…at least not until December 26. Instead, turn off your computer and go spend time with the people you love. Eat ham, turkey, and/or your vegetarian dish of choice. Wallow in 48 consecutive hours of “A Christmas Story” or “It’s a Wonderful Life,” depending on whether your tastes run to Shepherd or Capra. Take a drive and ogle the Christmas lights. Wear your pajamas until 2:00, and play with toys all day. Suck down the eggnog. Read from the gospel according to Matthew and from Dickens. Hum carols, play with children, and start a snowball fight. Fill a stocking.

The pivotal chapter of the Great Dance begins at Christmas, and we have the opportunity to be a part of it. Star of wonder. God and sinners reconciled in the person of a diapered infant. The most high made most low. Joy from the most unexpected quarter imaginable. Glory, indeed.

Merry Christmas, all.

After having marched around for months with the trailer for this film on my laptop, showing it to anyone who would hold still for 3 minutes and getting chills every time, I buzzed off from work early on Wednesday to catch one of the first matinee showings in Austin. Even today I don’t feel like I’ve fully absorbed the thing — it may take a few more viewings yet — but here are my first disordered thoughts.

Holy cow. It’s Middle Earth. Right there on screen. Jackson has brought that realm to life in an entirely realistic visceral way. The acting is good enough that you rarely notice it’s going on at all. It’s definitely not a film for children — the violence is as intense (though not as gory) as that in Gladiator. I want to see the other 2 films right now. Kathy, who is not a big fan of fantasy and who often comes away from movies wishing she’d spent the couple of hours differently, loved it as well. I want to live in Rivendell. Saruman seems better defined in the film than what I remember from the books for some reason.

Anyway, if you’ve read the books, go see the film right away. If you haven’t read the books, go see the film in two weeks, after the people who have read the books have seen it.

Wagner beware — there’s a new Ring cycle in town.

The other day, the kids were playing together at home. Kathy and I had wandered to another part of the house, and returned to this picture: Liam dressed in Abby’s animal print shirt and purple pants and dressing her hair.

A startling moment for a parent, as you can imagine.