Time seems to be compacted into indistinguishable chunks. Every time I turn around another holiday has come and gone. And it's cold! Arctic air mass cold, with crystals of frost clinging to the mornings and slinking away with the shadows as the weak sun ascends.

My week off came with a pair of feasts, the first with Jen's nearby kin, and the second with my side of the family, with Matt included for good measure. Jen's mom put together some fantastic food on Thursday, and everybody except Willow gorged themselves. Willow spent most of her time running up and down the hallway.
Jen cooked up a second Thanksgiving feast on Saturday, with Greg, Matt, and my Mom and Dad in attendance. Unfortunately, this coincided with me getting some sort of disease. My stomach hurt for a few days and the wonderful food that Jen cooked made a u-turn somewhere inside me. I felt pretty bad about this, because my immediate family only gathers under one roof once or twice a year, and this time I didn't really get to enjoy it or help out. Jen and Matt ended up doing most of the work while I slept.

I had improved enough by Monday to be able to go to work, but even now still feel kind of drained. Good thing the kids this week are easy. Catholic school kids again. Last night's night hike was one of the most beautiful of the season, with ghostly puddles of moonlight dappling the forest floor and a magical stillness taking hold. It's not often that a group of sixth graders falls under this spell. Usually they're too nervous and giggly to ever be silent for long enough to really get a feel for the forest. Last night I think they got it. We even managed to stuff the whole group inside the stump of a thousand-year-old Redwood tree. That was pretty cool.