OK, so if I subtract 1961 from 2010, I get that this picture is almost 49 years old. That of course explains why I don't remember it being taken; it happened sometime before last week. My sister Barbara is the other person in the picture, which I'm sure was taken by my mother and probably with the new camera she bought me for Christmas, which I left on the New York City subway a few weeks later. That wasn't a happy moment.

But Christmas Day that year was another story. I'm guessing, but this was probably the last time just the three of us were together for Christmas. I know for the next two years I was at sea during the holiday season, and by the time I was a senior, Barbara was in school in Philadelphia. After that we pretty much went our own ways with our own families.

Just last weekend Barbara flew from Tunis, where she lives with husband Rafik, to San Francisco to visit daughter number 3 and 2 grandchildren. She probably flew right over Huntsville. That's as close as we've come since her visit in 2005. It's tough having family living all over the world. We miss them all.