One Christmas I was in the car with my parents. As we drove past a laundromat we saw some people inside doing their laundry. “What kind of person does laundry on Christmas Day?” my mother said contemptuously. I didn’t see what difference it made but kept my thoughts to myself.

An eventful year rolled by. I graduated from high school, went to college, dropped out of college, moved several times, got married, and come Christmas I was in that laundromat with my wife on Christmas Day doing the laundry.