UPS FedX and USPS

Fore Street facing East during a crisp winter night in Portland.  This little city is beautiful and I don't recall any sirens which meant that there were no public emergencies during my stroll downtown.  We used this shot/thought for our annual Christmas card because we had used a stylized pinecone last year and wanted to identify more with the urban part of our lives in southern Maine.  The luminescent, transparent, color light spheres are festive and welcoming; the electric lighting poles are very convincing gaslight reproductions.  Peace was in the air this night and I pray that it spreads contagiously throughout the family to the neighborhood down and up 302 to Portland and to Bridgton on Prancer and Vixen to Alaska and Cuba and the caves of Afghanistan and back.  Its snowing tonight and the same street is jammed with skidding first-storm commuters compounded by last minute shopping crises.  We're home fireside and toasty with our coffee and plush Santa hat thanking UPS and FedX and USPS carriers for their skill and productivity and logistical mastery. Chestnuts are not roasting because we don't believe in chestnuts but there's some great homemade fruitcake calling. We wish you a very Merry Christmas if you celebrate Christmas and a very Merry Christmas if you don't.  The reality of Christmas is hard to escape if you breathe.   Peace.