A few years ago we were barely making ends meet, and we didn’t have enough money at the end of the month to buy Christmas dinner. We made do with an impromptu vegetarian chili and cornbread dinner, scrounged up with the last contents in the pantry. We took what we had, and made it into an amazing and comforting meal; it was perhaps the best Christmas meal I’ve had.*

Christmas means a lot of things to me; family, sharing, love. But this year, I think that the “promise and hope” note is sounding a little louder than the rest of the band, and that’s just right.

Tomorrow morning we’ll make some coffee, open the presents, and I’ll get started on our Christmas chili. To be inclusive, I hope that all of you have an emotionally appropriate festive season.

*Sadly, on a subsequent year, I mistakenly used Indian chili powder instead of Mexican chili powder, transmuting dinner into a super spicy cauldron of inedible Death Chili. At least the cornbread was good.