to the dollar movie theater. Mer wanted to check out the movie Courageous. Courageous was filmed by the same people who had done Fireproof and Facing the Giants. All these films are explicitly Christian films, and we wanted to support the effort to get good Christian films into theaters.

Courageous tells the story of several policemen and the various struggles they have. Being a Christian movie, the film focuses on how the men turn to God for help and answers, but it is not done in a shallow way. I actually liked Courageous quite a lot. The film felt the most polished of the several movies we’ve seen by these Christian filmmakers. It had great chase scenes, lots of well-timed humor, and uniformly solid acting (not always a given in some of the bit roles in the previous films). With one exception (one scene), the film did not feel preachy to me, and even in the scene that was a little more in-your-face, it was a plausible scene of how a Christian might talk about God to someone who was not sure about God. It was a film that I was glad to see.

We left the theater and headed north. Way north. We took a zillion back roads to Chagrin Falls. I had never been to Chagrin Falls before, and from the brief in-the-dark tour that I got, it looked charming. I am looking forward to going back in weather that is more conducive to a stroll around the town.

Mer took us there to go to the Chagrin Valley Little Theater, a small community theater which was performing Enchanted April. At the risk of sounding horribly sexist, Enchanted April is a chick-flick kind of story. Two English women rent a castle in Italy to get away from England and their husbands for one month, and they bring along two other women as lodgers to help with expenses. After much soul-searching, everything turns out very well.

I had seen the movie, and I had seen the play version several years ago at Weathervane Playhouse. Weathervane had brought in an actual gardener to help with the set to depict the lavish gardens of Italy. I like the story well enough, but I was not sure what I would find in seeing it again.

I was happily surprised. What Chagrin Valley managed to do was a near-perfect casting of the play. Each actor was well suited for her or his role, especially the main two women. One was very guarded and almost icy, and the other bubbled over with enthusiasm and optimism. I really believed these women were feeling the emotions that they were expressing. The play went by very quickly, and it was a fine evening.

What was a little less fine was the lake-effect snow in which we had to drive home. It stopped, almost on a line, about three miles north of our house. Still, we got home safely, and it was a grand day.

This last week was the second half of J-term, during which Mer had some more free time. She also very much enjoyed her J-term class on Shakespeare, where she taught three plays over the eight days. Her class read Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, and Richard III – one each of the typical categories of comedy, tragedy, and history. Mer’s class went very well, and she hopes to be able to teach it again, maybe even next year (with different plays, of course!).

With the extra free time, I was able to have in-week social time with Mer, which is a treat. On Thursday, we played a literature-nerd game, Dark and Stormy. In the game, you get to hear the first line from a play, poem, or novel, and you need to come up with either the work or the author. Mer beat me eight books to seven, but at least I gave her a good run for her reading.

After the game, we went to Kent to see part of the CVCA hockey team’s game. Our team was undefeated in the conference, and they were playing another team that was undefeated. The game was excellent, but we played a bit poorly in the second period and were down 4-2 when we left after the second period. Our team ended up losing 6-5.

On Friday, it was snowy, but not so bad that we had to stay home. As such, we headed over to school around 5:30 p.m. to see the J-term photography class’ portfolio show. The class had gone to Georgia and South Carolina for the first week, and then used the second week to select and edit photos. The pictures were quite striking. It was a good-sized crowd, and there were refreshments, so it was festive. We then tried to go to a concert that the music-writing J-term class was putting on at a local coffeehouse. The concert started at 8:00, and we got there right at 8:00 and could not get in the door because the place was packed. We decided we had given it a game shot, and we headed home.

I do have to say that I am a fan of J-term. I like the classes and the results, and people seem to have a good time. It is also really fun to have Mer be fairly stress-free for a whole month (Christmas break and J-term).

Last Sunday was a fun day. One of our senior students, Ben, came over in the morning. I had a special day planned, about which Mer knew almost nothing, other than it was happening. Ben went to church with us, and after church, we headed east to Pittsburgh. The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh was having the last day of an exhibition of the work of Alex Ross, a famous comic book artist. Ben and I are both comic book junkies, and so we had to go. Mer was wondering what would make me drive two hours into the heart of an unknown-to-me city. and now she knows. Men in tights works every time.

I am very happy I had my GPS – I think the majority of people living in Pittsburgh are people who drove into the city and could not find their way back out again. The roads are not laid out in a grid because of all the hills, and it was very confusing. Still, we made it to the museum and started on the seventh floor of the museum, where the Alex Ross exhibit was on display.

We started in a smaller room that had laid out the influences that Ross cites in his own work – mostly that of an artist from the 1920s and of Norman Rockwell. The exhibit laid out paintings from the earlier artists, and then showed one or more Ross works that were similar in style. It was very cool to understand the progression.

After taking in the smaller room, we went into the main hall, where there were about fifty Ross works on display, mostly of heroes from DC comics, like Batman and Superman. Ross tries to paint ideal but still possible heroes, and his work is stunning to comic nerds like me. Since this was the last day of the exhibit, the gallery was pretty full, and it was cool to people-watch as parents my age explained to small children the origin of various heroes.

Most of the work was of a very high level and from the professional work of Ross. However, there were some fun and interesting pieces from Ross’ childhood, including his own homemade comic book, paper action figures, and a great drawing of Charlie Brown dressed up as various superheroes. It showed an interesting perspective on the development of the talent of Ross.

Once we finished the Ross exhibit, which took about two hours, we looked at several floors of the Warhol museum. The rest of the galleries were very modern, and held my interest very little. We covered the rest of the museum in only about twenty minutes.

We headed back to the car. I wanted to go to Station Square, to the Sesame Inn Chinese restaurant. Our friend Craig used to live in Pittsburgh, and the Sesame Inn is one of his favorite restaurants. It is a ten-minute drive from the Warhol Museum to the restaurant.

Over thirty minutes later and many many wrong turns later, we finally arrived. Did I mention that Pittsburgh is confusing? It was about 4:00 on a Sunday, with the Steelers playing the 7:00 game later that day, and so we had the entire restaurant to ourselves. The Sesame Inn did not disappoint. Our food was plentiful and excellent.

Now that we were fortified, we walked the short distance to the Incline. The Incline is a public transportation car that climbs straight up the steep hill near Station Square. Since Ben had never been to Pittsburgh, I though we should ride it. The ride gives a great view of the downtown, and you can get out at the top and wander around a very nice neighborhood with great views, which we did. Again, it was sunny and warm, but the wind was getting cold. Also, I suffer from a pretty strong fear of heights, so I think Ben and Mer had a great time on the observation platforms, while I stayed off them as much as I could (except for a few photos).

After about a half hour of strolling, we headed back down the Incline and walked back to the car. We had a good drive back, getting to talk to Ben about his involvement in Forensics (Speech), in which he is quite good. Ben also enjoys a fair amount of music that Mer and I like, so we got to mutually enjoy some Simon and Garfunkel and some James Taylor.

A pretty day, good company, good food, and superheroes. That makes for a great day.

CVCA’s Jterm started last week on Wednesday. Jterm is a special eight-day session where teachers offer trips or three-hour classes for students to take, and they tend to be quirky and fun classes that highlight teacher interests. Last year, Mer and I used Jterm to take students to London, but this year Mer only had to teach a three-hour class in the morning, and then she was free. As such, she actually had some time to do things.

So, on Friday, it was a sunny and warm day, so I took a half-day off from work, and Mer and I headed north toward the lake. Mer had a gift card from CVCA’s auction from 2010, and the card was to a coffee shop that was only open Monday to Friday during the day. This seemed like a great opportunity to go, so we headed up there. Sadly, in the year-and-a-half that had passed, the place had gone out of business. Not to be deterred, we had lunch at the Redhawk restaurant next door. They had really good and unusual sandwiches.

After lunch, since we were so close to Lake Erie, we headed up Route 44 to a huge public beach. Not surprisingly in early January, there were not a lot of people about. Although the day was warm, there was a fierce wind coming straight off the lake, and neither of us was wearing a true winter coat. We only stayed a short while. Even so, it was a refreshing change of pace from a usual Friday workday.

On Saturday, I went running with Jim. It was pretty great to be able to run fourteen miles outside on the Towpath Trail on January 7th. The northern part of my run was snowy and icy, but the nine miles on which I ran south of where I’d parked was all clear of snow and ice. It was a real treat.

After the run, and I had showered and gotten ready, Mer and I headed to Kent to watch the CVCA hockey team play. It was a closer game than the one we had seen a couple of weeks before, but the guys still won pretty handily, 10-3.

We then went home, where I spent much of the day watching the NFL playoffs. While I listen to a number of NFL games while I work around the house, I watch very few games on television. So, it was a special treat to plop down on the couch and watch most of two games. In the afternoon, Zach and Londa stopped by for a short visit, and we made tentative plans to maybe go to Michigan and Chicago together for spring break. That would be much fun.

Sunday was a mellow day at Mom’s. I went for a walk in the morning, which was great. A front had moved in, and the wind was gusting to forty mph or more. I walked to the beach to see the waves, and the wind was strong enough that it made me stagger twice. That was quite a feeling. The waves were pretty big, and I loved the wildness of it all, although I could not stay long near the beach with the combination of the cold and the high winds.

It was the last week of the regular season in the NFL, so I tuned in the Bills game on my computer, and I puttered around the house, as I am wont to do. I don’t like to just sit and listen to games, so I like to do things while the game is on. So, I cleaned two bathrooms and the windshields in Mom’s car, and then I walked on Mom’s treadmill for over an hour. The Bills lost, but at least I had been productive.

Mer, Mom, and Marc went to the see the movie The Way. I was in a stay-at-home mood since the game was on, but I encouraged Mer to do as she liked. She said she enjoyed the movie. Mom and Marc then made a really nice dinner. The weather had been picking up, and more and more warnings of lake-effect snow were coming in over the television and online. There was a severe weather warning through Tuesday morning, but nothing was really going on yet in Bridgman. So, I made the decision to leave. We threw our things together and loaded up as quickly as we could. We called our friend Ellen in Hillsdale, and asked if we could come and spend the night. She graciously said yes, and so we made our quick goodbyes and headed out.

It was okay at first, heading south toward South Bend. There were two or three spots where the snow was heavy, but the bands were short in duration, and the roads were not too bad. We got east of South Bend, and I thought we were clear of the lake-effect snow, but I was very wrong. About thirty minutes east of South Bend, we hit some of the heaviest snow I have ever seen. It was near white-out conditions, and it was all I could do to see the taillights of the truck in front of me. I could usually make out the white line on the edge of the road because that was where one tire track was on the pavement. There were times I could not see even that. It was some of the most hazardous driving I have ever done. We finally cleared that band of snow after thirty minutes of white-knuckle driving, and we got on a northbound highway that was the shortest route to Ellen’s house.

What we did not know was that we had to get off that highway very quickly and use back roads all the way to Ellen’s. So, although we had driven out of the lake-effect snow, and we could now see, it had still snowed in eastern Michigan also. They had only gotten two inches or so, but since Michigan has a budget shortfall, they have decided to save money by not plowing often and by not using salt. As such, all of the roads to Hillsdale were packed snow and ice, which made for more tense driving. We did finally make it to Ellen’s, aided by eastern Michigan’s very straight roads, and by the nonexistent traffic we had the good fortune not to encounter. I was very happy to see Ellen’s.

Ellen graciously welcomed us, and I pretty much went right to bed – I was exhausted after the drive. Mer followed soon after. In the morning (Monday), I checked the weather, and there were warnings in Ohio for Lake Erie lake-effect snow, with it getting worse as the day went on. So, I made the decision to be very lame guests, and we left as soon as we were both awake. Ellen understood and sent us on our way with homemade scones.

The road south from Hillsdale to Ohio was terrible. It had not been plowed, and it was packed snow and ice. As soon as we hit the Ohio border, the road had been plowed and salted, although it was still messy at first. Once we hit the highway, all was well. We had smooth sailing to within about twenty miles of home, when we hit some light lake-effect snow, but it was not too bad. We made it home in good shape, and out kitties were all well. I hope it is a long long time before I see driving conditions like the ones we had passed though. I am deeply grateful that God can step in and save me from my own bad decisions, and that we made it home quite safe.

Still, it was a great weekend. It was fun to see Mom and Marc, to see new towns in western Michigan, and it was good, albeit brief, to see Ellen as well. I hope next time will be a bit smoother as regards travel.

I had last Friday off because New Year’s Eve fell on a Saturday, and I had Monday off as well, so Mer and I decided to take a trip out to Michigan to see Mom and Marc, whom we had not seen since last July. We headed out around one on Friday, and we made very good time since we ate before we left; we got to Mom and Marc’s place a little after 5:00. We did not have any extravagant plans that evening – we ate with Mom and Marc, and we visited, and Marc beat me in three straight games of chess. It was a pleasant and mellow evening.

We decided that Mer could be in charge of Saturday. We slept in, and I walked down to the beach and then into town with Mom for about an hour-long walk. Late in the morning, Mer and I headed out to the small town of Dowagiac. Dowagiac has a decent three-block-long downtown that has some nice restaurants and shops along it. Being that it was New Year’s Eve, most shops were closed, but the restaurants were still open. Mer had wanted to eat at a classic ice cream parlor, Caruso’s, but they had a very limited “real food” menu, and they had no public restrooms. We had wandered the downtown before going into the ice cream place, so we popped over to the nearby Italian restaurant, Woodfire. What a great find. It was a classic old building with high, tin-covered ceilings, and the place smelled great. They were playing fun swing music and 40s-era songs, and the booths were comfortable and pretty private. The food was fantastic. We certainly need to go back there again. We had a wonderful lunch, and then we headed over to Caruso’s for dessert. The place reminded me a lot of Taggart’s, a local ice cream place we have in Canton. Caruso’s also had a very good-looking candy counter, but we did not try any on this trip.

After dessert, we headed over to the town of Paw Paw, where we toured a winery. While we do not drink wine, the tours of how they make wine are interesting, and in this winery (St. Julian), they bottled fruit juices. We picked up a bottle of carbonated raspberry juice, which later proved to be excellent; Mer even liked it, and she usually only drinks water.

After the winery tour, we wandered the very cute downtown area of Paw Paw. They have a lot of water in and around the town, so we wandered to the lake and then followed a river partway back to our car. It looks like a great town to go explore when it is warmer.

We headed back to Mom and Marc’s place, but made a detour on the way home. We stopped at the Chocolate Garden, where they make truffles. Mer tried the pick-three sampler, twice, so she sampled very small amounts of six different truffles. She was very pleased with that. I passed, as I was getting hungry again for real food. We drove back home, passing though St. Joseph’s, one of our favorite Michigan towns. They have a high bluff that overlooks the lake, and the bluff was heavily decorated with lights for the Christmas season. The lights were not on yet, as it was still daylight out, but we talked about coming back to see them.

Back at home, Marc had made his excellent burgers. Mom and Marc had to make an appearance at a friend’s house, but told us we could eat if we wanted. I was quite hungry, so I ate, but Mer waited for Mom and Marc to get back later in the evening. Once they were back, and everyone had eaten, we talked about going to see the lights on the bluff in St. Joe’s. Mom and Marc said they would be happy to go along, so we piled in Marc’s car and headed north.

The night was fairly cool, and the wind was quite biting when it blew, but the bluff was beautiful. The entire bluff was decked out in lights, and we got there in time to see the synchronized-to-music light show that happens once an hour. The entire walk was probably over a half-mile long, and was magical (if a bit cold at times). What a great way for a town to show itself off. Even with the cold, there were a good number of people out on the bluff looking at the lights and enjoying the music.

We went back home, and Mom and Marc dashed off to another party. I tried to stay up for the new year, but gave up at 11:30. I told Mer she could wake me, and she did. So, we wished each other a very happy new year, and I went back to sleep. Despite being lame about going to sleep early, I had wrapped up the year in a fine fashion.

Last Wednesday Mer and I went over to the home of our friends and colleagues Dave and Chrissy Kamp. They had invited us over for dinner, and we happily accepted. The Kamps live nearby, just ten minutes away or so, so it was a relaxed drive to a relaxing evening.

Mer and I are very fond of Dave and Chrissy. Dave is fairly quiet, with a good sense of humor and a very helpful spirit – Dave was one of my friends who helped me put on a new roof two years ago. Chrissy is always “on” – she is energetic and very funny. Dave teaches chemistry and Chrissy teaches calculus at CVCA. They have a son, Tyler, who is eight and is quiet and seems to be bright (he spent much of our after-dinner time playing with an electronics kit).

Dave and Chrissy collaborated on dinner. We had pork chops, broccoli and cheese, stuffing, and crescent rolls. It was excellent. Dessert was a berry pie with ice cream. We chatted a lot about work, especially J-term, since it is upon us. Dave and Chrissy are leading a J-term trip to Alabama to Space Camp for the second year in a row, and the trip is full again this year. Next year they hope to do a diving excursion to the Bahamas. We sat around the living room while we talked, so I got to help Tyler once in awhile on his circuit projects. That was cool. It was a great little evening. Mer and I are very fond of our colleagues – we work with good people.

On Thursday, we went to a local reception for a recently married couple. Art McMahon used to teach at CVCA, but for several years he has been at a school in Haiti. While there, he met a young and amazing Haitian woman named Miquette. She had become convinced that hope for Haitian children was in education, so she started a program called TeacHaiti, which tries to help children get schooling. That evolved into opening a school, and then expanded again to helping feed the children once a day at school so that they could focus on learning. Art and Miquette were married in Haiti back in October, but they wanted to have a reception here in Ohio, where Art is from.

We only got to see Art and Miquette briefly, as could be expected in a room full of people who were there to see them and wish them well. They are a handsome couple, and they are doing a lot of good in Haiti. In addition to seeing Art and Miquette, we got to see a ton of CVCA folks. We saw Dave and Chrissy and Tyler again, and Mer had a great conversation with some students whom she taught in her first years at CVCA – they are now in their mid-twenties and married and have good career jobs. They thanked Mer for teaching them how to write well, since they either write a lot in their jobs or get complimented on their writing. I’m always happy when Mer gets good feedback on her work, since she pours herself in to her job so much.

We got to see some parents of former students, and some former colleagues, and Mer got to see a few classmates from her time at CVCA. It was sort of a multigenerational reunion, and it was good to see so many people.

On a fun note, a few months ago one of Mer’s former students had gone to Jordan for a semester abroad. She brought back a brightly-colored belly-dancing belt/scarf for Mer, and it is covered in small metal disks that catch the light and jingle together when she walks. It is a fun little item. and Mer wore it over a basic black dress to the party. It was much commented on, and also helped me keep track of where she was in the room.

Last Tuesday we had a fun time. In January of last year, when we took students to London for J-term, one of the plays we got to see was a World War I play about a teenager and his horse, and the play was called War Horse. Steven Spielberg made the book/play into a film, and Mer and I came up with the idea to use the film as a reunion. We invited all the London students, and on Tuesday we headed to a theater in Macedonia, just north of our home. We had six of the thirteen students show up for the film, and it was great fun to see them together again.

The film was quite good. Spielberg made some changes to the story, but nothing that detracted from the experience. In fact, the small changes made for some good discussions among the eight of us after the movie was over. Mer and I were invited to go out for coffee/hot chocolate with three of our former students, so we went along with that, and had a good time visiting for about forty-five minutes.

As far as we could remember, the film made these changes from the play:
– The film made the brothers into landlord and tenant farmer.
– The film added a grandfather, instead of a mother, for the French girl who fell in love with the horses.
– The film added two German soldiers in place of part of the role that the nice German officer played in the play.
– The nice German officer of the play became a German sergeant who had a much smaller role in the play.
– The bet between the brothers in the play was if the horse could plow a set distance; in the film the horse had to plow the whole field.
– The play used French and German with no translation; the film just used English with accents.

Both the film and play are worth seeing, but Mer and I thought the play was more magical because of the full-sized puppets.

On Monday, Mer and I had “our” Christmas, where we exchanged gifts. I got Mer some clothes and a few books, and she got me the two Batman movies and two outings to Cleveland – one to see an illusionist/hypnotist and one to see an improv/skit comedy group. Those should both be much fun. It was a nice and mellow morning.

Monday was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s, so I wanted to go for a walk. Mer agreed, so we hopped in the car. I had every intention of going down to Peninsula to walk on a part of the Towpath on which Mer had never been, but partway there I decided to go to Brandywine Falls, on a whim.

We had been to Brandywine Fallls before, but we have had a lot of rain of late, so I figured the falls would be impressive. As we pulled up to the parking lot area for the falls, I noticed that the park district had been doing several improvements to the area. In the past, the hike and bike trail had to use the road for about one mile in the Brandywine Falls area, but the park district has made a new extension that connects the hike and bike segments. The path is wide and scenic as it winds through the woods. That made me very happy, as it gives me a new place to run. Also, there was a new, paved parking lot, and new walking paths around the falls area. It was great. I am glad Ohio still invests in the park system.

Mer and I walked down to the observation platform for the falls, and the falls were in good form, with lots of water rushing about. We watched the falls for some time and enjoyed the warmth of the day, along with a whole lot of people out walking their dogs. We then went to the upper observation deck to see the falls, and then I thought we should explore the new hike and bike extension. We walked the whole length of the new section, and we both thought it was very well done. After we got to the end of the new extension, we turned around and walked back to the hiking trail that follows the river. We were a little worried that the water might be high and cold since the footpath forded the river at one point, but I half-jokingly told Mer that maybe the park system had installed a bridge. In fact, they had – a new wood-and-steel walking bridge that is only two or three feet wide, but kept us perfectly warm and dry. Once on the far side of the river, we headed back to the car.

At that point, we still had daylight and sun left, so I decided to try the Towpath Trail section that runs north our of Peninsula. The trail follows the Cuyahoga River fairly closely, there are two locks still standing next to the trail, and there is a long boardwalk through a marshy area, all of which I wanted Mer to see. She was delighted with the walk – it was very pretty and scenic. We did walk back at a brisk pace since we were losing daylight quickly, and things were cooling off rapidly. Still, any walk we can take in December is a great time, so we had a pretty good Boxing Day.