I'D LIKE TO THANK... I can't seem to keep up the blogging momentum of late. First it was the new job, then it was vacation, and last week...well, I was visited with a biblical flu.

We have a tradition in my family that each family member contributes to an annual holiday letter at the end of the year. We all send in our many and varied epistles to my mother, and she compiles them into one big family letter. Over the years, the letter has almost become an Academy Awards for the Hess clan, where major accomplishments are variously recognized and celebrated in prose form.

Last week during the Days of Fever, my younger brother Casey and his wife Paula came over and took care of my son while I alternately shivered and sweated. Casey refreshed my cold washcloths and scored me a 2-liter bottle of Ginger Ale. He was aces. They stayed the night, even, and had to get up and deal with a major C.J. shitstorm before 6AM. Funny that, as I flopped in fevered reverie, all I could think of was:

"That's Christmas Letter-worthy."