For the past couple of years, we have done something really cool at Christmas time. We invite our friend Carl Blair over to paint with us. It's like art class, except the art teacher is a serious business artist. And we all get around a table and paint the artwork for our Christmas mailings.

This year, we threw C.B. a curveball. We prepped the canvases with an under coat of silver and gold metallic. He seemed to think it was cool. He did the first painting by himself. Started with the sky. Worked his way down. Then, he used the ends of the brushes (the part without the bristles) to scratch through and reveal the metallic. It was so cool. So, among other things, Carl Blair can hit a curveball.

In other news, our friend Curtis came to visit from San Antonio. He is a former (and perhaps future) youth pastor, who is using his graphic design skills right now. He has a nice time meeting C.B. at our office. In fact, God seemed to like the two of them together, because the next day, while Anne, Curtis, and I were having coffee at Starbucks, who walks in but Carl and his friend Carol. They sat with us and chatted for a while.

Then, later that night, Curtis, Anne, and I went to Flight for dinner with...Carl Blair (and our best art dealer friend, Sandy).

Curtis had the sniffles, so he stayed at the house and snoozed and relaxed while Anne and I made a Saturday run to Asheville for breakfast with the sisters. Kind of overcast day. Curtis will have to come back when he feels better...and when Asheville feels better too.

Then, we ran around, got artisan bread, listened to Revival Hymn, made black beans and rice, and generally had fellowship with Curtis. And at 4:30 Sunday morning, we got up to take Curtis to the plane. But we wanted to adopt him.

It was three days of little unexpected treasures. Silver and gold. I love that song. Don't you?