I'm in Victoria for Christmas, along with much of the family... the most that have been in the same place for Christmas at one time since 1986 I think. We've added on the new converts from the other families for padding. I'm staying at the big Yellow with Rossini, thus avoiding the crowds. The young ones are currently madly keen on shrimping and crab fishing, and promise to produce a meal for us tomorrow, in time for the arrival of Jeb's new girl. The usual underpinning of tension is surfacing now that the Shawville grandparents have decamped. Too bad, as long as we kept the two matriarchs apart things were actually pretty calm. The furnace failed today, after it dipped to below 3 degrees — we are proceeding quickly through the meager wood pile.