Been taking a break during the holidays, vegging out, staying away from the keyboard and trying to get moved into a new home.

We will be back for the New Year with new photos, new musings and, hopefully, new energy.

In the meantime, Happy New Year to everyone.

Comes now the end of a year of change in the Thompson household with the view outside my window as I write this the biggest difference in where we were at this time last year.

This was the year we decided on a grand experiment — a new photography, video and digital printing studio in the county I left 40 years earlier with a vow to never, ever, return.

The following editorial, among the most famous ever written, appeared in The New York Sun in 1897 and remains appropriate for this holiday season 107 years later.

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

Dear Editor! I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, ”If you see it in The Sun it’s so.” Please tell me the truth: Is there a Santa Claus?

On Monday, the wind howled and the wind chill dropped to 20 or more below. By Tuesday, the sun came out, the wind calmed and it was almost balmy in the Blue Ridge.

Freezing temperatures combined with high winds produced sub-zero wind chills throughout Southwestern Virginia Monday as winter arrived one day ahead of the official date on the calendar.