Back from four days in California (Laguna) for Christmas, seeing my wife Janet's parents.  No matter how many Christmas's I have spent in California or, earlier in my life, Florida (Sarasota, where my parents retired), I simply cannot get used to waking up the morning of Christmas Day to palm trees and balmy breezes.  But then again, the entire Sunbelt phenomenon escapes me—New York City is about as far south as I could comfortably live, and, to me, the comforting warmth of piling on layers of wool beats the hermetic recycled cool of airconditioning hands-down.  I will confess that my morning runs were lovely, with the sun barely rising over the Santa Ana mountains as I covered the rolling terrain of Orange County over its 8-lane boulevards with their meticulously graded and all-but-unused broad sidewalks.

Highlight of the trip by far, at least to me, was the opportunity for Janet and me to have breakfast Sunday morning with the world-renowned J. Craig Williams of "May It Please the Court," (Craig is one of the "Savvy Blawgers") and his engaging, outspoken, and thoroughly professional significant other, Lisa, who has no uncertain opinions about the need for lawyers to leave the management of their firms to adults (read:  businesspeople such as her).  I am relieved to report that Craig, who "hasn't balanced a checkbook since I was 18," agrees with her.  He must be doing something right, because his law firm, which is less than two years old, already has five lawyers—something their business plan envisioned for the fifth year of operations. 

I have always believed that the virtual blogosphere can create and subsequently help cement personal connections in the off-line world, and this happy meeting only confirms that.  A Christmas gift from cyberspace.