Skelly Family 2010 Christmas Website

A clever old sage once noted, "Christmas Day is in our grasp, as long as we have hands to clasp." And so here you are, again, locked in the bosom of love and smothered by family and friends, as it were.

This year's edition of the Christmas website sports a special photo gallery of Christmas trees that have brought joy to the Skelly household each year going back to 1977. That happens to be as far back as June and I have been putting up Christmas trees together. Images of our own family and friends, at various stages of development, have crept into some of these photos. Could not be avoided.

Click here to view the trees. Suggestion: select "slideshow," top right, and set the delay to 1. Thirty-three years in thirty-three seconds. We value your time.

Some of you will find the traditional Christmas Day gallery a gentle sufficiency. Click here to see it. (They're basically in the same place, but two separate files. The more cybernetically nimble will be able to hop back and forth with ease.)

Next posting:
second annual Skelly Christmas Video on New Year's Day.

All three kids with us for Christmas. Sarah often shows up a day or two later due to predictable schedule conflicts, but this year graced us with a good long stay. The other two, well I can't seem to get them to leave. But for today, at least, that's a good thing.

Santa doesn't feel so hot this year. Christmas Eve visited him with a recurrence of an upper respiratory infection he thought he'd sloughed off on June last week. No Christmas run this year.

It's just starting to rain anyway, and it's expected to turn to snow overnight. Within a whisker of a white Christmas in Charlotte. Imagine that.

White, wet or otherwise, hope your Christmas was merrry, with just enough family smothering to do you good. It's a fine time of year. Reminds you of why you love them all. Best wishes from our household to yours.

This year's Christmas Song Selection

(The Odd Couple)

Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy

Bing Crosby Christmas Special with special guest star David Bowie, November 30, 1977, CBS.

A strange pairing. John Stewart might call this "your moment of Zen." The results came out pretty good though. "Little Drummer Boy" was written in 1941 (Katherine K. Davis) and became a popular hit for the Harry Simeone Chorale in 1958. Bowie balked at doing the song. The "Peace on Earth" tune and lyrics (Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman, Buz Kohan), were composed and added for the show. Stranger still, "der Bingle" died on October 14, 1977, little more than a month after recording the special and a month before it aired.