It’s Christmas Eve, Christmas is so close you can almost touch it. Homes everywhere are bedecked with Christmas finery, refrigerators bulge with Christmas indulgence, for most of us the shopping’s been done and the presents wrapped. Where did you shop …

It’s December and people everywhere are getting ready for Christmas. After weeks of blue skies and gentle warm days it’s raining where I live in California and temperatures have plummeted. The puddles are splattered with the last remnants of autumn …